THE DANGERS OF COHABITING ...

...are revealed in an annual report on the health of marriage in America. The study's authors, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and David Popenoe, write ...

"The belief that living together before marriage is a useful way 'to find out whether you really get along,' and thus avoid a bad marriage and an eventual divorce, is now widespread among young people. But the available data on the effects of cohabitation fail to confirm this belief. In fact, a substantial body of evidence indicates that those who live together before marriage are more likely to break up after marriage.” [...]

The "State of our Unions" report, released annually by the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, says that more people are cohabitating today than ever before. There were 5 million cohabitating couples in 2004, compared to 2.8 million in 1990, 1.5 million in 1980 and only 523,000 in 1970.

I've been telling cohabiting couples of these dangers for years. We've counseled them on a redemptive approach to the dilemma they find themselves in. Those who failed to follow through with the pre-marital intimacy and separation aspects of the approach have divorced or are in the process of separation.

Bill Maier, Focus on the Family's vice president and psychologist in residence, said the report should be no surprise to those in the pro-family movement. "The average young person in America who enters into a cohabitating relationship isn't aware that they may be sabotaging their chances for eventual marital success. ... Study after study after study shows us that cohabitating is a bad idea."

PROPHETIC VOICE: The body of evidence on this issue dooms the homosexual community to a future of broken relationships. Also, their insistence on normalization will pollute decades of marriage data.