Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Some 74 family and marriage specialists appealed Tuesday for an end to the fighting over gay marriage, saying both gay and straight marriage-supporters are needed to address the breakdown in America's marriage culture.
Although Americans spend $50 billion a year on weddings, a large segment of the population is making an exodus from the institution, says a new report from a family-values think tank.
Economists refer to the economic benefit that accrues to married couples as the "marriage premium." A recent CBS television special asked the question, "Why is marriage such an economic turn-on?" The program "MoneyWatch" gave three reasons based on a report from the Pew Research Center's report, "Women, Men and the New Economics of Marriage":
Cohabiting is an emerging threat to the health of children and society, two new research reports say.
Marriage is associated with wealth, health, longevity, happiness and sexual satisfaction, plus myriad benefits for children. Yet the nation's marriage rate keeps sliding downward.
For at least a generation, marriage and family cohesion have been unraveling in America's low-income families. Now this rending of family ties is spreading into America's middle class, the home of hard-working, blue-collar, service-industry people who graduated from high school but didn't quite land that college degree.
In addition to an "education gap" in marriage, there is also a "faith gap," says the new State of Our Unions report on marriage.
