Hi Friend,

June is reported to be the month for marriages.  Over the years our congregation has celebrated many.  The brides were beautiful, the grooms were handsome, and the families were beaming with pride.

It is the way it’s supposed to be!

What is so important about marriage anyway?  Why do we invest so much time and energy—and money—in marrying off our kids?  There is no other event where a middle-class family will spend up to $40 a plate for mediocre chicken to feed over 200 people—half of whom the father of the bride may not even know.

Whether we realize it or not, marriage is not just a social institution.  It is the cornerstone of civilization.  No other institution in society instills so much in the next generation.  All the armies in the world have not taught discipline as well as the mothers and fathers of the world.  All the schools in the world have not imparted as much knowledge as parents.  In fact, it’s left up to the parents to undo much that is learned at school.

Hospitals don’t nurse as many people to health as the family.  And churches fall short of teaching the amount of virtue taught by mom and dad.

No wonder sound minded people teach their children that a fundamental value of life is marriage.

If the federal government did only ONE thing to restore this nation to a civilized way of life, it would be to emphasize the sanctity of marriage.  We would need far fewer police officers if there were two parents in each house committed to training their children.

Even the standard of living would improve.  In an article in the Los Angeles Times, author Kay Hymowitz summarized the financial costs for households, particularly those headed by women ostensibly liberated by the feminist revolution:

“Poverty remains relatively rare among married couples with children; the U.S. census puts only 8.8% of them in that category, up from 6.7% since the start of the Great Recession. But more than 40% of single-mother families are poor…of the two-fifths of bottom-quintile households that are families, 83% are headed by single mothers. The Brookings Institution’s Isabel Sawhill calculates that virtually all the increase in child poverty in the United States since the 1970s would vanish if parents still married at 1970 rates.”

Imagine that!  America could eliminate poverty if we placed a higher value on marriage!

Sadly, as an article in the American Spectator stated, “the out-of-wedlock birth rate in the United States is now 40 percent, nearly half of all births. Perhaps more than any other cultural developments, unwed motherhood—and absent fatherhood—are having a disastrous economic and cultural impact on the United States.”

Linda Waite a researcher at the University of Chicago reported that 16 percent of cohabiting women reported that arguments with their partners became physical during the past year, while only 5 percent of married women had similar experiences.”   Furthermore, cohabiting couples are disadvantaged financially with the lowest level of wealth among household types, comparable to families headed by a single mother.  Intact, two-parent families and stepfamilies have the highest level of wealth.

Let the national leaders offer a hat-tip to parents who have trained their children to value marriage.  Our nation is indebted to you.  And hooray for weddings!  So what if the chicken wasn’t gourmet, the next generation will be feted with steak!

Until next time,

Jim O’Brien