Marriage as an institution is alive and well in Georgia, but

the Georgia Family Council says the community needs to get

involved in strengthening marriages.

The council's recently released recommendations include

some suggestions for every facet of society, from recommending

that doctors make it "a clinical practice to promote marriage as

a healthy lifestyle," to saying that businesses should "minimize

the time an employee spends away from (family) by exploring

flex-time benefits, reducing overtime and cutting work-related

travel when possible."

Georgia's divorce rate soared 174 percent between 1970

and 1994, reports by the council show, and another set of statistics

points to a "growing acceptance" of divorce. In the 65-and-over

group polled, only seven percent said that their parents had

divorced, but 55 percent of those in the 18-24 age group said they had

divorced parents.

Randy Hicks, executive director of the council, says that

the breakdown of marriages "on a large scale" has the "potential

to destabilize the entire community." He says social research shows

that children from no-parent or single-parent homes are more likely

to have higher rates of academic failure, teen pregnancy,

substance abuse, delinquency, poverty and suicide.

U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that a per-day average

for marriages in the country is about 6,400, while the

divorces-per-day average 3,200. In 1996, 2.3 million marriages and 1.2

million divorces took place in the U.S. According to the National

Center for Health Statistics, Georgia had the country's 18th highest

divorce rate in 1994.

Some other interesting findings of the Georgia Marriage

Report include:

- Seventy-one percent agree that marriage should be considered

a promise to remain together "till death do us part."

- Eighty-seven percent disagree that marriage is old-fashioned

or outmoded.

- More than two-thirds think the quality of a typical marriage

is weaker than it was 30 years ago.

-Strong marriages need good communication, lifelong

commitment, close friendship and fidelity.

- Contributors to a decline in marriage strength include

more permissive attitudes about divorce, and sex outside marriage.

- Georgians agreed by 91 percent that "all things being equal,

it is better for children to be raised in a household that has a

married mother and father."

- Those polled said that other than the couple

themselves, churches (60 percent) and extended families (21 percent)

are the most likely sources of strengthening marriages.

The council's new recommendations call for churches to

insist on marriage preparation for all couples who wish their

ceremonies solemnized in the faith group, and to encourage renewal of

wedding vows in front of family and friends. Extended families,

the report says, can sponsor married couples in their families for

enrichment seminars, or volunteer to baby-sit children so that

couples can spend quality time together.

About two-thirds of the people in the Georgia Family

Council poll said they see divorce as "trading one set of problems for

another," and nearly half of all divorcees questioned said

they wished they had tried harder to work out differences.

For more information or a copy of the report and

recommendations, contact the family council at 770-242-0001, Angie

Hillman or Tim McIntosh; or use e-mail: [email protected].

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