vexen_crabtree : Marriage Rates in the UK

The history of marriage rates suggests that secular marriages are showing strong growth, whereas other Christian weddings have been decreasing in number for over 150 years. This prehistory was changed in the period since the 1960s, when the decline of the religious institution in the UK went into full swing.

Total Marriages, UK
1971-1975:	1,996,422
1976-1980:	1,822,654
1981-1985:	1,734,048
1986-1990:	1,726,024
1991-1995:	1,491,598
1996-2000:	1,350,290

The rise in secular marriages from the teens in the 19th century, to 20-something percent in 1900-1930, was not met by a rise in divorces, as many Christians at the time bemoaned would happen. However, as we will see below, social changes have led to massive increases in divorce rates (above all, amongst Christians) since the late 1960s (ignoring the World War 2 aftermath). The overall marriage rate has decreased over the same period; indicating again that society has moved away from the traditional idea of what marriage is. "Marriage: Modern Diversity" by Vexen Crabtree

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musekill
2007-01-04 21:28 (link)

I just realized you had me as a friend on here. Funny thing, I'm actually a fan of your websites. What a coincidence, haha. You seem to have put a massive effort into writing about your views on the world and the wealth of knowledge you have; I have to commend you on that. I wish I still had the passion to do that.

I'm actually planning to make my journal on here an archive and try to stay away from gj as much as possible (due to trying to distance myself from friends I'm best leaving behind... their drug use is a part of it, so I guess you could understand). However, I just might try to keep up to date on your journal here.

As for this post and your essay, I generally agree with you, although most of it is stuff one couldn't really disagree with anyways.

I like the excerpt from Sociology by Anthony Giddens under Western Marriage. Although I'm more inclined toward romantic marriage because of the "freedom-loving" culture I was raised in, I find it rather interesting that older marriage practices seem to have been a lot more effective than today. People learned to get along rather than the fast-paced choatic world of love and hate we have today.

I didn't even know about Gypsy marriages. It's interesting.

I love the statistics about who's getting more divorces. I'm always hearing about how divorce rates are going up. The fact that atheists get divorced less often is a rather interesting, and actually comical, twist to the situation. And the scriptures! Haha, thats great.

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	vexen_crabtree 2007-01-04 23:34 (link)
	That's cool, thanks! GJ isn't my main journal, but I'll use it to post little updates like this one. Takes away some of the load from my main journal so I don't spam people too much. The stats 'speak for themselves' so you're right, there's little to actually argue. I just make sure the points you can make with some of the facts, are in fact made unambiguously! (Reply to this) (Parent)