Marriage and Religion - Research Paper Example

College: Benefits of Religious Marriage (Baptist Ceremony) Introduction Both marriage and religion are quite important to the life of any human being. Different researches by different scholars and philosophers of the world have proved this fact beyond the reasonable doubt. What makes the two quite important is the fact that human beings are social beings in nature and they naturally establish social organizations. At different points in the stages of life, different persons naturally develop interest and attraction to the members of the opposite sex. The outcomes of this are the formation of social institutions such as families which are established through unions such as marriage. The success of these established marriage unions largely depend on the nature of life a person has and the kind of future life he wants. Most of such determinants are natural but can be re-shaped by certain factors of life. Factors such as religion and social classes can adequately influence marriages. Marriage is engineered to naturally be a source of happiness to any human being since it is from marriage unions that different persons get families. Good families are sources of joy and portray the kind of a person one is to the society. A successful human life therefore highly depends on both marriage and religion. The most significant thing about the two is the fact that they are integrative in a way. Religion seeks establishment of holy unions between different persons while marriages seem to highly depend on religion for success. In a nutshell, Religious factors do influences the success of different marriage unions and therefore form the basis of a successful marriage. Also, marriage and religion are both key success factors to the life of any ordinary person. Marriage and Religion There are different forms of religions in the world today with the main forms being Christianity, Islamic and Judaism. Religion is one of the oldest social practices in the life of humans. Different ancient groups of people had different forms of religions and beliefs according to their origins and dwelling places. Every religion therefore has its own history on how it developed and evolved into what are now modern religions and faith. Christianity is among the main forms of religion and its history can be traced way back to the times of the Roman Empire (Stark 8). Different kings who came into power in this empire during these old days embraced Christianity form of religion thus contributed towards the growth and spread of Christianity to other parts of the world (Saylor Foundation 5-10). Christianity has today grown to be one of the most influential religions of the world not only in America but also in other parts of the world. With Christianity comes a code of conduct supposed to be adhered to by all Christians of the world. This is also similar in the other forms of religions such as Islamic and Judaism. These codes of conduct articulated in the different religions dictates different aspects in the lives of different people of the world. Even in the early times, marriage was still important and continued to be practiced. Different individuals in different parts of the world would follow their customs and beliefs when establishing marriage unions. Unlike today most ancient marriages did follow community customs, beliefs, traditions and religions. Different scholars have in the recent past conducted several researches on the area of depleting customs and norms and how it has affected different marriages and have revealed that ancient marriages lasted longer than today’s marriages (Lambert and Dollahite 439). Other scholars have as well tried to explain these disparities by developing different models to explain the aspect of evolution of human behaviors and the changing aspects of the different religions of the world. Such scholars have revealed that there has been an evolution on different aspects of religions which have in turn resulted into decreased or increased faiths of the different persons (Petersen 725-730). People of the past were more religious and strictly adhered to their beliefs as compared to the present generation that lacks even basic knowledge of their origin. Other scholars tend to blame it on the actions of intermarriages between individuals of different origins and religions. Intermarriages have highly confused our originalities and made different individuals lose track of even their religion. This has continues to make religion less important to lives of different people of the world ((Perez & Hirschman, 2009). Marriage is a social union where two different individuals exchange vows and come together to live as a family. Different researches conducted all over the world have revealed that most marriages are not being done in church but rather in legal institutions where different persons come together to establish a union with the judge as the arbitrator. Also the fact that marriages are no longer strict on gender issues since the world has today witnessed marriages between people of similar sex. A behavior that has had faced a lot of resistance in the past particularly in the great religions of the world. However, in the last few years, marriages have taken a new phase with different countries of the world establishing legislations to cater for such individual groups of our societies. This means that even though neglected by some churches, such individuals still proceed to establish legal unions with their partners just like other normal marriages. With the judges now hosting most exchange of vows today means that the kinds of marriage unions mainly existing are not social unions but rather legal unions. They are more of legal contracts as stipulated by law instead of social contracts established by two people who love each other and bound to abide by this love even before the eyes of God. That is why our world today is full of divorcees since they never established social unions with their partners where they could seek religious interventions and instead they entered into legal contracts. Of course, contracts are bound to expire and when they do, every party takes a different route with most of the individuals who have found themselves in such situations they adversely blame it on marriage conflicts. Conflicts between people are obvious and a very common and a natural occurrence (Lambert and Dollahite 439). People conflict everyday in marriages but it does not necessarily guarantee the breakage of the established union. The legal unions break but the social unions survive these tests of time. This is because religious humans can forgive and forget for the purpose of staying in a union for they pleaded to do so before God and other members of the society but the unreligious ones cannot for they never pleaded to abide by the union before God. For this reason therefore religions are quite important to different marriages and hence the reason why different individuals should engage in religious marriages unlike legal marriages for the religious ones are healthier. Benefits of religion and marriage There are numerous reasons as to why different people seek marriages and religious interventions in their life. This means that different individuals are religious and at the same time religious. Religion has continued to determine marriages. According to Marks (86-88) different religions play quite significant roles to the different marriages and different family lives of different persons of the world. For this reason religions have helped different persons of the world maintain, support and stabilize their marriages despite facing hard times (Ibid 108). Different researchers have further established the main benefits of marriages and religions to the life of different individual persons. Benefits of marriages Longer life and better health Different scholars of the world such as Murphy et.al (156-164) have in the past argued that individuals who are already in different forms of social unions such as a marriage are likely not to suffer from major and long time illnesses such as cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, hypertensions and long term illnesses such as stroke or even forms of disability. Other scholars such as Goodwin (3125-3130) believes that even in cases of other forms of illnesses, the married persons stand a better chance of surviving the illness and normally stand a lower risk of dying from the different natural causes of death (Ross et.al 1059-1078). This clearly depict that married individuals portray lower mortality rates than the unmarried individuals (Waite and Lehrer 255-276). In today’s world, there is a highly likelihood of finding of a forty eight years old woman still alive even twenty years to come (Waite and Lehrer 256). Married person have little chances of being stressed up by different issues of life since they always have a person to share their problems with and to stand by them in thick and thin. This way, they feel loved and appreciated and there is less likely hood of their brains triggering hormones in their bodies that result in stress which are the key source of illnesses such as hypertensions and stroke. Also, married individuals tend to take care of each other hence remaining physically fit. Source of happiness Different researches by different scholars of the world have revealed that marriage is a key source of happiness to the life of any person. Different individuals in marriage revealed high levels of happiness and contention with their lives as compared to unmarried ones who showed lower level of happiness (Waite and Lehrer 255-276). Marriages highly influence the mental well being of different individual persons. It is like a personal psychological cure. Married individuals are more satisfied in life and therefore have a high self esteem, less mental problems and adapt accordingly in cases of bereavements. According to Koenig et.al (30) married persons are more satisfied in life and less likely to suffer from cases of anxiety or depression that may lead to incidences of drug abuse or even suicide. Better economic gains A research conducted in America revealed that the married male American citizens earned a lot more than the unmarried male individuals (Waite and Lehrer 255-276). Further, the research revealed that the married persons tend to have more assets than the unmarried persons. This is due to the fact that such individuals tend to think more of the future of their families and children and wish to make it better. This way, they start planning the future life of their families and their children by acquiring long-life assets. These assets range from buildings and lands to machinery. This makes these individuals satisfied knowing that the lives of their families and children are secure. Married men and women are therefore more focused economic wise than the unmarried persons who have nothing to plan for. Children are brought up in a better way According to (Waite and Lehrer 255-276), children brought up by married parent are better in life than the ones brought up by the single parents not only psychologically but also in terms of their respective the needs and wants. Kids from the single parents are even likely to drop out of school as a result of both physical and psychological needs. This is because children brought up by parents who are intact are better fed psychologically than the ones for example adjusting from a divorce by their parents. This is because such children face a lot of mental challenges triggered by the varied emotions feelings. The results of such emotions are mostly low self-esteem hence such children feel out of place for example when in school affecting their concentration as well as their school performance. Such kids are never happy in their life. This is what may force them out of school to become street idlers and are likely to engage in illegal activities since they lack a moral figure. Benefits of Religion in Marriage Less domestic violence cases According to Ellison and Anderson (269-286), a study conducted in America revealed that higher cases of domestic violence were common in marriages that are not religious. This means that individuals who do not belong to religion have high cases of domestic violence since such persons never engage in activities such as attending church services and praying. Issues of domestic violence include incidences of spouses throwing objects to each other, cases of physical abuses such as hitting or even shoving partners (Waite and Lehrer 255-276). Religious partners are restricted by the religions in engaging in such acts of violence but instead they are supposed to seek guidance from the religious leaders or their elders in cases of arguments or conflicts. Most of the major religions of the world despise these acts of violence in marriages. Better upbringing of children and Education Children from religious families are brought up better than those children from unreligious families. The religious partners tend to bring up their children in the best possible way not only in education but also in their moral behaviors. It is easy to identify children from religious marriages. Good moral behaviors are evident to all children who come from quite religious family backgrounds and that these children often avoid participation in bad acts that may affect their education or life hence tend to do better in in life than children from unreligious marriages (Waite and Lehrer 255-276). Adequate allocation of money and time Both money and time are quite important for the well being of any particular marriage. It is from money that the family is able to pursue better living standards. On the hand, time has everything to do with the wellbeing of the state of different marriages; the partners get time to talk about issues affecting them as well as adequately plan for their future. Religion clearly helps in allocation of money and time in different marriages. For example religious male partners are not involved in drinking parties over the weekends with their male counterparts and instead they spend more time at home or in church with their families. This saves money and adequately allocates time for their marriage and their families. Development of better social relationships between partners Normally, most the marriages fail for the lack of well established social relationship between the partners (Waite and Lehrer 255-276). This is what triggers conflicts between partners. Prolonged conflicts result in divorce cases or even cases of domestic violence. In religion, the partners find a lot of guidance on how to bond with one another such that they are not only partners in a marriage but also social friends. Different religion such as Christianity further stipulates that partners to a marriage are condoned not to keep secrets from their partners. This aspect of being open with one another highly promotes development of social relationship between the married partners. This way, these partners become quite good friends and find ways of getting along with each other in bad or good times adequately establishing marital solidarity (Village et.al 5-7). Different religions such as Christianity do rebuke the acts of divorce between married partners and according to different Christians, this has positively contributed towards establishment of better social relationships between partners since in this case the married partners fear going against the religion and hence ends up working things out with their partners. The Catholic Baptist Ceremony The catholic Baptist ceremony is perceived by all the Christians around the world as the beginning of growth of the Christian faith (Rose 8). Christian parents are therefore supposed to foresee baptism of their children when still young. In the history of Christianity, baptism of infants who are the children of below one year has been outlined as a role that every parent must play and has very well been articulated in the Liturgy Constitution of the Roman Church (Interchurch families 2). Therefore according to the Catholic faith, baptism ceremony therefore is administered to the infants to mark their birth. Catholic baptism is administered by the church priest and normally conducted in the church where the parents are members. Catholic baptism can also be administered at home if the parent of the child is not in a position to reach the church (Interchurch families 2). Baptism is the Christianity initiation process since it is the first step towards confirming a person as a true Christian. However, there have been a lot of contradictions the issues of baptism with some Christians arguing that baptism should only be administered to only the infants while others believing that it is necessary and should be administered to adults who want to become Christians or for the ones who want to repent their sins (Compton 3-32). In fact these are the contradictions that led the Roman Church to break in the early 19th century into several respective groups of Christians who later established the different Christian churches there are in the world today. It is surprising how different Christian churches have different believes and ways of administering Baptism. For example, Catholic churches use a small bowl when baptizing whereas protestant churches believe that for one to be clean and free of his or her sins; his entire body has to be immersed in water (Compton 3-32). This way, the water washes down his or her sins. Catholic baptism follows rules of the Catholic Church. For an infant child to be baptized for example, both parents must be members of the church the child is baptized in and also valid Christian believers. There are different ways by which such parents may become valid or true Christian believers. Through wedding is the most common one to confirm the Christianity of the parents to a child. This means that even with one of the partners in a being not a member of the catholic church but gets married in a catholic church, automatically becomes a Catholic and his or her children can be baptized in a catholic church. Also, if the two parents to a child were initially Christians, the couple does not have any hindrance to the baptism of their child (JBTM 41-50). Conclusion Marriage and religion serve as the basic elements of a good life of any particular person in that it is through marriage that a person becomes satisfied in life and it is through religion that different persons are able to maintain their marriage lives despite the ups and downs nevertheless not all marriages adhere to our above discussions since different religions of the world have varied norms and beliefs and hence varied views on the approach of marriage issues. However, Christianity as a core form of religions of the world and in fact the largest of all fits perfectly in our research. Works Cited Compton, Bruce. Water baptism and the forgiveness of sins in Acts 2:38. DBSJ 4 (1999): 3– 32. Ellison, Christopher, G. & Anderson, Kristin, L. Religious involvement and domestic violence among U.S couples. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40.2(2001): 269– 286. Goodwin, James, S., Hunt, William, C., Key, Charles, R., Samet, Jonathan, M. The effect of marital status on stage, treatment, and survival of cancer patients. Journal of the American Medical Association, 258.21(1987): 3125–3130. Interchurch Families. Celebrating initiation into Christ and the Church. Journal of the Association of Interchurch Families. 11.2(2003): 1-16. JBTM. Foundations for Baptist Doctrines & Distinctives. The Journal for Baptism Theology & Ministry, 6.1(2009): 1-198. Koenig, Harold, G., McCullough, Michael, E., Larson, David, B. Handbook of Religion and Health. New York: Oxford University Press; 2001. Lambert, Nathaniel, M & Dollahite, David. C. How Religiosity Helps Couples Prevent, Resolve, and Overcome Marital Conflict. Family Relations, 55(2006): 439–449. Marks, Loren. How Does Religion Influence Marriage? Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim Perspectives. Marriage & Family Review, 38.1(2005): 1-15. Murphy, Mike, Glaser, Karen & Grundy, Emily. Marital status and long-term illness in Great Britain. 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Waite, Linda, J. & Lehrer, Evelyn, L. The Benefits from Marriage and Religion in the United States: A Comparative Analysis. Popul Dev Rev., 29.2(2003): 255–276. Read More