Sacred Rite

The NYTimes editorial page this Sunday has an interesting info-graphic with a true/false pop quiz on beliefs circling around marriage in this country. Here are a couple of tidbits, typed out by yours truly (as it is a graphic, and non-copyable):

5. The growth in the number of couples living together and even having children without formal marriage ceremonies or licenses reflects a sharp break with centuries-old tradition.

FALSE. For the first thousand years of its existence, the church held that a marriage was valid if a couple claimed they had exchanged words of consent -- even if there were no witnesses and no priest to officiate. Not until 1754 did England require issuance of a license for a marriage to be valid. Informal marriage and cohabitation were so common in early 19th-century America that one judge estimated that one-third of all children were born to couples who were not legally married.

9. Throughout history, philosophers adn theologians have always believed that strong marital commitments form the foundation of a virtuous society:

FALSE. Ancient Roman philosophers and medieval theologians thought that loving your spouse too much was a form of "adultery," a betrayal of one's obligations to country or God. The ancient Greeks held that the purest form of love was between two men. In China, Confucian philosophers ranked the relationship between husband and wife as second from the bottom on their list of the most important family ties, with the father-eldest son relationship topping the list. Early Christians thought marriage was inescapably tainted by the presence of sex. According to the medieval church, virgins ranked highest in godliness, widows were second and wives a distant third.

12. The preferred form of marriage through the ages has been between one man and one woman.

FALSE. The form of marriage that has been approved by more societies than any other through the ages has been polygamy -- one man and many women. That family form is the one mentioned most often in the first five books of the Bible. In some societies, one woman could marry several men. In others, two families could forge an alliance by marrying off a son or daughter to the "ghost" of the other family's dead child. For most of history, the main impetus for marriage was getting in-laws and managing property, not love or sex.

13. Born-again Christians are just as likely to divorce as more secular Americans.

TRUE. Thirty-five percent of born-again Christians in this country have divorced, almost the same as the 37 percent of atheists and agnostics who have divorced -- and 23 percent of born-again Christians have divorced twice. Among Pentecostals, the divorce rate is more than 40 percent. The regoin with the highest divorce rate is the Bible Belt.