Cohabitation and Marriage as a Life Process
According to NCCB, cohabitation can be defined as living together, and having a sexual relationship without being married to each other, for various reasons I find this definition lacking. In today’s world, Christian marriages have undergone a lot of changes, examples of these changes include; divorce, equality of both partners in marriage, sacramentality, and how ceremonies are being conducted. I feel that the response of the church on the widespread cohabitation is not adequate thus, making its definition on cohabitation inadequate. Lastly, Scott and Thatcher moral evaluation and pledging ritual should not be extended to the gays ands lesbians. I feel that cohabitation is not wrong when two people are engaged and are awaiting a wedding ceremony to officiate the marriage.
The assumption that marriage as a union begins when two individuals celebrate their union in church is wrong. Marriage used to be a state in post-modern days but in todays world marriage is a journey. The church has come to accommodate that divorce since, marriage as a journey can either work or fail. On the issue of sacrament, the church is making exceptions, the church is now allowing a couple to marry each other in church without taking sacrament that affirms that their love is a similar to the one Christ had for the church. The church is also not bound by two choices of marriage like in the pre-modern days, sacramental marriage and civil marriage. It is now accepting, welcomed civil marriages. This is a good step the church is making because it is giving recognition to marriages of individuals that are not involved in the church a lot.
There are three forms cohabitation; casual cohabitation, conscious preparation of marriage and cohabitation that serves as a substitute of marriage. Thatcher in her book argues that cohabitation of an engaged couple is acceptable in a Christian setting because in modern days marriage does not begin with exchange of vows but with engagement. Cohabitation of individuals living together with no intention of getting married is unacceptable. Cohabitation after engagement in the pre-modern days gave spouses a chance to explore each other intimately and see if their marriage will work.
In today’s world the church does not allow intimacy to take place before a wedding ceremony is performed. I agree with the opinion of the church in pre-modern days since, it is logical to allow individuals to live together in order for them to evaluate if they will be compatible in marriage. Scott’s and thatcher’s moral evaluation and pledging ritual cannot be applied to the gays and lesbians because it is an activity that has been condoned by the church. I think it is high time that the church acknowledges that, in modern days cohabitation before marriage is a practice that cannot come to an end therefore, it should change its beliefs to accommodate this practice for couples who are engaged and awaiting marriage ceremony.
