What would Dobson say?

broken marriagesThe Washington Post had a fascinating piece in Sunday's paper about how the number of couples with children in America is dropping. Giving himself plenty of room for analysis from the smart people at the Brookings Institution and other places, reporter Blaine Harden tracks an under-reported story that is changing the face of America. A huge ghost throughout the story is the religious element of the family. While the story was thorough, it would be interesting to hear what the folks in Colorado Springs or at the Saddleback church thought about these trends:





Why is the marriage decline story a religious story? Well, because the religious people, especially those on the right, say so and they do so loudly. How many times have you heard Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council say that the government needs to guard marriage, the bedrock of the institution of the family and the foundation of the United States of America? Quite legitimately, people associate marriage with religion.

broken marriageFor more analysis that touches on the religious aspect of this story, I turn to Post op-ed columnist Harold Meyerson, who says that this article shows the inherent contradictions in the Republican Party today and going back to the Reagan years of the 1980s:



Hey James Dobson, what do you think about that? Can you discuss for us?

Where is the role of faith in marriage? Is there a role for religion in preserving marriages and keeping homes together? Is it broken marriages that cause economic decline, or is the economic decline caused by the broken marriage or the lack thereof? Meyerson raises an excellent point that economics affects the institution of the family in America, but is there a role for the sexual revolution in this story?

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