Swamp:   “A shallow body of water in a low-lying, poorly drained depression… a tract of wet, spongy land, often having a growth of certain types of vegetation, but unfit for cultivation…Deep in the heart of Louisiana lies America’s largest swamp–a million miles of inhospitable bayous, marshes and wetlands where nature rules and humans struggle..”

We are in a cultural swamp, created by a moral swamp.  Many of us are asking, “How do we get out of this swamp?”

I did my part last week when I fought for our side of the marriage debate on Channel 5 in St. Louis.

What Can You Do to Strengthen Marriage?

I asked my husband what he wanted to do to celebrate our “32nd Anniversary”.  He said our marriage has been longer than 30 seconds!  If you don’t happen to recognize me or Bernie in the photo, it’s because a lot has happened in 32 years—just ask our seven children.

As we look at the condition of marriage in our entire country today, we can see a decline—not just as reflected in the divorce rate, but also in those who fail to marry at all, yet bear children as if they were married.  Some women agree to this arrangement, yet the numbers show that the women have the most to lose—so do the children.

Last week I attended the Acton University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

This week my parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.  It’s always happy to arrive at a new benchmark, yet many governmental policies are to blame for making marriage less popular than ever before in our nation’s history.  Some think marriage is meaningless.  Many now mistakenly assume that our problems will be resolved if the state no longer even recognizes marriage.  Since the founding of America, government has largely ignored marriage and pays little attention to it.  So long as citizens pay taxes and government gets its share, that is usually the end of the story.