The Marriage Movement
Creating a renewed marriage culture by strengthening our commitment to marriage
On June 29, over 100 prominent scholars and religious and civic leaders joined together to pledge that "in this decade we will turn the tide on marriage and reduce divorce and unmarried childbearing, so that each year more children will grow up protected by their own two happily married parents and more adults' marriage dreams will come true." "The Marriage Movement: A Statement of Principles" was prepared under the sponsorship of the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education, the Religion, Culture, and Family Project of the University of Chicago Divinity School, and the Institute for American Values.The following is an excerpt, taken with permission, from "The Marriage Movement: A Statement of Principles."
Is renewing a marriage culture a reasonable goal? We think so.
When Americans organized in the 1990s to combat teen pregnancy, teen pregnancy declined. The recent decline in teen sexual activity, a significant decline in divorce rates since 1979, a drop in the illegitimacy rate, and the leveling off of the proportion of births out of wedlock in the late 1990s are all indicators that social change is not a one-way street. The apparent success of new strategies (such as community marriage policies and marriage education) in preventing divorce gives us powerful additional reasons to hope.
We know that not all of our fellow citizens agree. There are at least three concerns that stand in the way of a renewed public commitment to marriage.
The Argument From Despair
The first stumbling block to rebuilding a marriage culture is "the argument from despair." High rates of divorce and unwed childbearing, some distinguished voices tell us, are irreversible trends. As one scholar said in 1988: "[T]he changes in the structure of the family are probably the result of some sizable and largely unstoppable changes in social and economic patterns." Said another respected scholar more recently: "[L]iving together is not going away. We have to realize this is the world we live in."
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