This week is National Marriage Week USA. It's a week-long celebration of marriage that has be observed worldwide in other countries for about 20 years, but only recently in the USA.
Marriage offers important benefits for men, women, and children, but it's dying in our culture. In 2008, only 57 percent of adults were married, compared to the 78 percent of married Americans in 1970. As cohabitation rates rise, legal assaults and efforts to redefine marriage continue nationwide.
Marriage Week USA is an effort to strengthen the institution of marriage, honor it, and encourage Oklahoma's married couples recommit to their own marital relationships. In Oklahoma, we're fortunate to have groups like the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative, Marriage Network Oklahoma, the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, Eye to Eye Marriage Enrichment Community, and OFPC working full-time to help strengthen marriages in Oklahoma.
This afternoon, OFPC Executive Director Mike Jestes will participate with a number of other Oklahoma marriage movement partners in a state Capitol news conference to highlight Marriage Week USA and to focus some state attention on several pro-marriage pieces of legislation, including HB 2279, by Rep. Sally Kern; HB 2634, by Rep. Mark McCullough; and HB 2543, by Rep. John Wright. Look for the story on tonight's evening news reports.
