THE FAMILY-An Emergencyt Case!

"AND they lived happily ever after."  That fairy tale ending applies to fewer and fewer marriages nowadays.  The wedding promise to love each other 'for better or worse as long as both shall live' is all too often just rhetoric.   The possibility of having a happy family seems to be a gamble with the odds against it. 

Between 1960 and 1990, divorce rates more than doubled in most Western industrialized countries.  In some lands they increased fourfold.  For example, every  year about 35,000 marriages are contracted in Sweden, and about half of them will break  up, involving 45,000 children.  Couples cohabiting without marriage split up at an even greater rate, affecting further tens of thousands of children.  A similar trend  is emerging in countries all over the world. 

True, broken families and dissolution of marriages are not new in history.  The code of Hammurabi of the 18the century B.C.E., included  laws that allowed divorce in Babylonia.  Even the Mosaic Law, instituted in the 16 century B.C.E., permitted divorce in Israel.  (Deuteronomy 24:1) However, family bonds have never been weaker than in this 20th century.  More than a decade ago, a newspaper columnist  wrote:  "Fifty years from now, we may not even have any families in the traditional sense.  They may have been replaced by collectives of different types"  And the trend since then seems to confirm his idea.  The family institution had deteriorated so rapidly that the question,  "Will it survive?"  Is  becoming increasingly relevant.

Why is it so hard for so many couples to stick to each other and maintain a united family?  What is the secret of those who have stuck together during a long life, happily celebrating their silver and golden wedding anniversaries?  Incidentally, in1983 it was reported that  a man and a woman in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan celebrated their 100th wedding anniversary-at the age of 126 and 116 respectively.

Next time:  What Is the Threat?

Watchtower, 1998