The History of Marriage

Stephanie Coontz’s editorial in the New York Times today is timely given the recent vote at the United Church of Christ General Synod.

The conservative religious right (more appropriately named the religious wrong) would have us believe that the current structure of heterosexual marriage has been in place for thousands of years. As Coontz points out they couldn’t be further from the truth. Marriage has evolved over time. (Ooops! Maybe I shouldn’t use the word “evolved”. James Dobson and Co. may deny the existence of the word.) Marriage has evolved to change with the times. A roll back to bygone years would simply be unfeasible. Do women really want to don their aprons again to be the bread baker and not the breadwinner? Should it again be permissible for a man to divorce his wife if she turns out to be barren? Should women submit to their husband’s every sexual advance (from the twin bed beside her)? Come on! Is this the type of society we want to live in again? Of course not.

Dobson, Falwell et al would have us believe that the image of the 1950s is the way marriage always was and should be. They are spreading lies that hurt and not heal.