Michael Foust wrote an excellent article, “‘Living together‘ before marriage a statistical risk  ,” March 26, 2008, Baptist Press, and I have enjoyed sharing this article with you the last few days.  Here is the fourth and final  portion: 

Couples who believe they can save money by cohabitating must weigh not only the biblical commandment against it but the likely negative consequences of their decision, the McManuses say. Such couples should instead look for same-sex roommates as a money-saver, they added. Often, couples cohabitate because they rarely have seen a successful marriage up close, Mike McManus said.

“The major underlying reason for soaring cohabitation is that these are couples in which one or both partners grew up in a divorced home or in a home where there was not a marriage,” he said. “These young couples fear marriage because they fear divorce.”

Churches should mentor engaged couples as a way to strengthen relationships, stop cohabitation and prevent divorces, the McManuses believe. Statistics back them up. Of 288 couples who were mentored at their church between 1992 and 2000, only seven divorced or separated. Fifty-five of the couples (19 percent) broke up before marrying. 

“That’s a huge percentage — that’s 19 percent,” Mike McManus said of the break-ups. “You need to have the (mentoring) process be rigorous enough that the weak relationships either break up on their own or get better and get stronger.”

Cohabitation, Mike McManus believes, is a subject too often avoided by pastors.

“I think if sermons were preached on this subject and if churches offered an alternative — a better way to test the relationship — the country would be better off.”
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With reporting by Katherine Kipp, an intern with the Washington bureau of Baptist Press.