Love and Marriage

There's a pretty good article by Christine B. Whelan on OpinionJournal.com about the idea of pre-marital counseling. In her article Ms. Whelan compares the "counseling" concept in the new movie License to Wed with the actual counseling that takes place in churches/synagogues/mosques today. She shows that while Hollywood shows pre-marital counseling as some inane series of tests and tasks a couple must perform to be considered worthy of marriage, genuine pre-marital counseling is designed to help the young couples with communication skills and encourages them to think through ideas such as finances and child-rearing.

The focus of the article is primarily on the church's role in being sure that these young couples have thought through the more serious topics they will face in marriage before they make the commitment; but there is another aspect that I believe is missing in much of the counseling today that must be addressed -- the theology of marriage.

The current divorce rates among "Christian" couples is a shameful blight on the church in America and I believe that the root cause is that people have separated theology from marriage. The Bible is replete with references to marriage and the message is consistent: Marriage is from God, it is holy and it is for life. When this is forgotten and marriage is seen as an invention of man, is less than holy and not a life-long commitment we end up with disposable relationships designed to suit our purposes rather than God's.

I will write more on this on a later post.