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As of 2010, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, married couples had fallen to barely 51% of U.S. households, with a full 5% drop in new marriages between 2009 and 2010 alone. The data for 2011 aren't in yet, but if that decline continued last year, less than half of American adults are in a legal marriage now. Is marriage going the way of the electric typewriter and the VHS tape? Not exactly. The decline of marriage seems especially dramatic in comparison to the way things were 50 years ago. In 1960, almost half of 18-...

A speech by Don Feder at Ave Maria University, September 20, 2011 Hollywood has a penchant for blowing things up – especially the world. Since the 1950s, apocalyptic movies (which come with a variety of special effects) have been all the rage. We’ve met our doom through nuclear war (“On The Beach,” “The Day After”), a worldwide super-plague (“Twelve Monkeys” “The Stand”), global warming (“The Day After Tomorrow,” “Waterworld,”), the earth’s core over-heating (“2012,” “The Core”), overpopulation (“Soylent Green”), a comet striking the earth (“Deep Impact,” “Armageddon”), sentient machines taking over (the “Terminator” and “Matrix” series), rampaging simians (the “Planet...

"He's a good dad to our kids, but was always criticizing me," Terry complained. "I couldn't do anything right, in his mind at least. Thirteen years was enough. I figured it would only get worse, so I left." Like most marriages that end in divorce, Terry's marriage began happily enough. And it ended not because of a serious transgression like adultery, abuse, or substance use, but because the couple's personal relationship deteriorated and they gave up. They gave in to two marriage-killing habits: criticism and pessimism. A number of years ago, marriage expert John Gottman identified four relationship patterns that...

Data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows married couples have found themselves in a new position: They're no longer the majority. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/28/national/a120003D10.DTL#ixzz1NhCuEF25

The Archbishop of York has given his backing to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s decision to live together before marriage.The Archbishop of York backed Prince William and Kate Middleton’s decision to live together before marriage, saying that many modern couples want to “test the milk before they buy the cow”. Dr John Sentamu argued that the royal couple’s public commitment to live their lives together today would be more important than their past. But Anglican traditionalists criticised the Archbishop, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, for failing to reinforce Christian teaching which prohibits sex outside marriage....

Did you ever notice that there is a different tone and feel to a wedding and the celebration that follows when a couple has been living together prior to taking their vows? Something is missing. Oh, it’s not the guests, the music, the cake, or the decorations. There is always plenty of that to go around. But something is lacking. I will go so far as to say that there is a special look that is absent in the way a co-habitating bride and groom even look at each other. There is no anticipation and no excitement of a new...

Many of New Mexico's Catholics were reminded during Mass last weekend that unmarried couples who cohabitate are living in "a state of mortal sin and may not receive Holy Communion." Archbishop Michael Sheehan told priests to read the letter he wrote stating that only two lifestyles are acceptable: "a single life of chastity, or the union of a man and woman in the Sacrament of Matrimony." The message stops short of directing priests to deny communion to unmarried people who are living together. Instead, Sheehan urges those "living in cohabitation" to abstain from taking the consecrated bread and wine during...

We keep hearing that young men are failing to adapt to contemporary life. Their financial prospects are impaired—earnings for 25- to 34-year-old men have fallen by 20 percent since 1971. Their college enrollment numbers trail women's: Only 43 percent of American undergraduates today are men. Last year, women made up the majority of the work force for the first time. And yet there is one area in which men are very much in charge: premarital heterosexual relationships. [snip] What many young men wish for—access to sex without too many complications or commitments—carries the day. If women were more fully in...

*** The black community's 72 percent rate eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent. This issue entered the public consciousness in 1965, when a now famous government report by future senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan described a "tangle of pathology" among blacks that fed a 24 percent black "illegitimacy" rate. The white rate then was 4 percent....

The results presented in this article replicate findings from previous research: Women who cohabit prior to marriage or who have premarital sex have an increased likelihood of marital disruption. Considering the joint effects of premarital cohabitation and premarital sex, as well as histories of premarital relationships, extends previous research. The most salient finding from this analysis is that women whose intimate premarital relationships are limited to their husbands—either premarital sex alone or premarital cohabitation—do not experience an increased risk of divorce. It is only women who have more than one intimate premarital relationship who have an elevated risk of marital...

Couples who live together before they get married are less likely to stay married, a new study has found. But their chances improve if they were already engaged when they began living together. The likelihood that a marriage would last for a decade or more decreased by six percentage points if the couple had cohabited first, the study found. The study of men and women ages 15 to 44 was done by the National Center for Health Statistics using data from the National Survey of Family Growth conducted in 2002. The authors define cohabitation as people who live with a...

Marriage rates are at an all-time low, a fact that has ramifications for all of us. Most people have no clue about the differences between marriage and cohabitation, thus they are completely blasé about a trend that undermines one of the basic foundations of civil society. I developed the following chart to note the significant differences between the two relationships. The number of couples in the United States who are "living together" without marriage has increased nearly 1,000 percent since 1970. Living together has become the "normative experience," with nearly 50 percent of young adults aged twenty to forty cohabiting....

Wednesday July 15, 2009 Study Confirms Cohabitation Leads To Higher Chance Of Divorce and Lower Relationship Quality By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiWASHINGTON, July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new study published in the Journal of Family Psychology shows that couples who live together before getting engaged and/or married are more likely to get divorced than those who don't move in together until engagement or marriage, and that couples who live together before engagement report lower satisfaction in their marriages.Using a random telephone survey of 1,050 men and women married within the past 10 years, the current study replicated previous findings regarding the...

It is amazing now to think back on the fact that Fulton J. Sheen, a Catholic archbishop, had a weekly TV show that was vastly popular in the 50s and 60s, in which he defended the Catholic faith. We used to watch it every week when my grandma could convince my uncle to give up watching equally popular comedian Milton Berle on another channel. According to Wikipedia, when Sheen won an Emmy, Berle quipped, 'He's got better writers.'" I came upon Sheen's book Three to Get Married on Amazon just now when I was browsing in reaction to the...

We need some commonsense ways to cut down on welfare abuse. If the people could decide, I bet we would find lots of ways to keep the welfare system on the level. As it is now, welfare is in the hands of a self- perpetuating Democrat liberal system which keeps both recipients and welfare workers dependent on the Dem party. Most of the people on welfare are "single moms" and kids. Ever wonder how many of these "single moms" are actually single? With the permissive attitudes that abound today, do you think that most of these "single moms" are actually...

With rents in many cities skyrocketing, men and women marrying later and a divorce rate for first-time marriages that hovers at about 45%, it's no wonder more American couples are deciding to shack up. There were an estimated 6,017,462 unmarried-partner households in the U.S. in 2006, according to the Census' latest research. This number includes 779,867 same-sex households. When the Census began measuring unmarried partners in 1996, there were only 2,858,000 opposite-sex couples. Though you likely know at least one cohabiting pair, unlike their married and single peers, unmarried couples are not an easy group to quantify. They cannot check...

BREMERTON, Wash. -- A 25-year-old woman was arrested for investigation of second-degree assault for getting into an argument with her boyfriend over whether his dog should be in the bathroom while the couple were taking a shower together. A police report said the 26-year-old man wanted his dog to join them in the bathroom, but the woman objected on Thursday night. She told him if the dog wouldn't stay out, she didn't want to be his girlfriend anymore. He replied that maybe his next girlfriend would appreciate the dog more, and called her a name. The police report said the...

October 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A. Patrick Schneider II, M.D., M.P.H., who holds boards in family and geriatric medicine and who received a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University, is in private practice in Lexington, Kentucky. "Cohabitation -- it's training for divorce." -- Chuck Colson (1995)1.  Cohabitation is growing: 35 to 40 years ago cohabitation was rare; it was socially taboo. Growth by decade was: 1960s (up 19 percent), 1970s (up 204 percent), 1980s (up 80 percent), 1990s (up 66 percent), but up only 7.7 percent between 2000 and 2004. All told, cohabitation is up eleven-fold (U.S. Census...

Ireland 1986-2006: 500% Increase in Divorce; 400% Increase in Cohabitation without Marriage Cities much worse off than rural areas By John-Henry Westen DUBLIN, September 17, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new report from The Iona Institute based on a detailed analysis of Census 2006 - the first analysis of its kind published to date - reveals the full extent of changing family structure and marriage breakdown in Ireland. The analysis shows marriage breakdown by age and region and includes colour-coded maps of major Irish cities illustrating this down to the electoral division level. According to the analysis, marriage breakdown has increased...

Major US Catholic University Caught Deceiving Diocese: Diocese Losing Patience Vice-chancellor of archdiocese states, "there's a Catholic ethos in this town that rightly smells a rat" By Meg Jalsevac OMAHA, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Just a few weeks ago, LifeSiteNews and several online blogs reported on Creighton University's shameful invitation, and then hasty 'disinvitation' of ardently pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia speaker, Ann Lamott.  According to several recent news reports, the hasty 'statement' published on the University website to announce the cancellation has not appeased the powers that be at the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha. The official Creighton statement announcing the...

Wed Sep 12, 8:52 AM By Les Perreaux ADVERTISEMENT MONTREAL (CP) - Quebecers have long led Canada in the modern move away from wedding vows toward common-law coupling, but now the province has roared past Sweden and Finland to lead the world. New data from the 2006 census released Wednesday shows no couples on the planet are known to shack up more than those in la belle province. The dramatic move away from marriage is accelerating wildly in Quebec, with 35 per cent of couples choosing common-law arrangements compared to 30 per cent in 2001, the last time the data...

UK Bishop: Couples that Cohabit and Reject Responsibility of Marriage Should Not Receive its Legal Benefits By Elizabeth O'Brien LONDON, United Kingdom, August 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Bishop's Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) recently issued a statement that said that if cohabiting couples are unwilling to accept the responsibility and commitment of marriage, they should not receive the legal benefits of marriage. In light of newly proposed UK legislation, the president of the CBCEW's Committee on Marriage and the Family, Bishop John Hine, expressed his "special concern" for a law that "would make cohabitation equivalent to marriage,"...

Hypocrisy of Hating Homosexuality, While Ignoring Cohabitation and Adultery Contact: Phil Magnan, Director, Biblical Family Advocates, 011-36-1-246-2587, phil@bfamilyadvocates.com BUDAPEST, Hungary May 2/Christian Newswire/ -- Statistics show that 25% of unmarried "born again" Christians are living together. This reveals an apparent hypocrisy in condemning homosexuality, while not condemning heterosexual immorality. Sad to say, co-habitation is on the increase and its participants also include the Catholic and Christian community. BFA believes there is also a need to condemn not only adultery in its blatant form of cheating on a spouse, but its camouflaged form by easy divorce to pursue second and third...

Numbers Drop for the Married With ChildrenInstitution Becoming The Choice of the Educated, AffluentBy Blaine HardenWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, March 4, 2007; Page A03PORTLAND, Ore. -- Punctuating a fundamental change in American family life, married couples with children now occupy fewer than one in every four households -- a share that has been slashed in half since 1960 and is the lowest ever recorded by the census. As marriage with children becomes an exception rather than the norm, social scientists say it is also becoming the self-selected province of the college-educated and the affluent. The working class and the poor,...

BAGHDAD - Fatima Ali was a 24-year-old divorcee with no high school diploma and no job. Shawket al-Rubae was a 34-year-old Shiite sheik with a pregnant wife who, he said, could not have sex with him. Ali wanted someone to take care of her. Rubae wanted a companion. They met one afternoon in May at the house he shares with his wife, in the room where he accepts visitors seeking his religious counsel. He had a proposal. Would Ali be his temporary wife? He would pay her 5,000 Iraqi dinars upfront — about $4 — in addition to her monthly...

CHARLESTON — A former inmate is challenging the constitutionality of West Virginia’s anticohabitation law after his parole was delayed for more than four months because he wanted to live with his fiancee. snip West Virginia’s anti-cohabitation law makes it a misdemeanor for unmarried people to ‘‘lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together.’’ ‘‘He had to follow all the laws of West Virginia to get paroled and this was a law that was still on the books, so the parole officer would not release him to his fiancee because that would be a violation of the law,’’ said Andrew Schneider, executive...

AP) The owners of a roller skating rink have fired an 18-year-old woman they called one of their "Top 10" employees because she moved in with her boyfriend, violating a company ethics policy that prohibits "live-in relationships of an intimate nature." "I loved my job and I didn't want to leave," Crystal Plotner told the Coeur d'Alene Press this week. She said she was fired after casually telling her bosses, Skate Plaza owners Marvin and Pat Miller, that she planned to move in with her boyfriend in mid-May. Before terminating her, Plotner said the Millers said she and her boyfriend...

The University of St. Thomas today said it will not let staff or faculty who travel officially with students share a room on those trips with an unmarried partner. The decision by St. Thomas President Rev. Dennis Dease, posted on the St. Thomas Web site this morning, puts into policy the university's position. But it's unlikely to end the controversy that's divided the campus the past few months. While the travel policy affects only a few professors, it became a flashpoint on campus after two professors who live together as unmarried, heterosexual partners were told in December they could travel...

You know the old saying about having a hammer and everything looking like nails? I was reading an article in the Journal of Law and Economics about why housing prices in Manhattan are so high, and I thought, "Omigosh! The answer to the demographic implosion." Since my hammer happens to be sex and marriage, even an economics article reminds me of sex. So bear with me. I’ll explain what the article had to say about housing prices. Then I’ll tell you what it has to do with sex...

In the United States, living together instead of marrying has become the norm for couples -- half of young adults aged 20-40 are cohabiting instead of getting married. Cohabitation has increased nearly 1,000% since 1980, and the marriage rate has dropped more than 40% since 1960. Some see substituting living together for marriage as an insignificant shift in family “structure.� Those who are better informed realize that the shift has disastrous ramifications for the individuals involved, as well as for society and public policy. The faulty reasoning leading young adults to make such a poor choice must be exposed. Here...

A Missouri couple say they were denied an occupancy permit for their new home because they're not married. Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving have been together for 13 years and have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The couple are appealing the occupancy permit denial from the Black Jack, Mo., board of adjustment, which requires people living together to have blood, marriage or adoption ties. Loving is not the father of Shelltrack's oldest child. I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than...

In the 1978 movie "Same Time, Next Year," a man and a woman meet by chance at a romantic inn, end up in bed together and, though each is married, repeat the rendezvous each year. The film's promo line ran, "They couldn't have celebrated happier anniversaries if they were married to each other." But if palimony were at issue, neither of the trysters could have collected, at least not in New Jersey. On Feb. 6, a state appeals court ruled that without cohabitation, an extramarital romantic relationship -- even one that spanned 70 years -- cannot be a basis for...

Pope Benedict XVI waves in front of the Nativity scene at the end of "Te Deum" prayer in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI remembered his beloved predecessor and again stressed the importance that a family based on marriage has "in the life of the Church and of society." (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)Pope Stresses Need for Marriage, Family By MARIA SANMINIATELLI Associated Press WriterVATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI remembered his predecessor Saturday and again stressed the importance of a family based on marriage "in the life of the church and of society."...

Scooop.net (www.scooop.net), a next-generation media site based on democratic voting principles and active participation of its members, released the results of its weekly “Hot Topics” survey held last week which asked whether the U.S. government has “gone too far” regarding the domestic war on terror. When asked whether the U.S. should authorize the National Security Agency or Central Intelligence Agency to provide surveillance of U.S. citizens concerning the war on terror, almost 50% of women said yes. Men who were surveyed were not so willing to allow the government the right to monitor U.S. citizens. Of those men surveyed, 56.2%...

A Catholic theologian who opposes Church teaching on divorce and supports creating a betrothal ceremony for cohabitating couples just led a colloquium to assist US bishops with writing a pastoral letter on marriage. The colloquium, which ended yesterday, was sponsored by the US Bishops' Committee on Marriage and Family and hosted by the Center for Marriage and Family at Creighton University in Omaha. It featured theologians and social scientist and had as its theme, "Promoting and Sustaining Marriage as a Community of Life and Love." According to a press release, the colloquium was a "major step" toward developing "a pastoral...

In a room littered with pizza boxes, fried chicken and soda cans, David Walker asked 30 couples to stand and make an unusual declaration of love. "I want you to turn to your future wife and say, 'It's my job to make sure you get to heaven.' " The couples grasped each other's hands and whispered the promise, but Walker was only half done: "Now, it's the ladies' turn . . . " And after the hushed whispers faded, Walker added, "Now that's what sacramental marriage is all about. Aw, give each other a kiss." "I wasn't expecting that," said...

OTTAWA, OCT. 1, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Living together is an increasingly popular option in many countries. But it can involve high social and emotional costs, says a new study, "Cohabitation and Marriage: How Are They Related?" The Ottawa-based Vanier Institute of the Family published the study Sept. 17. The author, Anne-Marie Ambert, brings together the results of hundreds of research papers that examined the social, emotional and financial effects of cohabitation and marriage on men, women, children and society. Cohabitation, the study observes, is often seen as entailing fewer responsibilities at a legal or financial level, and less fidelity than marriage....

FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, GERMANY - In a bizarre case that has shocked Germany, police said Tuesday that a woman gave birth to nine babies over a period of 16 years - and is suspected of killing each of them immediately after childbirth. The 39-year-old woman confessed to having delivered the infants herself, the public prosecutor's office said at a news conference. Investigators said the woman, who also has four other children, gave conflicting accounts as to just how many children she has given birth to between 1988 and 2004. Fearing the toll might actually be higher, investigators with sniffer...

So I have been trying to rent an apartment in my home...and all I have answering the ads are boyfriends and girlfriends. No matter what social status, no matter what income level, I am seeing unmarried twenty, thirty and forty year old couples who want to live together. If I question them, they don't even understand why I am asking. These are Christians and Jews. I was so surprised to find that it would be so difficult to find a young married couple. Tell me Dear Freeper...am I totally out of the ballgame to expect to find a young married...

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) - The divorce rate in the United States is falling, and a new study offers an explanation: More people are shacking up instead of getting married. In a report released Tuesday, the co-directors of the National Marriage Project, a nonpartisan institute at Rutgers University that promotes marriage, said couples who get married are more committed to each other than those who are just live together. The study analyzed data gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau and other researchers. Nine of every 1,000 married women in the United States divorced in 1960, according to the study. The...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Some people see nothing wrong with it, while others say it's immoral. But the question in North Carolina is: Should shacking up be illegal? The ACLU is suing to overturn a North Carolina ban on cohabitation. In all, seven states have such laws. The case centers on a woman who says she was forced to quit her job as a sheriff's dispatcher for refusing to marry her live-in boyfriend. The ACLU points to a 2003 Supreme Court decision that struck down an anti-sodomy law. The organization says that ruling protects consensual sex between adults. Supporters of the...

The number of men in Japan has begun to shrink for the first time since records began, heralding a fall in the overall population from next year. The decline in the number of men signals a historic shift in Japan's population, the ageing of which is likely to have a profound influence on the country's pension system, labour market and tax base.

A Family's Torment - Terri Schiavo The following items are among many very frustrating circumstances that Terri Schiavo’s parents, brother, and sister consider to be abuses of Terri on the part of Michael Schiavo. As a parent, can you imagine having to just be a bystander while these abuses are inflicted on your child? All of these have been condoned by Judge Greer and the Pinellas County officials. Denial of Therapy, Rehabilitation and Necessary Services FS 744.3215 Rights of persons determined incapacitated FS 837.021 Perjury by contradictory statements Records show that in 1992 Michael Schiavo, Terri Schiavo’s legal guardian, sued...

Marriage is becoming increasingly uncommon in Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark, say observers. Unlike America, marriage is widely seen as an inconvenience across Scandinavia, providing very few benefits -- social or economic -- and imposing too large a commitment on families. Observers say advances in birth control, the rise of feminism, and the decline of religion have all contributed to the increase in cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births: In Norway, half of all children are now born to unmarried mothers. In Sweden, about 56 percent of all children are illegitimate. In Denmark, nearly 45 percent of all children...

The Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is being challenged by 12 homosexuals who have been separated from the military.     They planned to file a federal lawsuit today in Boston that would cite last year's landmark Supreme Court ruling that overturned state laws making sodomy a crime as grounds for reversing the policy.     Other courts have upheld the 11-year-old policy, but C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which is advising the plaintiffs, said those decisions came prior to the 2003 Supreme Court ruling. [snip]The so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy allows homosexuals to serve in the...

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- The truth about cats and dogs in this city is that they aren't allowed to live in the same house. But that's about to change. Current city law allows residents to own up to two dogs or two cats at the same time - but not a dog and a cat together. After getting complaints, the City Council is expected to change the law next month. The problem was discovered when Susan Sewell and her family went to the Utah County Animal Shelter in Spanish Fork to adopt a kitten in August. The family already has...

A lesbian couple yesterday launched a high court challenge against the Irish government's refusal to recognise their marriage, in a case that could have implications for thousands of cohabiting couples in Ireland. Catherine Zapaonne and Louise Gilligan appeared in the high court in Dublin to seek a judicial review of the inspector of taxes' refusal to recognise them as a couple. Dr Zapaonne, a public policy consultant and member of the Human Rights Commission, and Dr Gilligan, an academic, have lived together for 23 years and own a house together in county Dublin. They are Irish citizens and married in...

Michael McManus hopes to bring the Marriage Savers to Wyoming By Cara Eastwood rep4@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Marriage in the United States is in trouble, and Michael McManus thinks he knows how to fix it. The nationally-syndicated religion columnist has developed a program, called the Marriage Savers, that he says has helped drastically reduce divorce rates in more than 150 cities. If a September meeting with local religious leaders goes well, Cheyenne might be the next city to join in the effort to help build stronger marriages. The Rev. Kurt Borgaard of First Christian Church joined...

<p>New York Giants second-round draft pick Chris Snee and coach Tom Coughlin's daughter had a child last fall, the team disclosed hours after picking the Boston College guard.</p> <p>Snee and Katie Coughlin are not married, but together they are raising the boy, Dylan.</p>

An unmarried couple who are the parents of a 2-year-old child may be forced to separate because cohabitation is illegal in North Carolina and would violate the woman's probation. Melissa Sheridan said she has about two years of probation left for welfare fraud in New York state. She moved to North Carolina a few months ago with her boyfriend, John Finger. New York allowed her to leave with the assumption North Carolina would supervise her probation, but North Carolina has refused because she and Finger live together, she said. Terry Gootee of the 5th Judicial District's Division of Community Corrections...