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The Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that expands the state marriage statute to allow citizens to perform marriages. Current state laws show that a religious leader, judge or mayor has the ability to marry people. Representative Larry Farnese sponsored Senate Bill 833 that would allow citizens to perform marriage ceremonies after taking 120 hours of education on planning and performing civil ceremonies. This move is aimed at creating more flexibility for couples amid the COVID-19 pandemic who are having less traditional weddings. “Pennsylvania’s marriage statute is extremely limited in who may perform these ceremonies, and there are even fewer...

The rugby club has issued a statement after an incident took place outside its clubhouseA rugby club has condemned the behaviour of wedding guests involved in an alleged fight outside its clubhouse, which apparently saw a bride and other guests brawling on the pitch. Footage of the incident outside Penlan RFC in Swansea has been widely shared on social media. In the clip 90 second clip, a group of people appear to be coming to blows on the rugby pitch at night while those in the melee swear loudly. Onlookers shout "phone the police" a number of times and...

Michelle Obama explained that at times she wanted to “push Barack out of the window” during the most recent episode of The Michelle Obama Podcast. The former first lady, who will celebrate her 28th wedding anniversary with husband Barack Obama next month, spoke candidly about the up and downs of her marriage with guest Conan O’Brien. “There were times that I wanted to push Barack out of the window. And I say that because it’s like, you’ve got to know the feelings will be intense. But that doesn’t mean you quit,” she said. “And these periods can last a long...

A just-released report from the Pew Research Center sends a dagger straight through the heart of a popular mythology—the one that insists that what single people want, more than anything else, is to become coupled. So untrue. The findings, based on a national, random sampling of nearly 5,000 adults in the U.S., showed that 50 percent of single people are not interested in a committed romantic relationship and they are not even interested in a date. Another 10 percent want nothing more than casual dates. About a quarter of single people, 26 percent, would be interested in casual dates or...

In constructing his evangelical family ethic, [Martin] Luther placed emphasis on Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply.” This living-together of husband and wife—that they occupy the same home, that they take care of the household, that together they produce and bring up children—is a kind of faint image and a remnant, as it were, of that blessed living together [in Eden]. Luther knew that the contraceptive mentality was alive and well in his own time. He noted that this “inhuman attitude, which is worse than barbarous,” was found chiefly among the well born, “the nobility and princes.” Elsewhere, he linked...

The future of our nation is at risk if we don't take action to reverse the damage that has been done to marriage, family, and parenting in 21st-century America. Perhaps the most important document to come out of the U.S. Senate this year was released last month, and while a report on President Donald Trump’s tax returns, another COVID-19 relief package, or infrastructure legislation likely would have gotten major media attention, this important document flew under the radar. The report, titled “The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home” and produced by the Social Capital Project of the Joint Economic Committee...

The Norwegian novelist, Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), baptized a Lutheran but raised by agnostic parents, and who emerged from a difficult seven-year marriage at age thirty-seven, converted to Catholicism in 1924. In 1928, she received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Shortly after, a priest in Oslo asked her why, even before her conversion, she had referred to marriage as a “sacrament” in her novels of medieval Norway, although for a Protestant marriage is only a contract. She replied that this would require a rather lengthy explanation, and she offered the explanation in an essay published in an Oslo Catholic magazine, Credo,...

Early Christians in the first through third century understood marriage to be a union between one man and one woman created by God as a consummated partnership described in Genesis 2. Early Christian leaders, such as the Apostle Paul, explained that marriage was more than just a union between two people. It was an act of worship that pointed to Christ’s sacrificial relationship with the church (Ephesians 5). Therefore, marriage was not about a contract or a financial engagement as had been the custom for centuries prior, but a sacred union that should reflect God’s love. Christ turned the accepted...

"The greatest and most challenging test for any man is to romance and pursue the same woman for a lifetime." In my opinion, the best movie about Vietnam is We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson. He plays lieutenant colonel Hal Moore who commanded the first major battle of that war known as the Battle of Ia Drang. Surrounded and facing overwhelming odds, Moore and his soldiers withstood the onslaught for a week. One of the things Moore credits as a reason for the success was the love and devotion the soldiers had for one another. However, equally as important, was...

Every argument supporting gay marriage—‘Love is love,’ ‘we deserve equal protection under the law,’ and ‘we’re not harming anybody’—also supports group marriage. The Massachusetts town of Somerville has become the first in the nation to legalize polyamorous relationships. It’s evidence of the slippery slope social conservatives warned would follow legalizing gay marriage.Polygamy was the obvious evolution of redefining marriage. After all, every argument supporting gay marriage—“Love is love,” “we deserve equal protection under the law,” and “we’re not harming anybody”—also supports group marriage.Somerville’s legal recognition of polyamory came about on June 25 while the city council was changing its domestic...

If it is true that one out of every five men sitting in America’s pews is saturating his mind with the evil images of pornography, how does this effect the overall level of godliness in the Church? It seems that the general urgency to live a consecrated life is at an all-time low. Self-centered living seems to have replaced true sacrificial love. A hunger for God has been exchanged for a lust for entertainment. While the Church is weathering a fierce spiritual onslaught from without, the godly character needed for this battle rots within. I believe in the Church Triumphant....

JUAN WILLIAMS AND SUSAN DELISE WILLIAMS – 42 YEARS Juan Williams is a popular name and face thanks to his work on Fox News. Williams happens to be one of the co-hosts on The Five. He has been married to Delise Williams for over forty years! The pair walked down the aisle in 1978. Delise is rather low-key, but she has made an appearance and a statement now and then. She even appeared in a show of Fox and Friends to do a demonstration of preparing crab legs!

A woman, cranky because her husband was late coming home again, decided to leave a note, saying, "I've had it and have left you...don't bother coming after me" Then she hid under the bed to see his reaction. After a short while the husband comes home and she could hear him in the kitchen before he comes into the bedroom. She could see him walk towards the dresser and pick up the note... After a few minutes he wrote something on it before picking up the phone and calling someone... "She's finally gone...yeah I know, about bloody time, I'm coming...

Married parents were about 20 percent less likely to be depressed than unmarried parents, and they spent more time home-educating their kids, during coronavirus lockdowns. Worry and stress rose to a historic high during the Covid-19 panic, at least since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, according to recent survey evidence from Gallup. Parents of young children had an added responsibility of teaching their children while schools and daycare were closed.Compared with parents who handled these alone, married parents spent more time teaching their children at home, according to an early June survey from the Census Bureau that tracks Covid-19’s effects...

Posts Posted on June 9, 2020 What is an Annulment and How Does it Differ From Divorce? There are some today who speak of annulment as “just another name for a Catholic divorce.” However, this is not correct. An annulment (more technically described as a “Declaration of Nullity”) is a recognition by the Church, based on evidence, that what may in fact have seemed to be a marriage, was not due to some intrinsic flaw at the time the vows we exchanged. A marriage may have been a civil marriage entered into in good faith by one or both...

17% of married couples today are interracial. This wasn't the case just 50 years ago, though. Richard and Mildred Loving helped make it possible with their sacrifice and willingness to fight. Courtesy of Tullio Saba via Flickr Interracial Marriage How many new marriages are interracial today?The number of interracial marriages has increased 5 times since 1967. Today, approximately 17% of married couples are interracial. How many couples that are still married today are interracial?1 out of 10 every married people, or 11 million people, are married to someone of a different race than themselves. What percentage of African Americans marry...

Gay and lesbian weddings have boosted state and local economies by an estimated $3.8 billion since same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide in the United States in 2015, according to a study published on Thursday. Nearly 300,000 gay and lesbian couples have tied the knot since the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, according to researchers from the Williams Institute at California’s UCLA School of Law. “Marriage equality has changed the lives of same-sex couples and their families,” said the study’s lead author Christy Mallory, state and local policy director at the Williams Institute. “It has also provided...

Believe it or not, thereÂ’s something better than a grande Starbucks Frappuccino, an iPhone, or an afternoon reading a good book. As COVID-19 cases continue declining in many states, new threats are emerging: Alongside growing unemployment rates and an increase in depression, births are declining. According to provisional figures from the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionÂ’s National Center for Health Statistics, births in America are down to their lowest number in 35 years.Nearly 4 million babies were born in the U.S. last year, but that was still a 1 percent birth decrease and 2 percent fertility decrease from 2017....

The marriage rate in the United States has dropped to its lowest point since someone began keeping records, and anyone who is not a man-hating feminist knows that is a bad sign for the future. A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows marriages fell 6 percent from 2018 to reflect an average 6.5 unions per 1,000 people, the lowest number since the federal government began keeping records in 1867.

Americans are no longer putting a ring on it. The US marriage rate fell to its lowest level on record in 2018, federal stats released Wednesday show. New figures from the National Center for Health Statistics reveal the nationwide marriage rate fell 6 percent from 2017 to 2018, with 6.5 new unions formed for every 1,000 people. The figure marks the lowest rate since the US government started tracking such data in 1867, Sally Curtin, the report’s lead author and a statistician at the federal agency, told the Wall Street Journal. “Millennials are in peak marriage years, their 20s and...