CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Church support for marriage among poor and middle class Americans can play a key role in combating income inequality and providing a good environment for children, a sociologist told the U.S. bishops.<\/p>\n\t\u201cIf you care about bridging the marriage divide, you should care about economic justice, cultural change, and the renewal of civil society,\u201d Professor W. Bradford Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociology professor, told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops\u2019 general assembly in New Orleans on June 12.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf you care about poverty, if you care about income inequality; if you care about opportunity in America, you should care about marriage,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\tWilcox, who directs the University of Virginia\u2019s National Marriage Project, cited numerous studies about the state of the family and the benefits a stable marriage provides.<\/p>\n
\tHe explained that a stable family where both parents are married provides the \u201chuman capital\u201d to help spouses and their children succeed. Married parents\u2019 children are more likely to succeed in education and in life. Children of married parents are more likely to avoid poverty, abuse, neglect, incarceration, and teen pregnancy.<\/p>\n
\tHowever, Wilcox said that cultural, economic and societal shifts have \u201ccoalesced to undercut marriage.\u201d Marriage rates and behaviors increasingly reflect and worsen a class divide.<\/p>\n
\tResearch suggests that the shift in family structure away from marriage accounts for 41 percent of the increase in economic inequality since 1975, the sociology professor said. Poor children from married two-parent families have greater economic opportunities than those raised without both parents or whose parents cohabitate.<\/p>\n
\tRates of divorce and non-marital childbearing have declined among the affluent and the college educated, where a marriage-minded culture is re-emerging.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIn the nation\u2019s poorest communities, by contrast, marriage is in full retreat and has been declining since the 1970s,\u201d Wilcox told the bishops\u2019 conference.<\/p>\n
\tWhile the behaviors of the working class and lower middle class in the early 1980s resembled the marriage-minded behaviors of the upper class, these classes now suffer an erosion in family stability. Their behavior patterns now more closely resemble those among the poor, he said.<\/p>\n
\tAbout 20 percent of children are now born to cohabitating relationships, which are more unstable than marriages and suffer from less commitment and trust, according to studies. Children whose parents have remarried after divorce also suffer many of the problems of children raised in single-parent families.<\/p>\n
\tMost Americans still \u201caspire for marriage,\u201d and want \u201ca happy and stable married life,\u201d Wilcox noted. However, they have grown \u201cmore accommodating of departures from the ideal.\u201d While the affluent and highly educated have acquired stricter attitudes against divorce and premarital sex, less educated Americans have become more permissive.<\/p>\n
\tWilcox agreed with both liberal and conservative assessments of the decline in marriage.<\/p>\n
\tConservatives focus on cultural and policy changes that have \u201cdeliberately or unintentionally\u201d undercut social norms related to marriage.<\/p>\n
\tLiberals focus on economic shifts away from an industrial economy, which harm the prospects of working class or poor men. A fall in male wages and increasing male unemployment means men are less likely to get married or stay married.<\/p>\n
\tWilcox suggested that both liberal and conservative analysts have ignored the how the decline of civil society institutions has affected marriage.<\/p>\n
\tMiddle Americans, especially men, are \u201cincreasingly disengaged\u201d from work and civil society institutions, including churches, which have traditionally supplied \u201cmoney, moral direction and social support\u201d for marriage.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a dramatic decline in Church attendance among middle Americans and among the least educated Americans,\u201d Wilcox said. \u201cThat has obvious implications for their capacity to hear messages related to family and to experience the spiritual and social support that churches have traditionally afforded marriage and family life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWilcox suggested to the bishops that churches should be \u201ca voice for economic justice\u201d and should help direct economic resources towards families. They should seek to eliminate public policies that discourage or penalize marriage.<\/p>\n
\tReligious and lay leaders should speak about the benefits of intact marriage for children while also supporting couples in \u201ccrisis.\u201d Churches with employment ministries can help families harmed by job loss, while marriage preparation ministry can improve the quality of marriages.<\/p>\n
\tChurch ministries should target men, particularly working class and poor men, who are \u201cthe most distanced\u201d from religious communities in America.<\/p>\n
\tWilcox said that religious faith \u201ccan be an asset\u201d for marriage in America, especially for couples who share the same faith and worship and pray together. Those with a common faith who \u201chave a sense that God is present in their marriage\u201d are more likely to report a high quality marriage, he noted.<\/p>\n
\tSuch efforts will help halt the emergence of an America that is \u201cincreasingly separate and unequal\u201d when it comes to marriage, he said.<\/p>\n
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New Orleans, La., Jun 18, 2014 \/ 04:00 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Church support for marriage among poor and middle class Americans can play a key role in combating income inequality and providing a good environment for children, a sociologist told the U.S. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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