Christian Values Lead to Happier Marriages

Who knew that leading a life of morality and controlling your passions would result in greater happiness? Certainly not modern leftists.

Saving Sex for Marriage Leads to Happier Marriages, Study Finds
https://washingtonstand.com/news/saving-sex-for-marriage-leads-to-happier-marriages-study-finds

A new study conducted by Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute has found that individuals who saved sex for marriage have significantly higher levels of marital satisfaction than those who had multiple sexual partners before marriage, confirming what numerous previous studies also found.

“Our study confirms what other national studies have been finding the last few years, that sexually inexperienced dating couples are two to three times more likely to be in a highly stable marriage,” said Brian J. Willoughby, a Wheatley Institute fellow and co-author of the report.

Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, argued that social science data like the Wheatley study substantiate the wisdom of foundational Christian teachings that prohibit sex before marriage.

“God didn’t give us commandments in order to limit our freedom; in fact, it’s quite the opposite,” she told The Washington Stand. “Following His commandments allows each of us to experience true freedom and the highest degree of flourishing possible. This is shown time after time, and most recently in the new report from the Wheatley Institute demonstrating that individuals who live their lives according to God’s plan for human sexuality — that it be between one man and one woman in the context of marriage — have more fulfilling and longer lasting marriages. Incidentally, saving sex for marriage doesn’t just lead to a better marriage, but also leads to fewer women having abortions and fewer adults living in poverty. In short, following God’s law is good for mankind.”





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Mormon propaganda. Cool.

 

Character assassination is not a winning debate tactic, but you do you.

 

Liberals are going to hate this rebuke of permissiveness......

 

If they want to be taken seriously, then they need to present their own studies debunking this one. Merely attacking the source with ridicule isn't going to win the debate for them. It's their go to tactic to get their opposition to just shut up and go away.

 

We notice you make no effort to refute it. Just one more thing you don't want to hear.

 

Assuming this is valid, I don't think the explanation is quite right. It's true when people say that happiness is wanting what you have. Somebody who is religious enough to wait for marriage, is somebody who has internalized a religious message to a high degree (or a couple who lacks strong sexual desires at baseline). Being with one person is what they're supposed to do, and ideas of doing something else isn't on the table. This lack of longing for better, leads to "turning towards" their relationship rather than looking for the next better thing. Turning towards your partner is one of the critical keys of relationship success.

So it's not so much saving sex for marriage that made it better, but rather the underlying attitude about relationships and marriage that led to a contentment with monogamy. In reality, from what I've seen, having sex before marriage has no impact on future happiness in itself. In the study, it is serving as a proxy for something else, an attitude towards relationships. Hell, even arranged marriages do as well as love marriages. As long as basic elements of compatibility are there, one could have a happy marriage with a good proportion of the eligible population given the right circumstances and attitudes.

So I would say it's not so much that religion is the only way to get this benefit, so much as that the cultural myth of the fairytale marriage are damaging. Continually searching for something better leads to pain. Inextinguishable thirst is constantly renewed torture, as some sociologist would say.

 

This study seems to agree:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0192513X231155673


I predict that this is going to change since the newest generations have sex much later in life but engage in online porn etc at a much younger age. The internet is changing human sex behaviour a lot.

 

Maybe just a little, but they still have marriage issues just like everyone else. They may stay married longer though.

...
The study showed that the percentage of adults who have been married and divorced varies from segment to segment. For instance, the groups with the most prolific experience of marriage ending in divorce are downscale adults (39%), Baby Boomers (38%), those aligned with a non-Christian faith (38%), African-Americans (36%), and people who consider themselves to be liberal on social and political matters (37%).

Among the population segments with the lowest likelihood of having been divorced subsequent to marriage are Catholics (28%), evangelicals (26%), upscale adults (22%), Asians (20%) and those who deem themselves to be conservative on social and political matters (28%).
New Marriage and Divorce Statistics Released - Barna Group

 

Says the poster who just attacked character, but you do...

 

Good grief! I attacked the tactic, not the character. Learn to understand the difference.

 

Show me a source that isn't already Christian biased, and I might believe it.

 

Sure, that's it. Even with that snide remark at the end.
But hey, you do...

 

Enjoy the rest of your day.

 

Bias, alone, does not indicate the data is false. You have to look at the data (and the methodology) to determine the validity of the conclusions reached. Anything else is not open minded.

 

Absolutely.

 

And something you want to believe.
Who are these people who save sex for marriage? The very religious? Does this study define "happiness" as marriage stability? It could be said the very religious are least likely to seek a divorce, making for a more "stable" marriage, but "happier"? Or are they happier because now they finally get to have guilt free sex?

 

And the source for how it is presented. For example:

The US and the USSR (dated I know) held a contest and the US won. Russian newspapers ran their headlines, "USSR comes in 2nd place, US next to last."

 

Here's a bit of irony for you. Most Christians who are opposed to transgenders or homosexuals, don't want to accept evidence based on self reporting, and yet many of those same people would accept this assertion which can only be based upon self reporting.

 

I would think that religious people tend to view marriage as an agreement before god and a religious act.

Non-religious people probably tend to view marriage more as a business arrangement.

 

Exactly!

 

Not really, unless you are talking strictly about the legal aspect. I was married to my one wife long before we got the legal one done (at least 5-7 years). There is my marriage to my other spouses (we're a poly quad for those newer here). The real test of how a couple views a marriage is asking whether they would still be together and calling each other husband/wife if the state and country got rid of marriage as a legal institution. The ones you are talking about would say no. But there are plenty of non-religious, at least in my experience who would stay together, assuming they had ever bothered with the legal paperwork to begin with.

 

The report (for those interested) can be downloaded here:

https://wheatley.byu.edu/the-myth-of-sexual-experience

It explains the methodology of how the study was done.

Snippet:

 

It is also good for children to be raised in a happy, loving home, as opposed to enduring perpetual contention.​

 

Doesn't seem like character assassination to question the veracity of the OP source (BYU Weatley Institute) . Firstly, social science is more or less BS to begin with IMHO. And objectivity seems unlikely for an organization with a social agenda at a university named after a cult enforcer, Brigham Young, a man who hardly controlled his sexual passions having 57 wives. He either had voracious sexual appetites or shortchanged (so to speak) these wives. I wonder how much marital satisfaction they had. Also, a promoter of blood attonement and a racist denying priesthood to black men who he claimed had the seed of Cain. And a man who led a revolt against the US called the Utah war.

So typical of cults telling people to limit their appetites while the leaders like Brigham Young or Warrent Jeffs do the opposite.