Marriage

Yesterday's Washington Post had an article about the murder-suicide of a Maryland family of five on Thanksgiving afternoon. Apparently, the ex-husband murdered his ex-wife and their three kids (ages 12, 10, and 6) at a park in Montgomery County. The story reports on the constant conflict and hostility between the divorced couple. It is a sad story.

Reading it made me go back and read a book review in the December, 2007, issue of First Things. The book was Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age, by Kay S. Hymowitz. According to the review, the book describes the damaging impact that divorce has on children; they are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, to perform poorly in school, to be a crime victim or a criminal, and to be poor. The book argues that the poor and working class in America no longer value marriage or the values associated with it, and this is a significant cause of their poverty and other problems. Finally, the book describes how middle- and upper-class Americans have maintained the traditional link between marriage and family and reap the benefits of two-parent families. Trends in unmarried motherhood and divorce depend greatly upon level of education, a change from forty years ago.