By Mike McManus In the old days, if a spouse wanted a divorce, there had to be proof that a partner was guilty of a major fault – adultery, abandonment, or physical abuse. Marriage was considered a sacred contract agreed to by the man and woman before God and witnesses. Then in 1969 California Gov. […]
My Passion to Serve Children and Save Families
Written by Greg Griffin In the summer of 2012, I was combing the web looking for work, and I stumbled across the Coalition for Divorce Reform’s (CDR’s) website. I read through the site and the Parental Divorce Reform Act (PDRA), the CDR’s model divorce reform legislation, with interest because my family had gone through a […]
Daughters of Divorce
By Aimee Lynch As college-age women find their seats, I consider their faces. Outwardly, we look different. We come from different years in school, and have different majors and varying personalities. All strangers until we began sharing stories about our common bond: we are all daughters of divorce. As a child of divorce myself, and […]
A Lenten Challenge to Pastors to Cut the Divorce Rate
By Mike McManus After hearing a Lenten sermon on the need to repent from sins and make a new commitment to amend our lives, I asked my pastor to consider calling upon area churches this Lent to create a Community Marriage Covenant. Scripture is clear: “`I hate divorce,’ says the Lord God of Israel.” We have plenty […]
The First Monday In January
By David Schel No sooner had the sun set on the busiest month of the year for retailers, when the most active season for divorce lawyers had its kickoff the first Monday in January on what has sadly become known as Divorce Monday. It commences the biggest time of the year for divorce filings. Many […]
Giving Hope to a Relationship Third-World Country
By Sage Erickson Picture a third world country: desperate poverty, a daily struggle to survive, widespread suffering, minimal sanitation, and diminished economic opportunities. Now picture the United States. Although the United States has long been known as a first-world country politically and economically, has it become a third world country when it comes to romantic […]
Shoring Up Stepfamilies
By Mike McManus Perhaps half of all marriages involve one partner who was previously married. If children are involved, 70% of stepfamilies will divorce, putting everyone through another trauma. However, four of five of these marriages can be saved. Why do so many of these marriages fail? “Putting together or integrating a stepfamily is one […]
Move Over First Families: Stepfamilies Are the New Game in Town
By Beverly Willett A few days ago, Honey Maid, the maker of a wide variety of well-known graham cracker products including the honey-flavored Teddy Grahams I once served my own children, unleashed the second installment in its “This is Wholesome” campaign.[1] The campaign, which is accompanied by two videos, celebrates stepfamilies, and was scheduled to coincide […]
Note to Millennials — It’s Not All About You
By Chris Gersten “Isn’t testing a marriage, like we test a username, simply-well, logical” journalist Jessica Bennett asks in a recent article for Time entitled “The Beta Marriage: How Millennials Approach ‘I Do.’” For Bennett, the answer to this question seems obvious: If the institution of marriage is in trouble in our country, let’s take […]
Marry First
By Julie Baumgardner Remember the rhyme, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage”? Not so anymore. Over the past decade there has been a shift in the sequence of marriage and having babies. New research indicates 57 percent of mothers between the age of 26 and 31 are unmarried when […]
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