Traditionally, the month of June was the "wedding" month. We all know times have changed, especially with the social and religious acceptance of co-habitation or couples "living together" without marriage.So where are things now and where are they headed?
On this last day of June, the ole Wedding month, I thought you might like to digest some interesting facts:
"Men won't commit to marriage because they enjoy a sexually active single life in a social climate that doesn't push them to marry," according to a Washington Times story on a new report from the National Marriage Project.."Young men are indeed 'commitment phobic,' which is bad news for young women who want build a family before they get too old," said researchers Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and David Popenoe, who run the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University.
The median age of first marriage for men has reached 27, the oldest age in our nation's history," Mr. Popenoe said. "If this trend of men waiting to marry continues, it is likely to clash with the timing of marriage and childbearing for the many young women who hope to marry and bear children before they begin to face problems associated with declining fertility," he said.
There are several specific reasons for why young men are avoiding marriage, the researchers indicate. "Primarily, young men are enjoying a sexually active single life — often with a live-in girlfriend — and "are in no hurry" to marry, the researchers said."The researchers also found that young men are often wary of marriage because of worries that they will marry the wrong person, be forced to make too many compromises or take on too many burdens as a husband, or suffer huge losses if the marriage ends in divorce.
"What young men aren't worried about is a personal, biological deadline to have children," Mrs. Whitehead said: "Men see marriage as the final step in a prolonged process of growing up," with children coming along in due time, she said. This isn't true for young women, she said, but young men "don't have much sympathy" for women's fertility problems. "As one man put it, 'That's their issue.'"
"Traditional social forces, such as the family, religion and the workplace, used to pressure men toward marriage, but that is no longer the case, she said. With the relaxation of social pressures, coupled with general silence about unmarried couples living together, 'men can relax their timetable indefinitely,'" she said. (last paragraph from "Wedded Bliss Not a Priority for Bachelors"
For all married couples, for those awaiting the sacrament of marriage, for a faithful life together and the strength which mutual love gives ... we pray to the Lord.
