{"id":57940,"date":"2006-01-14T20:37:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-15T02:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=57940"},"modified":"2023-01-14T20:39:02","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T02:39:02","slug":"living-together-before-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/living-together-before-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Together Before Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Ray Fowler<\/p>\n<p>Here are some statistics on living together before marriage from Michael McManus, the president of Marriage Savers. Statistically speaking, living together is not a trial of marriage, but rather a training for divorce.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The number of unmarried couples living together soared 12-fold from 430,000 in 1960 to 5.4 million in 2005.<\/li>\n<li>More than eight out of ten couples who live together will break up either before the wedding or afterward in divorce.<\/li>\n<li>About 45 percent of those who begin cohabiting, do not marry. Another 5-10 percent continue living together and do not marry.<\/li>\n<li>Couples who do marry after living together are 50% more likely to divorce than those who did not.<\/li>\n<li>Only 12 percent of couples who have begun their relationship with cohabitation end up with a marriage lasting 10 years or more.<\/li>\n<li>A Penn State study reports that even a month&#8217;s cohabitation decreases the quality of the couple&#8217;s relationship.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are some more statistics relating to the children of cohabiting parents.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Children of cohabiting parents are ten times more likely to be sexually abused by a stepparent than by a parent.<\/li>\n<li>Children of cohabiting parents are three times as likely to be expelled from school or to get pregnant as teenagers than children from intact homes with married parents.<\/li>\n<li>Children of cohabiting parents are five times more apt to live in poverty, and 22 times more likely to be incarcerated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Ray Fowler Here are some statistics on living together before marriage from Michael McManus, the president of Marriage Savers. Statistically speaking, living together is not a trial of marriage, but rather a training for divorce. The number of unmarried couples living together soared 12-fold from 430,000 in 1960 to 5.4 million in 2005. More&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1572,655],"class_list":["post-57940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-fornication","tag-living-together"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15808,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-acceptable-to-live-together-before-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":57940,"position":0},"title":"Is it Acceptable to Live Together Before Marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Richard Mansel via\u00a0Forthright Magazine When we become Christians, our perspective changes from the will of the flesh to the will of the Father in heaven. The old ways of pleasure cease to be the guiding light of our days. We have a higher calling based on new criteria. Men\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/cohabitation-300x249.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32691,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/cohabiting-before-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":57940,"position":1},"title":"Cohabiting Before Marriage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Floyd Chappelear Sentry Magazine, June 2001 It has long been observed that marriages that are preceded by \"living together\" have a markedly higher divorce rate than those that are characterized by abstinence before marriage. One of the reasons that I have advanced is due to the fact that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63051,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/marriage-and-divorce-the-good-news-and-the-bad\/","url_meta":{"origin":57940,"position":2},"title":"Marriage and Divorce: The Good News and the Bad","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Psalm 50 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0An article came out in the paper in April of 2007 trumpeting the news that divorce rates are falling \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Divorce rates rose rapidly in the 1960s through the 1980's with the adoption of no-fault divorce laws in the United States. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sermon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-harm-of-living-together-without-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":57940,"position":3},"title":"The Harm of Living Together Without Marriage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Psalm 50 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As Christianity spread through the Gentile world, it faced many challenges \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For thousands of years, the Gentiles gave little thought to God. Oh, they had their gods, but these were little more than extensions of their own desires. No, they lived in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sermon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32540,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-the-marriage-of-an-atheist-work-is-it-possible-to-have-a-marriage-that-lasts-without-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":57940,"position":4},"title":"Can the marriage of an atheist work? Is it possible to have a marriage that lasts without divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you think atheist marriages can work? And toward Christian marriages: do you still have to make it work, or can you just be confident it will work since the only reason for a divorce would be cheating? I know a couple -- she's atheist, he's agnostic -- and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45935,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/marriages\/","url_meta":{"origin":57940,"position":5},"title":"Marriages","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Genesis 2:18-24 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A statement in a newspaper article stood out \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even though the number of marriages ending in divorce has stabilized after many years of rapid rise, the rate of people entering marriage has drastically declined! \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In other words, one of the reasons the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}