Insight on the News

Not the Way to Happier Marriage

● “No more telling Mom that living together first will make for a better marriage later,” declared “Psychology Today.” It reported the results of a new study that showed that couples who lived together before they got married were just as likely to obtain a divorce as those who lived apart. This study from the University of California at Los Angeles confirmed an earlier one at Florida A & M University that showed similar results. Also of interest was the finding that those who had cohabited before marriage had more problems with adultery, alcoholism and drugs. Regardless of such findings, however, persons who conscientiously want to do God’s will abide by the Scriptural standard of not having sexual relations until marriage, for his Word states: “Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.”​—Heb. 13:4.

A Million Teenage Pregnancies

● Each year in the United States alone, more than a million schoolgirls become pregnant, says the National Institute of Education, and 80 percent of them drop out of school. The Institute reports that about half of those who choose to have the baby keep it, but very few ever marry. As a result, a large proportion of these young unmarried mothers soon apply for public welfare, with little hope of ever becoming self-supporting. Often, their children grow up to be dropouts themselves, keeping them in the welfare cycle.

Add to these results the following: the flood of venereal diseases among promiscuous youth; the heartache of both the unmarried pregnant girl and her family; in many cases, the resorting to murder by abortion; the fact that “babies born to women under 15 years of age have three times the number of brain and nervous system disorders” as do those born to older women, according to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Moreover, consider that these babies are twice as likely to be premature, weighing five pounds or less, with the result that they are three times more likely to die in their first year of life than is a child born to a mother 20 to 24 years old; and that a woman having a baby as a young teenager is twice as likely to have a hysterectomy later in life as are women who have their children when older.

From such facts it is apparent that the fruits of illicit sexual relations are very bad. Hence, note the wisdom of the counsel in God’s Word: “Flee from fornication.” (1 Cor. 6:18) However, in addition to the bad fruitage of immoral sex relations, another consideration is even more important. It is that “no fornicator . . . has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and of God.”​—Eph. 5:5.

“Don’t Believe Them”

● “People are killing other people, claiming that they’re Christians. Don’t believe them,” declared Vancouver “Sun” staff writer Steve Whysall. He noted that the violence perpetrated or supported by those who claim to be Christian was in direct contradiction to the teachings of Jesus, who said: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”​—John 13:34, 35.

After commenting on the violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, the Church support of dictators, the Inquisition and other acts of violence by those claiming to be Christian, Whysall said: “Just because people go to church every Sunday, quote scripture, and are surrounded by people who do the same thing, does not mean they are Christians. Jesus Christ said: ‘Judge a tree by its fruits.’” Whysall also observed: “Who ever said they were Christians who did those awful things? Oh, you say, the established churches say so. Well, who ever said the established churches are Christian? So the pope blessed Mussolini, and there is evidence of other popes who have done dastardly deeds in the past. So who said they were Christians? . . . No Christian can war against another Christian​—it would be like a man fighting himself. True Christians are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. . . . and they would never, never intentionally hurt one another.” He added that even in time of strife “real Christians” are “working for love and harmony and unity.”