Buried in the data [of the study] was the revelation that almost half of millennials (43 percent, and higher among the youngest subset) said they would support a marriage model that involved a two-year trial ”” at which point the union could be either formalized or dissolved, no divorce or paperwork required. Thirty three percent said they’d be open to trying what researchers dubbed the “real estate” approach ”“ marriage licenses granted on a five, seven, 10 or 30-year arms, after which the terms must be renegotiated. And 21 percent said they’d give the “presidential” method a try, whereby marriage vows last for four years but after eight you can elect to choose a new partner.
In total, nearly half of all of those surveyed, ages 18 to 49 ”“ and 53 percent percent of millennials ”” thought marriage vows should be renewed, and nearly 40 percent said they believed the “till death do us part” vow should be abolished. In other words: Beta marriages! Unions you can test and deglitch, work out kinks or simply abandon course without consequence. “This is a generation that is used to this idea that everything is in beta, that life is a work in progress, so the idea of a beta marriage makes sense,” the study’s author, Melissa Lavigne-Delville, told me. “It’s not that they’re entirely noncommittal, it’s just that they’re nimble and open to change.”
It’s interesting that – at least in this particular article – there is no reference to the consequences for children of this approach. Even if you approach this in purely secular terms, how secure will children be if the marriage relationship is constantly under review?
Furthermore, the marriage vow exists not for the times when things are easy but for the times when it is difficult.
“In sickness and in health” is not a platitude but a covenant
true, no.1 however this culture ceased caring about consequences to children about 50 years ago.
I think there is a lot of research showing that those who go into a relationship thinking it won’t last, act in such as way that they actually make it not last.
Magnolia, it goes further: in this culture there are no consequences, for anything. That’s why sin and redemption have become antique and foreign concepts; everything just goes away.