Healthy marriages

Healthy marriages are at the heart of strong societies and provide the ideal environment for the nurturing of children.

The conservative support for traditional, marriage-based families is shared by the British public.

But everyone knows that some marriages fail and that a few marriages can become abusive (although most abuse is in disordered families – particularly when a woman’s partner is not the natural father of her child(ren)).

To say that cases of husbands beating their wives invalidates the overwhelming evidence for marriage is a ‘When-I-visited-Manchester-it-didn’t-rain argument’. The fact that a minority of marriages are unhealthy does not invalidate the fact that most marriages provide children with better life prospects and more stability than unmarried set-ups.

Nonetheless Dr Wade Horn – the man George W Bush put in charge of his administration’s family policy – has helpfully said that conservatives should talk about ‘healthy marriages’ to avoid any idea that they are defending the failures of some married relationships. Dr Horn has written:

“Our emphasis is on healthy marriages — not marriage for the sake of marriage, not marriage at any cost — but healthy marriages that provide a strong and stable environment for raising children. It is about helping couples who choose marriage for themselves gain access to the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain healthy marriages.”

Visit the Bush administration’s healthy marriage initiative website.

Comments

[Nick Gulliford]

Am I the first person to make a comment about the Healthy Marriage Initiative? If so, that seems strange if it has really been in the Dictionary since August 2005. The lack of comments does not suggest a burning interest in the subject. But for those that do follow the link they may eventually get to http://www.healthymarriageinfo.org/marriageedu/?d=D725B5B6-1549-4CCE-A861-520A6B27B387. FOCCUS is available in the UK at www.foccus.org.uk