Posted By Jennie Chancey on March 24, 2012

Some thought-provoking articles have come through the newsfeed in the past week:

Why working class young adults are missing out on marriage ~ For some years, now, researchers at the Institute for American Values have been pointing out that, while the great majority of people still highly value marriage, the meaning of marriage has undergone a profound change. There has been a marked shift away from the institutional concept of marriage, which is focused on the begetting and rearing of children, to the soulmate concept, which is focused on the happiness of the couple and has no essential connection to children….

Why “Madmen” actor won’t get married ~ Explaining why he isn’t married and doesn’t have any plans to marry, [Joe Hamm] said in an interview: “I don’t have a particularly defined example of marriage in my life.” He added: “My parents got divorced when I was two and never remarried. So it doesn’t mean anything to me.” [We don't usually pay much attention to celebrity opinions, but this one illustrates why so many young people aren't aiming for marriage today.]

Adam and Eve after the Pill~ The sexual revolution, which is unimaginable without the pill, has had a profound effect, still barely understood, on relations between the sexes, human happiness, and a host of intractable social problems. Yet it is so much taken for granted and assumed to be such a great good for women and for society that has become impossible to discuss it seriously. Mary Eberstadt, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, offers a collection of essays, most of them originally published in First Things or Policy Review, that deploy a mass of empirical findings from the social sciences as well anecdotal and confessional testimony to examine the dark side of the sexual revolution. [This piece illustrates how contraception ultimately undermines marriage and family.]

Categories: Marriage
Tags: birth control, family, marriage