We’ve been conditioned for decades to believe the key to a happy and enduring marriage is one based on “progressive” values and a rejection of the traditional religious views of the relationship between husband and wife. But new studies reveal otherwise.
That’s right: Married men and women are happier when religion is part of their lives.
Of a new report on marriage, faith, and families by the Institute for Family Studies and the Wheatley Institution, authors W. Bradford Wilcox, Jason S. Carroll, and Laurie DeRose write in The New York Times Sunday Review, “The happiest of all wives in America are religious conservatives, followed by their religious progressive counterparts. Fully 73 percent of wives who hold conservative gender values and attend religious services regularly with their husbands have high-quality marriages.”
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2 comments:
The bible clearly lays out a road map for a happy life, built around God first and centered on traditional, family values. This article supports that line of thinking, and frankly, it is something seldom seen much these days.
I dunno... my wife and I have been together for 19 years, our relationship keeps getting better and stronger, and our sex life has never been better. I would call myself atheist, my wife prefers "non-religious".
When we look at divorce rates, a clear indicator of married bliss, the numbers break down (most are from Pew Research Center):
Catholics at a 19% divorce rate, Protestants at 51%, Born Again Christians 33%, Jehovahs Witness at 9%, Mormans at 1%, American Muslims at 31%, Jewish at about 9%, Hindus 5%, Buddhism 10%, and Atheists at 2%.
Based on these numbers, it would seem ATHEISTS enjoy some of the strongest, arguably happiest marriages. This seems contradictory to the assertions of the article...
I think happiness in a marriage is probably more associated with what is going on rather than religiosity... financial problems, health problems, the loss of a close loved one, etc. If the conclusions drawn by this article were considered true, the divorce numbers would be much lower in religious people, and much higher in non-religious, and the numbers show that this claim does not hold to being falsified.
Admittedly, I did not review the methods of this study, however the Wheatly Institution apparently is part of BYU.. a Morman University, and the Institute for Family Studies is known to be a "conservative think-tank" that is heavily funded by conservative and religious organizations. This IS NOT an unbiased research study... and all parties involved have a vested interest in getting the results beneficial to them.
You have to follow the facts and the data, even if you don't like the results.
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