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Video Clip: An introduction by Don Browning.
The KBYU documentary, Why Marriage Matters, shows us that marriage is a necessary and powerful union, sanctioned by God, which plays an important role in the development and progress of our society. If our marriages fail, or we choose not to marry, it will have immediate and negative consequences on our society.
This web page is intended to serve as a resource for helping couples find ways to strengthen their marriages and relationships. It is also intended to help them understand why marriage is so important for building strong families and communities, as well as for the couples’ individual happiness.
Joshua and Amy were a lot like other couples on their wedding day. They were nervous and excited for what the future would bring them; they wondered what it would be like to have a small apartment of their own and what new things they would discover about one another after the marriage. But most of all, they were both just madly in love with each other. They exchanged vows and committed their lives to each other on warm, magical, mid-summer’s day
Despite the apparent bliss of the day, getting married means that Josh and Amy run a high risk of getting divorced sometime down the road. The chances of their marriage surviving, in fact, might only be as good as 50/50. Like most newly weds, Josh and Amy don’t want their marriage to fall apart and fail. Yet despite their intentions, marriage in America as a whole is in serious jeopardy, and unless they do something about it, their marriage runs the same risk as others in our country. Does it matter that Josh and Amy tied the knot? Does it matter whether they stay together? How can they increase their chances of having a long and happy marriage?
Since WWII, social and cultural trends show that marriage is in decline; marriage is no longer viewed as a necessary legal or social relationship in which committed couples need participate in order to express their love for one another, or have children. A decrease in the number of couples, who marry, along with a consistently high divorce rate, has put marriage at a crossroads at the beginning of this new century. Do we return to a traditional concept of marriage, including both a mother and a father with their children? Or do we abandon the old custom altogether, in favor of alternative forms of relationships?
Brigham Young University is one of the forerunners in the movement to revitalize marriage in the next century. The research and scholarship of The Family Studies Center and The Marriage and Family Therapy Program regarding marriage issues are nationally recognized. Under the direction of Dr. Alan Hawkins, the Family Studies Center focused on ways to strengthen not only marriages, but also families. The Center is currently involved in several research projects including: RELATE, a premarital relationship evaluation that helps couples identify specific strengths and weaknesses in their relationship; and Fatherworks, a program intended for the study and development of generative fathering and parenthood and which emphasizes the importance of fathers in raising children. The Marriage and Family Therapy program, headed by Dr. Jeffry Larson, is one of the largest in the nation with over 30 students and was one of the innovators of “couples therapy” as opposed to individual therapy. In other words, the focus of the therapy is the relationship, and its needs, not the separate needs of each partner.
BYU also hosted the international conference, “Revitalizing the Institution of Marriage in the 21st Century”, at which the leading social science and legal scholars in the field came together to talk about what is known in the field and decide what information they still need to get, in order to help our marriages become stronger and more stable. Such a conference suggests there is a grass roots movement to restore the social and economic significance of marriage in our culture. However, much work remains to be done, and that work must begin with individuals and couples, and their attitudes towards marriage. [Use this website to get going!]