TeacherAide
A weekly teaching aide for student developers

The First Epic

SESSION 2


ILLUSTRATING THE POINT

The Problem with Living Together

Dr. Nancy Moore Clagworthy spent ten years researching people who lived together without being married. When she began her research, she was "convinced that living together apart from marriage was a good thing. Maybe better even than this whole stuffiness of marriage. Let's just live together. Isn't that more natural?"

She wanted to prove that in a scientific way. She interviewed couples who were living together. She observed the development of hundreds of people as their lives unfolded. She found that living together without marriage is one of the worst things that can happen to anybody. Why? Because the context of safety is gone.

Citation: Wayne Brouwer, "Beautiful Music," Preaching Today

Happy Marriages Improve Health

People in happy marriages are healthier. "Studies have shown that happily married women have less blockage in their aortas, and that happily married couples are less likely to suffer from heart disease." When a relationship is healthy and caring, the partners tend to discourage bad habits and encourage good ones, leading to fewer illnesses and more attention to health care.

 Citation: Sanjay Gupta, "Say 'I Do' to Health," Time (6-7-04)

THE MORE YOU KNOW

Common-law unions break up more often than marriages, but many people keep returning to them, according to a Canadian study of conjugal relationships. While marriage still accounts for the majority of relationships, its traditional dominance has given way to the growing popularity of common-law unions. According to data from the 1995 General Social Survey:

Women whose first conjugal union was a common-law relationship were almost twice as likely to separate as women who married first.

Young people were more inclined to live common-law with their first partner. In 1995, only 1 percent of women aged 60 to 69 lived common-law in their first union. In contrast, 38 percent of women aged 30 to 39 chose common-law first, while 52 percent of those aged 20 to 29 chose common-law.

The likelihood of the first relationship ending in divorce or separation has increased significantly. While 25 percent of women aged 60 to 69 experienced a break-up at some point in their lives in 1995, over 40 percent of those in their 30s and 40s had already gone through one.

Citation: "Canadian social trends: The changing face of conjugal relationships," The Daily (3-16-00)

I THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SAY

Male and Female Views of Creation

Female View: God made man and said, “I can do better than that,” and made the women.

Male View: God made beast and man, then rested. Then He made woman, and no one has ever rested since, beast, man, or God.

“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”: A Wife’s Influence

Maria Portokalos assures her daughter, Toula, that she can change her husband’s mind about allowing Toula to go to college and leave the family business:

“The man is the head, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head anyway she wants.”                 Citation: My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Playtone Pictures, 2002)

 

Percentage of American adults who disagree with the statement: “A wife should submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband”: 69 percent

Disagreement declines slightly (to six in 10) when survey respondents are reminded that the statement is taken from the Bible.

                        Citiation: Emerging Trends (April 1999); based on a Gallup Poll

“Girls, don’t have babies before you’re ready—and ‘ready’ means being married! Raising children is the hardest work you’ll ever do. It’s selfish to deny a child its best chances in life. And it’s foolish to deny yourself a future.” – Sadie and Bessie Delany