From: zursch@sco.COM (King Jeffie I)
Subject: Re: Goodbye Marriage and Morals!

In article <2571@lindy.Stanford.EDU>, AS.CEC@forsythe.stanford.edu (Charlie Channel, Jr.) writes:
> While in college many, many moons ago, I read...
> "Marriage and Morals."  It advocated, among other things, companionate
> marriages ("shacking-up").
> It seemed to make sense:  Check out a few ladies, live with them until you
> find the one you can get along with and live happily ever after.
> Companionate marriage ("testing, 1,2,3,4...") was seen as a way to avoid
> the horrors of marriage experienced by so many.

That last sentence is key......religious or traditional people will
put up with a horrible marriage because of their feelings about
what the bible says about it....people who are willing to live
together generally will not have the same reverence for biblical
morality and will leave a horrible marriage....

> [He lists the following things as "evidence" that shacking up
> is bad for you:]
> Friday, March 31, 1989  _San Francisco Chronicle _, page 1.:
>
> "More Divorces After Cohabitation" by Ramon G. McLeod, Chronicle Staff
> Writer.
>
> "[A] study released yesterday shows that they are much more likely to
> divorce or separate than people who never live together before the
> wedding."
> "'Marriages preceded by cohabitation are much less stable than those that
> are not'" the article says.
> Apparently, the moral standards found in the Bible are verified by reality
> again.  Goodbye  _Marriage and Morals _.

What a bunch of poop! People who live
together before they are married probably do not have the commitment to
Traditional Western Christian Sex And Marriage Practices that people
who do not live together or have sex before marriage do. It follows,
therefore, that these same people, once married, will be more at ease
seeking divorce or separation if the marriage is not good for them.

Someone who is serious about Christian morality will not only balk at
premarital cohabitation, but also at divorce and the breaking of their
solemn union before God. Sure, divorce happens, even among Catholics,
but it is less frequent among people with strong ties to traditional
morality. This says nothing about the benefits of cohabitation, merely
that traditional bible-believing people tend to behave one way
while others behave in other ways.

What I would like to see is a really good study on how many of those
who stay married who did not cohabitate really enjoy the marriage. I've
known more than one couple who stayed married "Because marriage is
sacred and you shouldn't break it just because things aren't good."
These were generally older, more traditional people...People who come
together and move apart generally subscribe to the "Stay together
as long as it's mutually satisfying" ethic. You are, of course, free
to believe that this ethic is harmful, but don't come off with this
"Gee, people who aren't traditional get divorced more so they're obviously
wrong and the bible was right all along..." By this standard, keeping one's
wife as a domestic slave might seem the best, most moral course....after
all, she wouldn't leave you EVER, and domestic diputes would be
nonexistent, as you have absolute rule over her....her happiness
and fulfillment, are, of course, secondary to upholding the
traditional morality.....

To compare people who live according to the traditional Christian
morality and those who do not is not viable. All this business
spewed forth by dimwitted moralists about the "failure" of the
sexual revolution is based on the metering methods of traditional
morality.....cohabitation and eventual separation or divorce are
not failed relationships; they are merely a different way of approaching
the subject....

Jeff Zurschmeide
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Any contradictions in the above posting are an integral part of the belief
     system of the Church and are thus entirely non-contradictory.
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