Feb. 7, 2011 Press Release: "New Survey! Recession brings greater commitment to stay married" Press contacts my contact Sheila Weber at sheila@letsstrengthenmarriage.org for more information.
* Click here for the press release [PDF]NEW Report, February 7, 2011, from the National Marriage Project, U.Va. "The Great Recession and Marriage."
* Click here for the report [PDF]
PRESS RELEASE February 1, 2011 Download Latest News from National Marriage Week USA (Feb.7-14)
Marriage Benefits Personal and National Economic Stability [PDF]
The Governor of Wisconsin on January 31, 2011 issued a Proclamation for National Marriage Week USA. Read here: http://www.wifamilyaction.org/files/trya.campaigntoolbox.org/downloads/NMW_proclamation_2011.pdf
Pre-recorded PSA for use on radio or internet (version 2)
Pre-recorded PSA for use on radio or internet (version 1)
PSA scripts for you to record for radio or internet http://www.nationalmarriageweekusa.com/download/files/16.doc
"Church Stresses Commitment over Consumerism on Valentine's Day." Read Feb. 14, 2010 article at
Excerpt of Chuck Stetson on FOX News "Strategy Room" Feb. 12, 2010 (excerpts 5 minutes)
"Pro Marriage Campaign Grows," The Washington Times, January 19, 2010 by Cheryl Weinstein. Click here to read the article.
National Marriage Week USA highlighted in The Wall Street Journal Feb. 11, 2010 op-ed by David Lapp entitled "Did I Get Married Too Young? Marriages of people in their early to mid-20s are not nearly as risky as you think." Click here for the article.
Brad Wilcox on Truth For Our Time.
Feb 11, 2010
Click here to read the text from the interview.
President of the Republic of Ireland Launches National Marriage Week (click here)
"National Marriage Week USA Launches to Turn the Tide" Feb. 7, 2010
Click here for the article.
"Why You Should Care About Marriage in America" by Sheila Weber, executive director of National Marriage Week USA. Posted Feb. 6, 2010 at FOX NEWS Forum:
Click here for a copy of the article.
Georgia Governor Proclaims Marriage Week--Feb. 7 to 14
Utah Governor Proclaims Marriage Week--Feb. 7 to 14
For immediate release
Contact: Sheila Weber at
Sheila@letsstrengthenmarriage.org
Download the Press Release
http://www.nationalmarriageweekusa.com/download/files/4.docAnnouncing a New Initiative for National Marriage Week USA—February 7 to 14, 2010 To encourage marriage, reduce divorce rates, curtail poverty, and benefit children
NEW YORK, NY. National Marriage Week USA (www.nationalmarriageweekUSA.org) announces a new initiative for the week leading up to Valentine’s Day 2010, and is putting forth a call to mobilize hundreds of diverse organizations to plan and prepare for awareness and activities for February 7 to 14, 2010. The goal is to elevate national attention on the need to strengthen marriage and ways to do it, and initiate new efforts to reduce the divorce rate and build a stronger marriage culture which in turn helps curtail poverty and benefits children.
National Marriage Week has long been an organized celebration in the UK, Germany, Ireland, Australia, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere internationally (www.marriage-weekinternational.com) with large rallies, resolutions and celebrations in Parliaments, concerted efforts for marriage education, and more. Marriage Week was brought to the U.S. by Smart Marriages in 2002. For 2010 a new initiative is being launched by National Marriage Week USA (NMWUSA) in an effort to focus solely on February 7 to 14 with an interactive website and coordination of national efforts at www.NationalMarriageWeekUSA.org
Chuck Stetson, chairman of National Marriage Week USA says “The alarming drop in marriage rates in America combined with high divorce rates are costly to the nation—financially costly to taxpayers and individuals, and emotionally costly to children. The nation needs to pay attention.”
“Marriage works,” says NMWUSA executive director Sheila Weber. “Research shows that marriage makes people happier, live longer, and build more economic security. Children with married parents perform better in school. There are proven ways to repair and restore marriages—but most folks don’t know where to go to get the help they need.”
Alarming new facts are in. A new Marriage Index, released jointly by the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting (NCAAMP) and the Institute for American Values in October 2009, reveals a huge decline in national marriage indicators. One indicator shows 78 percent of adults were married in 1970, while only 57 percent of adults were married in 2008. Another indicator shows 40 percent of all children in America are now born out of wedlock in 2008; and 72 percent of African American children are now born without married parents.
“I am excited about the efforts of National Marriage Week USA to pull together business, government, and religious organizations to draw attention to solutions to the current problems created by divorce,” said marriage expert Gary Chapman, best-selling author of “Five Love Languages.” “If we can help couples learn how to create loving, supportive marriages, it will not only bring marital satisfaction, but will enrich the lives of children, and create a more productive society. Every couple can contribute to the solution. It begins by reading books, attending classes, and having productive communication with your own spouse. National Marriage Week USA offers multiple resources to help you,” said Chapman.
The “Let’s Strengthen Marriage” Campaign in early 2010 held a global webinar for pastors and leaders (www.marriagewebinar.org) which is archived for continued viewing. Participants are growing daily. Posting of Events all around the country is now growing at http://www.nationalmarriageweekusa.org/events/ and you can “Read What Others Are Doing” at http://www.nationalmarriageweekusa.org/testimony/.
Ways to get involved with National Marriage Week USA include:
- Churches are encouraged to launch new marriage classes, sermon series, or host a major weekend marriage conference,
- Clergy can form Community Marriage Policies with all the clergy in their town (cities with CMPs have lowered divorce rates),
- Mayoral or Statewide Proclamations are available for National Marriage Week USA,
- Businesses can create and distribute pocket-sized pamphlets on topics such as “What is a Healthy Marriage?”
- Screenings of special marriage education DVDs or marriage related movies,
- Use of the National Marriage Week USA logo for local ads and activities,
- Schools can sponsor assemblies on healthy relationship skills.
- Most importantly, folks are encouraged to work on their own marriage—with lots of ideas and resources for where to go for help at www.nationalmarriageweekUSA.org.
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January 19, 2010
WETZSTEIN: Pro-marriage campaign grows
In my years of writing about family issues, I've often encountered a dissing of marriage.
Marriage is viewed by critics as a man-made arrangement that is good for men and bad for women. Some say its demands for monogamy are biologically unnatural; others say its promises of "happily ever after" are a myth. In many circles, marriage is something wise people avoid.
For those Americans who don't feel that way about marriage, the cavalry finally may be on its way.
In November, a national campaign called Let's Strengthen Marriage was formed with the goal of getting marriage onto the "national agenda."
The campaign recently held a webinar aimed at encouraging tens of thousands of houses of worship to celebrate National Marriage Week, Feb. 7 through 14.
Religious leaders also were challenged to immediately set up dating and courtship seminars for youth, marriage preparation education for teens and singles and marriage enrichment courses for married couples.
A concerted marriage revival in America's foundational Christian community could lead to a "great awakening" for America, said Jim Garlow, senior pastor at Skyline Church in San Diego, on the Jan. 13 Let's Strengthen Marriage webinar.
"The question constantly arises, can America be saved. The answer is yes, only when we save our marriages first," said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, who promised to encourage the 25,000 congregations in the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference to mobilize around marriage.
W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, said that the "fortunes of the church basically rise and fall with the fortunes of married families in this country." That's because married couples with children are 62 percent more likely to attend church than childless singles, he explained. Strong families also socialize children into religious traditions and "orient adults to the moral, social and spiritual goods found in these traditions."
With so many adult children of divorce coming of age, a renewed focus on marriage in the faith community is imperative, said Elizabeth Marquardt, director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values .
In research for her book "Between Two Worlds," Mrs. Marquardt found that many children of divorce lost confidence in God and their faith. In a real sense, she said, divorce doesn't just break up a family, it "drives children away from the church."
"We cannot stand by and watch marriage collapse," said Chuck Stetson , an investment banker and chairman of the Let's Strengthen Marriage campaign. The decline of marriage in America and the rise of unwed childbearing should galvanize people of faith to step up, he said. "Defeatism is not an option."
Others who have aligned themselves with the campaign are Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, and Christopher West of the Theology of the Body Institute. The rise in the U.S. prison population is "insane," Mr. Colson said; "we have got to get marriage right." The Theology of the Body Institute is spreading Pope John Paul II's messages about the powerful, redemptive quality of marital love between a man and a woman. Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in the District, closed the webinar by urging congregations not to allow marriage to be "redefined."
As someone who has been writing about America's "marriage renaissance" since the mid-1990s, when Smart Marriages founder Diane Sollee claimed that term, I am intrigued by what might happen if America's faith communities really realized their capacity to assist men and women in their quest for strong, stable, happy marriages and families.
The Let's Strengthen Marriage campaign summed up the merits of marriage in nine words: "Financial stability. Better health. Less troubled kids. Greater happiness."
I would add a 10th word, "Amen."
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached atcwetzsteinwashingtontimes.com.
Healthy Marriages, Healthy Society
National Marriage Week
By Chuck Colson
January 14, 2010Christians have many biblical and theological reasons for promoting healthy marriages. But there’s another reason why keeping marriages strong is so important.
Folow this link to read Chuck Colson's story:
http://www.breakpoint.org/commentaries/14068-healthy-marriages-healthy-society
"Love in an Economic Downturn" National Review (online), January 5, 2010.
W. Bradford Wilcox, Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, highlights the return to thrift and the decline of divorce as two "silver lining" effects of the Great Recession featured in State of Our Unions 2009: Money and Marriage http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2009/ca20091228_156782.htm
New! The First Ever MARRIAGE INDEX: Monitoring the Nation's Leading Marriage Indicators
Download Press Release http://www.americanvalues.org/IAV_Marriage_Index_PR.pdf
Download Marriage Index Report http://www.americanvalues.org/pdfs/IAV_Marriage_Index_09_25_09.pdf
Several media outlets have committed to coverage about the decline of marriage and proposed solutions. Look for forthcoming news in the fall of 2009 and throughout 2010.
