Ethics & Religion
Column #1,944
November 22, 2018
Thanksgiving - A Day To Reflect
By Mike McManus
This Thanksgiving I am grateful for the example of the Pilgrims, who
left comfortable homes in England to come to America. Some 102
passengers boarded the Mayflower to find religious freedom and more
fulfilling lives.
Before they landed, the pilgrims signed the "Mayflower Compact" in which
they said the trip was "undertaken for the Glory of God and Advancement
of the Christian faith."
Half of those who started the arduous journey died on the 66-day voyage.
On November 21, 1621 they arrived in Plymouth. In their first harsh
winter, dozens more died.
A Patuxet Indian named Squanto taught them to grow corn and where to
fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the
Wamponoag Indians. At the end of their first year, after their harvest,
the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wamponoag - and
to thank God for their deliverance.
William Bradford, who arrived on the Mayflower and served as governor of
Plymouth Colony for more than 30 years, wrote a first-hand account of
the Pilgrims' journey, called Of Plymouth Plantation.
Of their hardships endured in seeking freedom that first year, he wrote,
"But these things did not dismay them...for their desires were set on
the ways of God and to enjoy His ordinances, but they rested on
providence, and knew whom they had believed."
Perhaps they were comforted by these words by the Apostle Paul, written
to the Philippians while he was chained in a Roman prison: "I have
learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to
be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the
secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or
hungry, whether living in plenty or want. I can do everything through
Him who gives me strength."
Today in America we have so much to be thankful for. Millions have
immigrated to this land for opportunity - and found it. First, they have
landed jobs to support themselves and their families. Today's 3.7%
jobless rate is the lowest in 50 years.
Second, religious freedom is universal. In fact, the text of the First
Amendment to the Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof;" During President Eisenhower's term, the nation's
motto became "In God we trust."
The remarkable result is that 73% of Americans are believers and only
18% say they have no faith. Six in 10 say religion is an important part
of their life. About 49% are Protestant, 23% are Catholic while 2% are
Jewish and .8% are Muslim. What's particularly striking is that weekly
religious attendance is 31%, down only 1% in a decade.
However, marriage in America is in deep trouble. Half of U.S. marriages
have divorced since 1975. In 2016, for example, there were 1,159,000
divorces compared to only 2,245,000 marriages, for a 51.6% divorce rate.
While 93% of Americans say that "having a happy marriage" is a very
important goal, the number of never-married Americans nearly quintupled
from 8.7 million in 1970 to 41.3 million in 2015. There were actually
more marriages in 1970 than in 2015!
The primary killer of marriage may come as a surprise - cohabitation.
The number of couples who were living together was only 430,000 in 1960
- but that soared 18-fold to a stunning 8 million by 2016. Only 1.3
million of that number married. What happened to the other 6.7 million?
Most broke up or were on the path to do so. And those who do marry are
more likely to divorce than those who remained apart before the wedding.
Yet have you ever heard a sermon on cohabitation? I bet not.
Sadly, many cohabiting couples have children - and 40% of American
births are to unwed parents - 20 times Japan's unwed birth rate of 2%.
Children of divorce or of cohabitation fare poorly in America. They are
three times more likely to be expelled from school or to have a child as
a teenager as those from intact homes, are five times more apt to live
in poverty, six times more likely to commit suicide and 12 times more
apt to be jailed.
This Thanksgiving, let's thank God for marriage, and do more to cherish
and reenergize our own marriages, urge our children to refrain from
living together and encourage our churches to preach powerfully on the
importance of His first institution.
___________________________________
Copyright (c) 2018 Michael J. McManus, a syndicated columnist and past president of Marriage Savers. To read past columns, go to
www.ethicsandreligion.com. Hit
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