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The Collapse of Marriage in the United States “No other single force is causing as much measurable hardship in this country as the collapse of marriage” says the cover story, “Unfaithfully Yours” of the July 13, 2009 issue of Time magazine. Time reported: In the past 40 years, the face of the American family has changed profoundly. As sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin observes in a landmark new book called The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today, what is significant about contemporary American families, compared with those of other nations, is their combination of ‘frequent marriage, frequent divorce’ and the high number of ‘short-term co-habiting relationships.’ Taken together, these forces ‘create a great turbulence in American family life, a family flux, a coming and going of partners on a scale seen nowhere else. There are more partners in the personal lives of Americans than in the lives of people of any other Western country.’ An increasingly fragile construct depending less and less on notions of sacrifice and obligation than on the ephemera of romance and happiness as defined by the adult principals, the intact, two-parent family remains our cultural ideal, but it exists under constant assault. It is buffeted by affairs and ennui, subject to the eternal American hope for greater happiness, for changing the hand you dealt yourself. Getting married for life, having children and raising them with your partner is still the way most Americans are conducting adult life, but the numbers who are moving in a different direction continue to rise. Most notably, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in May that births to unmarried women have reached an astonishing 39.7%. How much does this matter? More than words can say. There is no other single force causing as much measurable hardship and human misery in this country as the collapse of marriage. It hurts children, it reduces mothers’ financial security and it has landed with particular devastation on those who can bear it least; the nation’s underclass.” The reason for these appeals to lasting unions is simple: On every single significant outcome related to short-term well-being and long-term success, children from intact, two-parent families out-perform those from single-parent household. Longevity, drug abuse, school performance and dropout rates, teen pregnancy, criminal behavior and incarceration – if you can measure it, a sociologist has. In all cases, the kids living with both parents drastically out-perform the others. “Few things hamper a child as much as not having a father at home.” This article is from Time Magazine. It is worth your reading and your prayers for our nation.
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