Marriage’s Vanishing Act

Michie

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Is it possible that secular liberals, some of them anyway, are starting to realize that knocking the supports out from under traditional marriage may not be such a great idea? If so, and if their next step is to think seriously about how to halt this destructive process, it will be the dawning of a new day.

The latest indication of such stirrings on the left that I’ve come across is an op-ed piece by Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus. “If current trends hold,” Marcus writes, “within a few years, less than half the U.S. adult population will be married.” And that, she adds solemnly, is bad news.

Bad news indeed, but not exactly new. The numbers have been piling up for a long time. The U.S. marriage rate (marriages per 1,000 population) was 8.4 in 1958, 10.9 in 1972, and 10.6 in 1981. But by 2009, the rate had fallen to 7.1 and in 2010 it declined still further, to 6.8. The birth rate has followed a similar trajectory, falling from 23.7 in 1960 to 13.5 in 2009.
One obvious reason for what’s happening is that people are marrying later. The median age of first marriage in 1960 was 22.8 for men and 20.3 for women, but by 2003 it had risen to 27.1 and 25.3 respectively.

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Marriage’s Vanishing Act
 

Incariol

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Michie said:
Is it possible that secular liberals, some of them anyway, are starting to realize that knocking the supports out from under traditional marriage may not be such a great idea? If so, and if their next step is to think seriously about how to halt this destructive process, it will be the dawning of a new day.

Continued-
Marriage’s Vanishing Act

Well, correlation does not imply causation. I think the trends are unrelated.
 
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JacktheCatholic

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Well, correlation does not imply causation. I think the trends are unrelated.

They are related. We can also add contraception and abortion to those as well. Sex has become the new pass time and no one wants to interrupt their fun with thoughts of kids, let alone a serious relationship. This is a non committal age and all about pleasures and self satisfaction. That said, they are all related.
 
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JacktheCatholic

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I think people are also more pessimistic about the future. With a global population boom it seems likely that resources will be more scarce and life will be tougher. Narratives like that.

While there are areas of the world that are over populated, the world itself is far from being over populated. Especially in the USA where we could use a population growth.
 
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Luther073082

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They are related. We can also add contraception and abortion to those as well. Sex has become the new pass time and no one wants to interrupt their fun with thoughts of kids, let alone a serious relationship. This is a non committal age and all about pleasures and self satisfaction. That said, they are all related.

I think is the high rates of divorces due to no fault divorce laws making it so you can divorce your spouse easily for any reason.

If you grow up and your parents are divorced, you are a lot less likely to seek marriage out for yourself. If you do it will be later in life and then you are more likely to end up divorced yourself.
 
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WarriorAngel

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Marriage rates are higher among college-educated people.

Marriage rates are higher among the middle-class.

Platitudes won't raise marriage rates. Economics will.

I agree, and so we need to make sure Obama is gone. GONE...gone gone gone.

He is destroying the moral fibers of this country piece by piece, bit by bit and destroyed the economy already.

HOWEVER; that aside, the average person now lives in sin which only
exacerbates the problems.


Its the whole domino effect. One sin becomes acceptable, the next becomes acceptable, and the next and the next til sin is no longer relevant.

And with that comes an entire plethora of relativism and immorality and chaos. Til the unacceptable and now acceptable and force fed on society.

Marriage is feared because the gross iniquities of our times. Compassion has run cold...and this - our Lord said would happen. Women fear men, men fear women - ppl turn away from morality...hosts of issues always follow when one thing begets the next.
 
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JacktheCatholic

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I think is the high rates of divorces due to no fault divorce laws making it so you can divorce your spouse easily for any reason.

If you grow up and your parents are divorced, you are a lot less likely to seek marriage out for yourself. If you do it will be later in life and then you are more likely to end up divorced yourself.

I agree that this is part of the reason. Divorce is very easy in this country. It is treated more like a business contract than vows for life.
 
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Wolseley

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I agree, and so we need to make sure Obama is gone. GONE...gone gone gone.

He is destroying the moral fibers of this country piece by piece, bit by bit and destroyed the economy already.

HOWEVER; that aside, the average person now lives in sin which only
exacerbates the problems.


Its the whole domino effect. One sin becomes acceptable, the next becomes acceptable, and the next and the next til sin is no longer relevant.

And with that comes an entire plethora of relativism and immorality and chaos. Til the unacceptable and now acceptable and force fed on society.

Marriage is feared because the gross iniquities of our times. Compassion has run cold...and this - our Lord said would happen. Women fear men, men fear women - ppl turn away from morality...hosts of issues always follow when one thing begets the next.

We live in a country, and at a time, of rapid societal decay. There are various reasons for this, but they all boil down to the more or less wholesale abandonment of the Christian Faith. Even the Holy See has acknowledged that Western countries are now in a "post-Christian" era.

With the abandonment of Christianity, however, nothing has come along to replace it; instead we have a sort of free-flowing hedonism, a culture of minor barbarism existing within the shell of the previous civilization. The old laws don't work any more because the people don't have any allegience to them any more. Thus we have the dramatic rise in things like adultery, homosexuality, abortion, inappropriate contentography, and so on.

This is nothing new, unfortunately; many cultures, and many civilizations throughout history have experienced this. I offer for your consideration the following enlightening articles:

How Much Time Does the U.S. Have? « Catholic Exchange

The Decline of a Nation

Guide to the Issues: | Cornerstone Family Council

Now it's our turn. And not just us, but most of Western culture as well....Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia.....probably even Japan, and they're not Western.

Our children, or at the very latest our grandchildren, will witness the downfall of the United States of America as a world power, and very likely it's cessation of existance. It's inevitable, and I really don't believe there is anything we can do to stop it. To arrest this slide would require extremely drastic measures, measures which I don't believe we have the moral courage or the popular support to institute.

Whether this will be simply the dissolution of a superpower while life pretty much goes on as before, such as happened with the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, or whether it will be a complete civilizational collapse, leading to hundreds of years of chaos, such as happened with the downfall of the western Roman Empire in 476 AD, remains to be seen.

One thing remains sure: the USA, as a nation, suffered a mortal wound in 1963 with the assasination of John Kennedy; from that point on, our national cohesiveness went straight down the chute. We were bleeding to death all throughout the next forty years, while our culture, our institutions, our history, and our national pride all became corrupted and overcome with the contempt of the ensuing generations. We are now dwelling amidst the rotting corpse of our country, and all that remains is for the empty structure to collapse with the relevant amount of pressure. What rises in its place, who knows?

I regret that I sound so pessimistic, but I have studied this phenominon from many angles for many years, and unfortunately, the current trends have led me to the conclusions I have formed. We will not be here as a nation in 50 years, and probably much sooner than that. God help us all.
 
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Fantine

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In western Europe, where Christianity is in much greater decline, the "widespread decay" and social evils are far fewer--because secular humanism has held them at bay.

And, looking at that, I would have to say that the cult of greed, selfishness, and individualism which is promoted by the Tea Party and conservatives is at least as responsible, if not more, for the moral decay.
 
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WarriorAngel

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We live in a country, and at a time, of rapid societal decay. There are various reasons for this, but they all boil down to the more or less wholesale abandonment of the Christian Faith. Even the Holy See has acknowledged that Western countries are now in a "post-Christian" era.

With the abandonment of Christianity, however, nothing has come along to replace it; instead we have a sort of free-flowing hedonism, a culture of minor barbarism existing within the shell of the previous civilization. The old laws don't work any more because the people don't have any allegience to them any more. Thus we have the dramatic rise in things like adultery, homosexuality, abortion, inappropriate contentography, and so on.

This is nothing new, unfortunately; many cultures, and many civilizations throughout history have experienced this. I offer for your consideration the following enlightening articles:

How Much Time Does the U.S. Have? « Catholic Exchange

The Decline of a Nation

Guide to the Issues: | Cornerstone Family Council

Now it's our turn. And not just us, but most of Western culture as well....Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia.....probably even Japan, and they're not Western.

Our children, or at the very latest our grandchildren, will witness the downfall of the United States of America as a world power, and very likely it's cessation of existance. It's inevitable, and I really don't believe there is anything we can do to stop it. To arrest this slide would require extremely drastic measures, measures which I don't believe we have the moral courage or the popular support to institute.

Whether this will be simply the dissolution of a superpower while life pretty much goes on as before, such as happened with the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, or whether it will be a complete civilizational collapse, leading to hundreds of years of chaos, such as happened with the downfall of the western Roman Empire in 476 AD, remains to be seen.

One thing remains sure: the USA, as a nation, suffered a mortal wound in 1963 with the assasination of John Kennedy; from that point on, our national cohesiveness went straight down the chute. We were bleeding to death all throughout the next forty years, while our culture, our institutions, our history, and our national pride all became corrupted and overcome with the contempt of the ensuing generations. We are now dwelling amidst the rotting corpse of our country, and all that remains is for the empty structure to collapse with the relevant amount of pressure. What rises in its place, who knows?

I regret that I sound so pessimistic, but I have studied this phenominon from many angles for many years, and unfortunately, the current trends have led me to the conclusions I have formed. We will not be here as a nation in 50 years, and probably much sooner than that. God help us all.


I read the same thing. The Pope is calling on RE-EVANGELIZING AMERICA.
And yes Europe too. That says something... it says we are in serious error.

Will we listen...? Well so far his words have fallen on deaf ears. You can warn people til you are blue - it usually does no good.
If anything the Bible is a wonderful historical teacher. Time and again - you slip away from the moral laws of God and you will be punished.


The thing is, ppl have been so spoiled in America, they cannot fathom losing the only lifestyle they know. But it is inching away - piece by piece - and now that most of the legs it stood on have been moved or removed - it wont take too much til we get worse and fall. Though a great revival to Christian roots would indeed be the key.

Heck we are now rated AA - we lost a rating and that stems from ours truly - Obama. In this forum it seems no one cares who votes pro democrat and it astounds me. But i dont know.

The parable from Jesus about sending out men - and they were all killed so the King sent out his son to give the message - and he was killed too was about prophets who gave warnings - through out the years - and then Christ Himself. [killed for giving the word of God]

People just do not want to hear what they do not want to hear. Things just do not change. It doesnt matter who the messenger is.

We can turn it around. I hate to say this being Newt is so disliked - but he is right on about using our own resources - our own oil and we have 200 -300 hundred years worth of it too.
No more dependence on the other guys who inflate it. Using that money from our oil to pay off the deficit. AND above all - if pagans had one thing right - it was in Oedipus - is to remove the stuff that causes the Lord to turn away from us. As anyone can know - by plainly understanding OT - time and again we lose if we exclude God. He lifts His hand of blessings away from us and His protection - we are toast.

No more immorality - no more ransacking marriages and setting other things up. No more killing the fruits of the unions.

No more.
 
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Wolseley

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In western Europe, where Christianity is in much greater decline, the "widespread decay" and social evils are far fewer--because secular humanism has held them at bay.

And, looking at that, I would have to say that the cult of greed, selfishness, and individualism which is promoted by the Tea Party and conservatives is at least as responsible, if not more, for the moral decay.

We all bear an equal blame, and it makes no difference what labels we place on each other.

Some of us freely embraced debauchery; others of us did not do enough to counter it. Too many of us became too greedy, and far, far, far too many of us simply didn't care.

And so now we face the precipice, and there is no way to go back. The party is over, and now the killing hangover begins. We are, as a nation, both economically and morally bankrupt.

It is far too late to continue pointing fingers at each other and playing the name and blame game. We are all complicit in our national and societal suicide.

God forgive us for squandering the precious birthright we inherited from generations better than we, and God help our poor children, who will inherit the burned-out wreckage we're handing on to them.
 
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