Media excited about marriage?
Last week the media were talking about something they don’t normally talk about – marriage. So what was it that got the media so excited about marriage. And what didn’t they seem so excited about?
TRANSCRIPT:
Well last week the media were talking about something they don’t normally talk about – marriage. More particularly marriage statistics. Yep normally they don’t want anything to do with antiquated religious based traditional old school marriage. Who cares how many people get married. So yesteryear. Lets talk about something far more constructive like polygamy or group marriage or divorce or this one that I saw in Australia newspapers when I was there over the weekend – even this one I saw over the weekend. So what was it that got the media so excited about marriage rates. And what DIDN’T they tell you?
You probably already figured it out eh.
Here’s the big news items at the end of last week
And our friends at the ODT who don’t like talking about women
Stats NZ also yelled it from the rooftops.
Over 4,000 same-sex marriages in New Zealand since becoming legal a decade ago.
The media release said
“Around 4,100 same-sex marriages have been registered to couples living in New Zealand since the Marriage Amendment Act came into effect, figures released today by Stats NZ show. This marks the 10-year anniversary of the law change on 19 August 2013.”
Well, accuracy should matter to Stats NZ. It’s not the Marriage Amendment Act. It’s the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act. But hey – as we saw on a recent McBlog episode when they tried to massage figures of LGBT identification upwards to make them look better, Stats NZ aren’t too worried about being technically correct.
This is also the same Stats NZ who designed the Census that we recently filled in with the fictional question line around our biological sex at birth being somehow different from our gender. Stats NZ are woke. But they’re a government department so are you surprised.
But before that, Stats NZ said that the number of teenage women in New Zealand giving birth has more than halved over the last decade. Why. Apparently it was because “the decreasing number of teenage births coincides with improved education and access to contraception,”
So all we need is more sex education – and more condoms. Slight problem. That’s not what the research shows. The reason for the drop is because sexual activity has dropped and in fact contraception use has NOT improved.
Once again, Stats NZ is moving out of the mathematical & statistical analysis into culture messaging.
But back to Stats NZ’s latest media release – there is then a little hint of what they didn’t want to admit – so they just didn’t. Reading from the media release:
“Same-sex marriages made up just over 2 percent of all marriages to couples in New Zealand over the last decade. More female couples tie the knot each year than male couples. Between 19 August 2013 and the end of 2022, around 2,700 female couples and 1,400 male couples who lived in New Zealand were legally married.”
Actually, that’s about half the number of guys. So lesbian couples are 2x more likely to get married than male couples.
And then there’s some commentary that almost 60% of overseas same-sex couples coming to NZ to get “married” were from Australia – that was until 2017 when they could get legally “married” in Australia.
So 4,100 same-sex “marriages”.
Now here’s a figure Stats NZ – and the media – didn’t give you.
186,996
What’s that figure? Well, That’s how many marriages – one man one woman – over the same period. 98% of all marriages. You were told about the 4,000 – but you weren’t told about the 186,996. Now why is that? OK – that’s a rhetorical question. We know the answer.
There simply isn’t much of a demand for same-sex marriage. In fact, it’s a tiny tiny %. 2%. Vs 98% traditional marriage. Marriage continues to be one man one woman. That’s the norm.
The media and Stats NZ who want to persuade you that your gender is different to your sex wanted to celebrate only one type of “marriage” and it’s not the marriage in the true meaning of the word. It’s a definition invented by activists and politicians which rejects the obvious cultural and natural characteristics of marriage and the subsequent creation and care of children – as God created and ordained. Legalising same-sex marriage was an act of cultural vandalism.
But that’s the only one the media and Stats NZ wanted to shout about. Because it’s NOT the one that God ordained. Understand the picture now?
They do put out a yearly summary of marriage & divorce rates. But there’s no celebration, interviews and warm fuzzy videos by the media.
Same-sex marriage represents the new cultural religion being rammed down and that all must celebrate and bow down to. But we won’t eh. Truth matters.
Here’s the real issue though.
Almost 187,000 marriages in the past decade is a good thing. But there is a disturbing trend which the media will never discuss.
As you can see from this graph – In general, the number of marriages is generally continuing to decrease. There were still fewer marriages in 2022 than the in period before COVID-19 impacted New Zealand.
The general marriage rate in 2022 was about 9.3 marriages per 1,000 people aged 16 years and over who are not married. This is about one-fifth of the 1971 peak, when the rate was 45.5.
There was a drop off during COVID and now a little uptick as the delayed weddings are held
We should be concerned that marriage rates are at a shocking all-time low. The weakening of marriage is one of the most important social issues we are facing.
The statistics are clear on marriage. Children being raised by their married biological parents are by far the safest from violence, from abuse, from prison, from poverty – the adults also benefit. Families benefit. There is nothing better for a child to know than that the 2 adults to created them are also committed to each other and to that child for life.
But whenever marriage is promoted, it has often been labelled as an attack on solo or divorced parents, and that has kept us from recognising the qualitative benefits of marriage which have been discovered from decades of research. In virtually every category that social science has measured, children and adults do better when parents get married and stay married – provided there is no presence of high conflict or violence. This is not a criticism of solo parents. It simply acknowledges the benefits of the institution of marriage.
Marriage isn’t perfect, because it involves humans – but its creation and design and purpose was perfect.
And we ignore its benefits at our peril.
It’s time we promoted and shouted about the best model possible.
