U.S. out of love with marriage?

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• Part 1: In an ever-changing society, it is increasingly difficult to maintain the model of marriage as one man and one woman.

In the beloved holiday movie "It's a Wonderful Life," George Bailey is allowed to see how miserable the future is without his everyday acts of heroism and self-sacrifice -- and his marriage.

Calamities are revealed in scene after scene, but none are more powerful than the loss of his family. His cozy home is a ghostly ruin. Wife Mary is a dried-up spinster. There are no rose petals from daughter Zuzu because there is no Zuzu.

Even his town has become ugly and crude -- with plenty of "adult entertainment" but no family homes, no loving couples, no playful children.

The Frank Capra film, released 60 years ago this month, ends with George's redemption and new appreciation for his most precious achievements -- being a good man, husband, father, friend and brother.

In reality, Americans seem to be swirling in a mist of confusion about family life. In many ways, they crave a world in which marriage and children are the pinnacles of life. But year after year, the country seems to be inching toward a culture in which adult pleasures and pastimes have a higher value than monogamy and minivans.

In this series, The Washington Times examines the changing views of marriage and what institutions such as religious groups, government and businesses are doing to preserve it.

"Too many young Americans are growing up with a radically wrong view of life," Paul M. Weyrich recently wrote in an article for the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative think tank that he founded. "They view marriage as a temporary bond between a man and a woman or, I fear, increasingly between a member of their own sex."

What children need is a "mother and father who honor their commitment to remain united 'for better or for worse,' and who instill a respect for God, their religion, their family and work," Mr. Weyrich wrote.