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Monday, September 11, 2023

Does Marriage Equal Happiness?

New research on marriage has drawn significant attention recently, leading to several widely read articles on the matter. Early last month, at UnHerd, in a piece entitled The best predictor of happiness in America? Marriage, authors W. Bradford Wilcox and David Bass write,

Americans who are married with children are now leading happier and more prosperous lives, on average, than men and women who are single and childless.

Is that statement surprising? In an age that prizes individualism, workism, and a host of other self-centric “isms” above marriage and family, it may well be. But the reality is that nothing currently predicts happiness in life better than a good marriage. 

The UnHerd authors base their conclusions on marriage and happiness on new research out of the University of Chicago. Looking at “The Socio Political Demography of Happiness,” the research concluded, “Being married is the most important differentiator with a 30-percentage point happy-unhappy gap over the unmarried.”

On the results of the study, the researcher, Sam Peltzman declared,

Marital status is and has been a very important marker for happiness. The happiness landslide comes entirely from the married. Low happiness characterizes all types of non-married. No subsequent population categorization will yield so large a difference in happiness across so many people.

With countless amounts of anecdotal evidence, and with decades of social science research that shows the same, there’s little doubt that marriage is indeed an important “predictor” or “marker” for happiness. However, this shouldn’t be confused with the idea that marriage is the cause of happiness. In other words, if you’re miserably unhappy, or even moderately so, don’t simply look to marriage to change this.

The latter conclusion is my own, based on my experiences, knowledge, and observations of the world. However, there is research that supports my conclusions as well. Additionally, another article on the recent University of Chicago study—whether it means to or not—supports my take on marriage and happiness. Ironically, this article is written by what seems to be a rather liberal author—Olga Khazan—at the leftist publication The Atlantic.

Miss Khazan begins her piece by citing the University of Chicago study and concluding,

Married people are much happier than the unmarried, according to these data. Looking at those same 100 people, 40 married people will say they’re happy, and 10 will say they’re not happy. But single people are about evenly split between happy and not happy. It doesn’t really matter if you are divorced, are widowed, or have never married: If you’re not married, you’re less likely to be happy. “The only happy people for 50 years have been married people,” Peltzman told me.

This puzzles Miss Kahzan because, in her own words, “[A]fter 13 years of cohabitation, I’m currently trying to get married, and it’s not making me very happy at all.” I have news for Miss Kahzan and all of those like her: It is quite unlikely that marriage will do anything to increase your happiness.

Miss Kahzan’s scenario is quite telling and is a perfect example to illustrate my conclusion on marriage and happiness. It is not the mere act of marriage that brings, or increases, happiness. Perhaps this was once the case in our culture, when there was a widespread, proper understanding of what is marriage. However, in these times, where we have so perverted the meaning of marriage, sex, and the like, almost certainly many of those who are looking to marriage to increase their happiness will be sadly disappointed.

In other words, it’s those—whether they are married or not—with the proper understanding of what is marriage who are most likely to be happy before and after marriage. As Miss Kahzan herself admits, “marriage doesn’t make you happy; rather, happy people get married.” She continues,

One 15-year study of more than 24,000 Germans, for instance, found that those who got married and stayed married were happier than the unmarried ones to begin with, and any happiness boost they got from the marriage was short-lived. “Most of the research indicates that the happiest couples marry, not that marriage causes happiness,” Brienna Perelli-Harris, a demography professor at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, told me over email. 

So, who are these happy people? Most likely, they’re Christians, or at least the “religious.” Again, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that proves this true. As we live out our daily lives, typically those who have a measure of faith in the One who made us are the most pleasant to encounter and seem most content with the world around them. This is in spite of whatever difficult circumstances they might find themselves in.

And yes, there is research that shows Christians, or at least those who are “religious,” to be the happiest among us. In April of this year, Christian Headlines declared “Americans Who Believe in God Are the Happiest People in the U.S.” They based this conclusion on a Wall Street Journal-NORC survey and report,

A handful of strong beliefs separate those who are “very happy” from the rest of Americans. An overwhelming majority of “very happy” people – 68 percent – say belief in God is very important to them. That’s a significantly higher percentage than among the “pretty happy” group (47 percent) and the “not too happy” group (42 percent).

“They tend to say belief in God is important,” The Wall Street Journal reported of the very happy group. “Two-thirds describe themselves as very or moderately religious, compared with less than half of adults overall.”

A 2019 Pew Research Center study found “regular participation in a religious community [emphasis by Pew] clearly is linked with higher levels of happiness and civic engagement (specifically, voting in elections and joining community groups or other voluntary organizations).” 2016 Pew research found similar results, noting that “highly religious” people were happier than others. The “highly religious” are “overwhelmingly (95 percent) Protestant, Catholic or other Christians.”

In 2016, using data from a study by Great Britain’s Office for National Statistics, The Christian Post reported that, among all faith groups, Christians were the happiest. The article declared, “Statistics from Britain's national happiness index have suggested that Christians are among the happiest people in the nation, while those who don’t identify with any particular religion generally scored the lowest life satisfaction numbers.”

Christians are among the happiest people in the world, not simply because of who we are—and not simply because we are more likely to marry, or because of our view on what is marriage—but because of who God is and because of all that He’s done and will do. We’re generally a happy people because of the faith, hope, and love, and all the other good “fruit” that permeates Christianity. Won’t you join us?!

(See this column at American Thinker.)

Copyright 2023, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the 
The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Thursday, August 31, 2023

The "Rigged Election" Video Democrats and YouTube Don't Want You to See

The "election denying" hypocrisy in the American media and the Democrat Party is blatant, widespread, and downright embarrassing! The video below--which YouTube has demonitized--well illustrates why this is the case: 

Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the 
The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

The Astounding Ignorance and Hypocrisy of the Idaho Statesman

The editorial board of the Idaho Statesman—Scott McIntosh, Bryan Clark, Chadd Cripe, Dana Oland, Jim Keyser and Mary Rohlfing—recently published an opinion piece condemning the actions of Christian organizations Hold the Line and Turning Point USA Faith. The Statesman editorial board doesn’t like the fact that the “Kingdom to the Capitol” tour has made its way to Boise, Idaho.

The Kingdom to the Capitol is a Christian “revival tour” that holds prayer and worship events across the U.S. Their goal is to bring praise and worship music and prayer to every state capitol in the U.S. By my count, they’ve reached 23 so far. Kingdom to the Capitol is the result of a partnership between Turning Point USA Faith and Let Us Worship (a sister organization to Hold the Line).

The title of the Idaho Statesman foolish opinion piece begins with the old and overused leftist edict, “Keep your religion out of our government.” The title concludes with the “scary” conclusion that “Dangerous activists [are] coming to [the] Idaho Capitol.”

What’s so “dangerous” about the Kingdom to the Capitol event? Statesman editorialists believe that the Christians behind the event want to “inject their brand of Christianity into government.”

Similarly, later in the opinion piece, the authors declare, “It’s no accident the rallies are being held at state Capitol buildings, as these charlatans increasingly want to inject their brand of religion into politics.” According to the editorialists, examples of injecting “religion into politics” includes restrictions on abortions as well as restrictions on so-called “gender-affirming care for transgender youth.”

In other words, it seems that the Statesman doesn’t want the law in America to protect the most innocent and helpless among us from death or permanent mutilation. Additionally, in an attempt to smear the event and its attendees, the Statesman editorialists also use the familiar “Christian nationalist” label.

Sean Feucht, a Christian singer, song writer, worship leader, and former congressional candidate, is one of the event organizers. Attacking Feucht directly, the Statesman editorialists write,

Feucht and his group are playing on the same, tired, worn-out, BS, far-right “fears” that evildoers on the Left are coming for your children, through the schools, through the libraries, at Pride festivals and drag shows. They frame the issue as a fight between good and evil, light vs. dark. Predictably, they clutch their pearls at transgender apparel at Target or popular music videos.

The last two sentences of the editorial declare, “No one is telling these groups to abandon their religious beliefs. We’re just telling them to keep their religion in their church and out of our government.”

This garbage opinion piece by the “Secular Nationalists” at the Idaho Statesman is a perfect example of why so many in America hate newspapers, and why so many newspapers across the U.S. are dying. (The McClatchy Company, which owns the Idaho Statesman declared bankruptcy in 2020.) Given that Idaho is a solidly conservative state, it’s almost certain that this opinion piece is quite unpopular with a significant majority of Idaho’s residents, and just another reason for them not to give their time or money to the Idaho Statesman.

Of course, being unpopular doesn’t mean that one is wrong. However, as most conservatives well know, including the conservatives in Idaho, like so many opinion writers in America, the Idaho Statesman editorialists are indeed on the wrong side of the truth in some of the most important moral issues of our time.

Few things in the moral realm of the universe are more clear than what is life, and what is a male and a female. Thus, of course any society governed by the rule of law should have laws that reflect the long-known truth on these grave matters.

What’s more, the Stateman editorial writers are seemingly blind to their moral and political hypocrisy here. It seems they are fine with injecting their leftist worldview into America’s politics and laws, but don’t like the idea of Christians doing the same.

As I have long said, all law the world over is rooted in someone’s idea of morality. In other words, we either write our own moral code—which almost certainly will be grossly flawed—and have our laws reflect this moral code, or, when living our lives and when legislating, we adhere to the laws of the Law Giver.

“Keep your religion out of our government” is much like the leftist complaint of “Stop forcing your morality on me!” The proper retort to the latter is, “Stop forcing your immorality on me!” Thus, to the Idaho Statesman editorial board, I say, keep your irreligious, godless, and profane ideas out of our government!

(See this column at American Thinker.) 

Copyright 2023, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the 
The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

 

Monday, July 31, 2023

Voddie Baucham on Biblical Manhood, Justice, and Woke Ideology

Dr. Voddie Baucham is the Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia. He is also a former pastor, an accomplished Martial Artist, celebrated author, a devoted husband to Bridget, and the father of nine children. The video below is the latest episode of "The Sunday Special" from The Daily Wire

Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the 
The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com 


Friday, July 21, 2023

Matt Walsh Has the Right Take on "Try That in a Small Town" and Violence in Music

Jason Aldean's latest song, "Try That in a Small Town" has the left aghast. Supposedly Aldean's song is--of course--"raaaaacist!" and promotes violence. Of course, almost nothing is further from the truth. Along with lying about Aldean's song, the left also again demonstrates magnificent hypocrisy. The left has LONG looked the other way on a mountain of music that promotes, among many other evils, violence and sexual immorality. This especially includes "rap music." The hip-hop industry is littered with music and artists who promote violence, celebrate crime, degrade women, and attack police. Yet we're supposed to believe Aldean and his song are the problem. Again, the left is on the wrong side of the truth. Matt Walsh does an excellent job of explaining why:

For good measure, here's the full video of Aldean's song: 

Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the 
The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com