It is therefore a stark contrast when we compare parents\u2019 dedication to getting their children into a good college with their dedication to getting their children into a good marriage. One cannot help but suspect from the lackadaisical approach of middle class parents to their progeny, that they do not consider marriage very important at all. Of course, this attitude is expected for those who have unfortunately come to believe that marriage is an outdated and irrelevant custom. However, it is not at all reasonable for those social conservative parents who still find marriage important\u201d\u201dthose who (rightly) profess it to be the most fundamental building block of society and (rightly) wish to defend it against various contemporary perversions of the institution.<\/p>\n
Even conservative defenders of marriage lack intentionality when it comes to the marital prospects of their own children. It\u2019s not as though they\u2019re ignorant of how to handle important things because they also deeply involve themselves in goals like securing a college education. It is simply that they do not treat marriage with their actions the way they treat it with their rhetoric. They complain about institutions when they redefine marriage. They complain about the media when they demean or devalue marriage in various ways. Nevertheless, when it comes to that segment of society in which they have the most influence\u201d\u201dtheir own family\u201d\u201dthey often do not seem to make the \u201ccollege\u201d\u009d kind of effort to cultivate a desire for marriage, to prepare their sons to be good husbands, to prepare their daughters to be good wives, or to help them find a good spouse.<\/p>\n
Consider, as one small example of this, the virtue of chastity\u201d\u201da disposition to prepare and direct our sexuality towards marriage\u201d\u201dand contrast it with the far more popular term among social conservatives: \u201cabstinence.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n