The average age at first marriage is now almost 26 for women and 28 for men. And a growing percentage of Americans aren’t marrying at all: Provisional federal statistics released Tuesday report 7.1 marriages per 1,000 people in 2008, down from 10 per 1,000 in 1986.
Faced with such numbers, the federal government is funding a $5 million national media campaign that launches this month, extolling the virtues of marriage for those ages 18 to 30.
“We’re not telling people ‘Get married’ but ‘Don’t underestimate the benefits of marriage,’ ” says Paul Amato, a Pennsylvania State University sociologist and adviser to the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, which is spearheading the campaign.
The resource center, a federally funded virtual clearinghouse, works under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families.
For what it is worth: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29239960/?GT1=43001
Surely the Liturgical Commission is prepared for just such eventualities, eh?
Surely the Liturgical Commission is prepared for just such eventualities, eh? I mean, isn’t there at least a proposed “Don’t underestimate the benefits of marriage” liturgy as espoused for the protection of income assets by smart tax law utilization? No wait, that was Bruno’s proposal for economic non-marriage…….
Hmmm…the federales promoting marriage just like they promoted home ownership. What could go wrong?
Marriage? Isn’t that just for gays and lesbians?