You may remember early in the summer we talked about a new study by University of Texas associate professor Mark Regnerus. Regnerus found that children raised by parents involved in same-sex relationships do not fare as well as children from traditional homes.
Regnerus told Slate that when these children grow up, they “were more apt to report being unemployed, less healthy, more depressed, more likely to have cheated on a spouse or partner, smoke more pot, had trouble with the law, and report … more sexual victimization.” And the list went on and on.
You may also recall that Regnerus was hammered by the media and by gay activists. How dare he? His study was flawed! He should be investigated for “scientific misconduct!”
Well, last week I came across another article by Regnerus on same-sex “marriage.” He was reporting on another study done in Canada. And its conclusion was that children whose moms and dads are married to each other graduate from high school at a much higher rate than children of same-sex or common-law couples.
How about that? An academic study showing that marriage between a mom and dad matters.
For years, the folks behind National Marriage Week have been telling us that healthy marriages make for a healthy society. Married adults live longer, are healthier and more financially stable than unmarried adults. Children raised in single parent homes are more likely to drop out of school, get pregnant out of wedlock, use drugs, live in poverty, and get in trouble with the law. And they estimate that divorce and out of wedlock childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers $112 billion per year.
All right. So, what can you do to help rebuild a flourishing marriage culture?
How about getting your church and other churches in your community involved in the 2014 National Marriage Week, this coming February 7-14. February? Yes, February. Now is the time to get prepared.
All you’ve got to do is come to BreakPoint.org, click on this commentary, and we’ll link you to all the resources you’ll need.
The goals of National Marriage Week are pretty straightforward: to create a groundswell of marriage-strengthening activities and provide a national calendar for existing, trusted marriage classes, conferences and events across the nation, and to promote marriage as a national benefit in the media and in public policy.
This year’s event will be the seventh annual National Marriage Week, a week, by the way, which is now celebrated in 20 countries.
The National Marriage Week kit, which is free and downloadable on the Web, contains marriage fact sheets, posters, a media kit, and a slew of ideas and suggestions that your church can launch immediately to strengthen marriages in your community: Pre-marital counseling, church-wide date nights for spouses, webinars and sermon ideas for pastors, suggested curricula for couples, etc. The folks at the National Marriage Week website even allow churches to post their wedding-related events on their National Marriage Week website.
So please, join this nation-wide celebration to rebuild the culture of marriage in this country, beginning with your church and your community. Again, just come to BreakPoint.org, click on this commentary, and we’ll link you to all you’ll need.
Oh, and one final thought. Do you like BreakPoint? Are you on Facebook? Well, then be sure to “like” BreakPoint on Facebook!
BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions.
Eric Metaxas is a co-host of BreakPoint Radio and a best-selling author whose biographies, children's books, and popular apologetics have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Publication date: October 21, 2013