Marriage movement makes waves in New Zealand

Carolyn Moynihan

The marriage movement is making itself felt in Australia and New Zealand with the publication of a report, 21 Reasons Why Marriage Matters, this week. A coalition of marriage and family advocacy groups is backing the report, which is based on local and international research showing the benefits of marriage over alternative arrangements for family life.

“This edition has 146 researched footnotes including NZ-based research and presents strong evidence that marriage is more than a private emotional relationship. It is a social good and we should develop policies, laws, and family and community interventions to help strengthen marriages. The weakening of marriage is one of the most important social issues we are facing in NZ,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/marriage_movement_makes_waves_in_new_zealand/

Great sites for being Black and Married!

http://blackandmarriedwithkids.com/

http://www.happilyeverafterthemovie.com/

http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-op_malonecolon_0830aug30,0,3101162.story

Why the black community can't talk about marriage
by Malone-Colon

Ask yourself: When is the last time you heard a public leader talk about the crisis in marriage and family and why it is urgent that as a country we give our attention to this crisis and its consequences? The answer is probably never or rarely.
What is being proposed by these leaders to address the dramatic increases in children born out of wedlock (72 percent for African-Americans), divorce, cohabitation, those who never marry and the decline in marital quality?

BREAKING NEWS: Obama comes down on DOMA

Jim Brown (OneNewsNow) and Associated Press -

A pro-family leader says the Obama administration is playing dishonest "Chicago-style politics" by defending the Defense of Marriage Act while undermining the law in a court filing. The Obama Justice Department today filed court papers claiming the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act discriminates against homosexuals. In the meantime, the DOJ lawyers are seeking to dismiss a suit brought by a homosexual California couple challenging DOMA. (See Associated Press story below)

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=646972

British tax and benefit system favours single parents

Carolyn Moynihan

Does the British government actually not want some people to marry? It rather looks like it, judging by the financial penalty many couples face as a result of the tax they pay and the benefits they do not receive. In fact, it looks as though the government wants those who are married to split up. An analysis of 98 couples with different earnings and numbers of children carried out by the charity Care showed that 76 of the couples would be better off if they split up and claimed welfare benefits that average £8007. Increasingly it is middle-income families where both parents work that suffer this “couple penalty”.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/british_tax_and_benefit_system_favours_single_parents/

ABA meddles in marriage issue, members exit

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

The American Bar Association House of Delegates has approved a resolution calling on Congress to repeal a section of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, that denies federal marital benefits and protections to same-gender couples married in states where it's legal. OneNewsNow contacted Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver, dean of the law school at Liberty University, for reaction. He says the American Bar Association (ABA) is intruding on matters that have nothing to do with the general practice of law, pushing a political position that upsets many members.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=634228

Is White House coordinating attack on DOMA?

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -
Attorney Mat Staver is convinced the Obama administration is behind a federal lawsuit filed yesterday in Boston challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The first state to legalize homosexual "marriage" has filed suit against the federal government to overturn DOMA -- the Defense of Marriage Act -- which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. On Wednesday, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the lawsuit in federal court in Boston. The suit claims DOMA interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define marriage as it sees fit.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=596486

Japan’s new craze: marriage hunting

Carolyn Moynihan
Japan’s population might be ageing and shrinking, but the Japanese are not short of an idea or two to tackle the trend. With marriages rates well below those of an older generation, today’s 20- to 40-somethings are fuelling a new fad known as “konkatsu” or “marriage hunting”, pursuing Mr or Mrs Right with the seriousness of nailing down a job.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/japans_new_craze_marriage_hunting/

Equal Parenting

Finding an equitable arrangement in divorce is important. Better still are parents who can stay together
By Stefan Paszlack, Researcher, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada

Last summer National Post columnist Barbara Kay asked this question: “When can divorced Canadian fathers – and their children – expect justice, so long demanded, so long promised and so long deferred?” [1] She’s not the only one. Equal parenting has been getting more and more attention, in particular when Dr. Edward Kruk released Child Custody, Access and Parental Responsibility: The search for a just and equitable standard in December 2008. Then on June 16, 2009, Maurice Vellacott , Member of Parliament for Saskatoon-Wanuskewin introduced Bill C-422. [2] It’s an equal parenting bill, which seeks to amend portions of the Divorce Act to change the legal presumption of sole custody in divorce disputes to one of joint custody.

http://www.imfcanada.org/article_files/eReview_July1_2009.pdf

Commentary: Let's end disposable marriage

By Leah Ward Sears

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- After Tommy's sudden death, we found among my brother's personal effects a questionnaire he had completed in 2005 for a church class.The very first question was a fill-in-the-blank that went like this: "At the end of my life, I'd love to be able to look back and know I'd done something about .....""Fathers," Tommy wrote.
When asked to identify something that angered him that could be changed, Tommy wrote, "Re-establishment of equity and balance and sanity within the American family."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/07/02/sears.family.divorce/index.html?iref=hpmostpop

Losing Confidence in Marriage

By KAY S. HYMOWITZ
Is marriage in the midst of the social equivalent of the financial meltdown? The first inkling -- the Bear Stearns moment, if you will -- came almost a year ago when the National Enquirer reported that John Edwards appeared to be the father of a love child. The full-scale crisis hit in the past weeks with les affaires Ensign, Sanford and (at least according to rumor) reality-show star Jon Gosselin. Adding to the sense of a Great Marital Depression was a much discussed article in the Atlantic by performer and writer Sandra Tsing Loh about her own infidelity and ultimate separation from her husband, titled "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124658294270189935.html

Why Marriage Matters

By Caitlin Flanagan

Around the time of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, I turned to my father at the dinner table one night and said, "It's amazing, Dad — 50 years, and you never once had an affair. How do you account for that?"He replied simply, "I can't drive."Watching the governor of South Carolina cry like a little girl because his sexy e-mails got forwarded to his local newspaper, the State, made me wonder whether the real secret to a lasting marriage lies in limiting your means of escape. Whether you're putting the Buick Regal in reverse or hitting "Send" on a love note, you're busting out of your marriage, however temporarily, and soon enough there will be hell to pay.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1908243,00.html?xid=rss-nation-cnn

More Than 10 Million Tune In for the Breakup of a Marriage

Lisa de Moraes

When "Jon & Kate Plus 8" announced Monday that Jon & Kate were splitting, it became cable's No. 1 unscripted series telecast. Ever.

[Note: Dr. Morse just made comments via podcast on this news and it will be going live soon.]

Here's a look at that historic development and last week's ratings ups and downs: WINNERS"Jon & Kate Plus 8." About 10.6 million of you tuned in to TLC on Monday night to watch Jon and Kate Gosselin announce they are splitting. Besides its No. 1 status among unscripted telecasts, it's also the second most watched cable series episode of any kind, ever -- behind only a "Hannah Montana" episode that immediately followed the premiere of "High School Musical 2" back in '07. I think it's safe to say those eight adorable children are going to continue leading their lives under the constant watch of TV cameras and paparazzi into their teens.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062303419.html

Facebook and Divorce

By Belinda Luscombe

Not long after Patrick told his wife Tammie he wanted a divorce, she posted an angry, hurt note on "the wall," or public-comments section, of his Facebook page. Embarrassed that his colleagues, clients, church friends and family could see evidence of his marital woes, he deleted it and blocked his wife from seeing his page. A couple of days later, the IT worker in Florida--who asked that his last name not be used in this story — found alarmed messages from two Facebook friends in his inbox. Tammie had used a mutual friend's account to view Patrick's wall and e-mailed several women he had had exchanges with. He says her e-mails were borderline defamatory. She says they merely noted that he was married with children, a fact he had left off his Facebook profile. Either way: Ouch.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1904147,00.html

Same-Sex Marriage and the Death of Tradition

Carson Holloway

Conservatism emerged as a defense of tradition. Edmund Burke, universally acknowledged as the founder of modern conservatism, famously defended tradition as a source of social safety and stability, a bulwark against the corrosive effects of an unfettered rationalism. To be sure, neither Burke nor his later followers have defended a blind adherence to traditional social forms. As Burke noted, a state incapable of change is a state without the means of its own preservation. Tradition must often be altered and adapted to new circumstances. Nevertheless, for the conservative, if tradition is not always to be preserved, it is at least always to be given the benefit of the doubt. As the most eminent of American Burkeans, Russell Kirk, once said, "if it is not necessary to change, then it is necessary not to change.

http://www.firstthings.com/on_the_square_entry.php?year=2009&month=06&title_link=same-sex-marriage-and-the-deat

The Ruth Institute Merges with NOM

DR. JENNIFER ROBACK MORSE JOINS THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MARRIAGE’S NEXT GENERATION PROJECT

http://www.nationformarriage.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=omL2KeN0LzH&b=5075187&content_id=%7bB96A7300-B87A-488D-8A06-CDBA825161A6%7d&notoc=1

DOMA, Prop. 8 under legal attack in Calif.

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has been granted permission to intervene in a federal marriage case in California.

A same-gender pair has filed suit in federal court challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage, alleging that passage of both violates the U.S. Constitution. The two men are asking the court to issue a broad injunction "mandating the use of gender-neutral terms in all legislation affection marriage."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=533756

Wrong Marriage Debate

It is primarily about safety and security for children.

By Mona Charen
The other day I chatted with a pregnant gal at the hair salon. She was about 20, sweet, pretty, and demure. Because I am always doing sociological fieldwork, I asked my hairdresser if the girl was married. No. But she has a fiancé. As always in these situations, you just want to grab these young people by the lapels and say “Get to the altar! It’s critical for your child.” I didn’t of course — because, while I am a zealot for marriage, I’m not yet prepared to become a public nuisance.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTM0MzI2NGFkOTFlNmM3YjgzZTM5Mzk1Njk3MWIxOTQ

Dr. J quoted in Washington Times

WETZSTEIN: Until death, or our term, do us part

Marriage has many peripheral issues, but its "essential and central purpose" is to provide a stable framework for a man and woman to attach themselves to each other and to the children they bear and raise, said Jennifer Roback Morse, who leads the Ruth Institute, an organization that promotes the traditional family structure.

A short-term renewable marriage contract "is a terrible idea" for children, said Mrs. Morse, who is an academic and author. "Let's say we bust up the partnership at the end of seven years. What happens to the little joint asset that you guys created?"


http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/05/until-death-or-term-do-us-part/

Breakup rules not accepted

Cheryl Wetzstein

Sometimes a cure can look worse than the problem. That seems to be the case with a massive legal guidebook on how to handle family breakups in our brave new world.

When the 1,187-page “Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution” was published by the prestigious American Law Institute in 2002, it was assumed that courts and lawmakers would snap it up. After all, it offered unprecedented guidance for vexing problems with child custody, support and property distribution among unmarried and same-sex couples.
But apparently, the institute's principles are too progressive for America's judges and lawmakers.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/31/breakup-rules-not-accepted/

Reflections on the State of Marriage in Contemporary Law

by Stephen Baskerville

http://pbsusa.org/Mandate/Mandate_2009-05-06_WEB_pp13-16.pdf

Great sites for those who care about marriage

Check out helpgetmarried.com and boundless.org

Forbidding to Marry?

There's an excellent post at Hot Air today concerning the marriage crisis in this country today, written by R.S. McCain. McCain is responding to a comment which basically said that Christians have relinquished our claim to marriage because of what we've done to the institution, and that we haven't got a moral leg to stand on at this point.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=501242

Say Yes: What are you Waiting for?

Spring is here, that glorious season when young men's fancies lightly turn to thoughts of love, as the poet Tennyson once suggested. "Lightly" is right.

The average age of American men marrying for the first time is now 28. That's up five full years since 1970 and the oldest average since the Census Bureau started keeping track. If men weren't pulling women along with them on this upward swing, I wouldn't be complaining. But women are now taking that first plunge into matrimony at an older age as well. The age gap between spouses is narrowing: Marrying men and women were separated by an average of more than four years in 1890 and about 2.5 years in 1960. Now that figure stands at less than two years. I used to think that only young men -- and a minority at that -- lamented marriage as the death of youth, freedom and their ability to do as they pleased. Now this idea is attracting women, too.

In my research on young adults' romantic relationships, many women report feeling peer pressure to avoid giving serious thought to marriage until they're at least in their late 20s. If you're seeking a mate in college, you're considered a pariah, someone after her "MRS degree." Actively considering marriage when you're 20 or 21 seems so sappy, so unsexy, so anachronistic. Those who do fear to admit it -- it's that scandalous.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042402122.html

The Institution Formerly Known As Marriage

by Jennifer Roback Morse

The Iowa court’s recent decision does not simply broaden marriage, it radically changes its nature. While marriage previously served public purposes of attaching mothers and fathers to their children and one another, now marriage merely serves as affirmation of adult feelings.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.04.24.001.pdart

To Have, to Hold, For a While

W. BRADFORD WILCOX Brad Wilcox will be one of the faculty at the Ruth Institute Conference in San Diego, CA, August 6-9, 2009.

Amid divorce, remarriage and co-habitation, children do not do well.

Last week, Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage, setting off yet another round of celebration and hand-wringing in different quarters of American life. The debate over same-sex marriage -- showing so much intensity on both sides -- is but one sign that Americans take marriage very seriously indeed. From television specials featuring over-the-top Bridezilla weddings to the federal Healthy Marriage Initiative, which spends $150 million annually on marriage-related programs, no other Western nation devotes as much cultural energy, public policy or religious attention to matrimony as the U.S. And with approximately 90% of Americans marrying over the course of their lifetimes, the U.S. has the highest marriage rate of any Western country.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123958524728412435.html

Florida makes effort to save, build marriages

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

A new campaign has been launched in Florida to give marriages a boost. Florida Family Policy Council spent four years successfully fighting a battle for a constitutional amendment to protect the traditional view of marriage. Now, Council president John Stemberger says they are focusing on strengthening marriage through the three-year-long "Strong Marriages Florida" campaign.

Continue...

Bridezilla rises as weddings fall in England

by Carolyn Moynihan

Last year saw the lowest number of marriages in England and Wales for more than a hundred years. Just 231,450 people got married, a decrease of 3.3 per cent on 2006 and a drop of 34 per cent since 1981. The figures come from the Office for National Statistics and exclude civil partnerships. They confirm the trend of people waiting longer to marry, the average groom now being almost 37 years old and the bride nearly 34 -- figures influenced by second and subsequent marriages.

Continue...

Young Brits cool towards marriage

by Carolyn Moynihan

Attitudes to marriage and family life among young adults in Britain differ markedly from their grandparents and even parents, with fewer than four out of 10 considering marriage as the best form of relationship. The annual British Social Attitudes report, based on interviews with 4000 people, found that 34 per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds believe that women should work full-time once their youngest starts school, compared with just 15 per cent of over-50s.

Continue...

Dr. Morse radio interview

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse was on Dateline Radio America, Tuesday, January 27. Listen here.

Marriage, Adoption and What's Best for Children

by Marcia Segelstein

A recent piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlights the ever-growing research that children are substantially better off when raised by their married parents.

Writer Jim Wooten cites the work of Robin Fretwell Wilson, a professor of Family Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. Wilson spoke recently at a summit on Children, Marriage and Family Law. She analyzed research studies about what is best for children, and the results were crystal clear. “In virtually every study, weighing every variable – family structure, age, income, race, education – the evidence is overwhelming that children do better in families where married adults are rearing their biological children.”

But what about adopted children? Perhaps because Wilson herself was adopted as a child, she has paid special attention to this issue. In preliminary results, she found that adoptive parents “invest more [of themselves] in adoptive chidlren, on average, than biological parents do in their children.” She believes that adoption “shows that adults can be bound to children and protective of them…But what distinguishes adoptees from kids in boyfriend households that are fraught with peril for some kids is that both adults are committing to the child, permanently, for good, and with identical connections to the child. And they mean to be conneccted to the child, not just to one another.”

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=354276