The following quote is from Psychology Today as reported by Chuck Missler and Khouse news:

Couples who move in together before marriage have up to two times the odds of divorce, as compared with couples who marry before living together. Moreover, married couples who have lived together before exchanging vows tend to have poorer-quality marriages than couples who moved in after the wedding. Those who cohabited first report less satisfaction, more arguing, poorer communication and lower levels of commitment... Accidental pregnancies are more common among cohabiting couples than among couples who don't live together...[and] once their lives are thoroughly entangled, some couples may decide to wed more out of guilt or fear than love.

This quote amazes me on two levels. First, the fact that Psychology Today would even publish something like this is unheard of. How did they get it by the editors? Second, the whole concept of not living together before marriage (or keeping the marriage bed pure) is so foreign to common sense that it has to be from the Lord. In every other aspect of human existence, "try before you buy" is good practice, it just doesn't seem to work in marriage.

Earlier this week I reread Jim Wallis' op-ed in the NY Times from a few weeks ago. He cites the often quoted stat that 36 million Americans, including 13 million children, live below the poverty line... I for one find this hard to believe, that around ten percent of America lives below the poverty line. I believe Harvey Conn provides appropriate balance here in his book "Urban Ministry" when he advises us to define what one means by the "poverty line" as it surely is different from what third world countries would define as poverty. Is it life without digital TV, high speed internet, and cell phones? Or is it life without proper waste management, food, shelter, and clothing, more of where I would lean on the "poverty line." I don't want to diminish or shame those who may live in poverty, but being in Mexico many times and Africa twice, there is a great difference between poverty in our culture and others.