Sex By The Numbers

Here is the sex update from the June 2008 USA Today survey...

-5 million opposite-sex umarried couples live together, up from half-a-million in 1970. Our view:This trend has been building for years. Our divorce culture has spawned a generation of young skepketical adults who are leery of a life-long commitment. This "psudo-marriage" gives them the near benefits of marriage without the commitment. Howedver, nearly 70 percent of co-habitors divorce if they marry.

-10% of American couples are cohabitating while that number is 30% in Western Europe and Canada. There are enough of these couples now to call their relationships "mainstream." Our view: See above. Faith plays a large part in marital formation for many couples. There will be some restraint of cohabitation in America due to our ongoing religious beliefs. Yet, many younger Christians see no problem with it.

-20% fewer marriages were reported in the U.S. in 2005 than in 1995. Our view:This is a disburbing trend. What it means is that more children will be born out of wedlock than to intact two-parent homes. This trends needs to be reversed.

-63% of Americans say that homosexual marriage should be permissible and that the government should not ban it. At the same time, more than 50% of churchgoers believe that gay marriage should be prohibited. Our view:We would take issue with this number since most marriage-definition amendments pass at the state level. However, there is a growing cultural sentiment that homosexuals should have a equal partnership incumbent of the same rights and rewards of marriage.

-55,000 homosexual couples from other states will legally wed in California. Our view: It is likely that the voters of California will repeal this misguided court decision in November. In 2000 more than 60 percent of the California electorate voted for a law defining marriage between one man and one woman. We believe a majority sentiment towwards this position still exists.