Cohabitation: Is it Biblical and Wise?

Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith & Culture

Talbot School of Theology at Biola University / Sean McDowell & Scott Rae

Christian, Talbot, Church, Culture, Biola, Think Biblically, Christianity, Sean Mcdowell, Scott Rae, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What does the Bible say, if anything, about living together before marriage? Given that 70% of Americans now cohabit before marriage, and roughly 2/3 believe it will improve the odds of relationship success, what does the data show about how effective it is? While this is a huge topic in the church and culture today, surprisingly, few people are discussing it. In this episode, Sean and Scott discuss a recent study on cohabitation from the Institute for Family Studies. Download the study: htt...

Transcript

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0:00.0	How prevalent is cohabitation today, particularly among Christian couples? What do you say to the
0:08.3	Christian couples who are living together, and how does living together impact the chances for a
0:13.3	successful marriage? We'll look at these questions and a whole lot more as Sean and I discuss a new
0:18.0	sociological report on cohabitation from the Institute for Family Studies.
0:23.2	So, Sean, this is an influential report, and we were talking before we started recording.
0:29.1	We just aren't talking about this that much. We seem to be accepting this almost as a given,
0:34.3	and I think we sort of given up trying to combat the tide of cohabitation.
0:40.3	So tell me about this, a little bit about this report and what went into it and how prevalent is cohabitation today.
0:49.8	Well, we really saw the American family start to change in the 70s and into the 80s, whether
0:55.0	that was with things like divorce and in this case cohabitation.
0:59.8	Now in many ways it's become the norm.
1:02.5	Now just some of the stats, I want to read this and slow down to make sure that people
1:06.6	really grasp this.
1:08.4	According to a recent Pulse Pew study, the number of adults 18 to 44 who have ever
1:14.6	cohabitated has surpassed the share who has ever been married. So if you isolate those two,
1:22.8	more have cohabited than married. Now, I think now, to be clear, too, that includes people who may have cohabited just for a short period of time.
1:31.0	Sure.
1:31.5	Or, you know, maybe cohabited before marrying the person.
1:35.6	It includes everybody.
1:36.8	That's a big tent.
1:38.2	Bottom line, more have cohabited than individually been married.
1:42.1	But fair enough.
	...

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