"Hey, honey, I want to marry you .... but let's purchase divorce insurance, just in case."

Wow, divorce insurance ... really?  A North Carolina-based insurance company offers a payout if your marriage ends in divorce.  Why would you even get married?  The money?  Those are marriages heading straight for doom.  In the back of their minds, the couple will always have the divorce insurance payout in their back pockets.  What reason do you have for confidence in your marriage, confidence to express your concerns and work through problems, confidence your spouse will stay with you "through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, until death do you part?"  None.  Boo.  Boo to you, insurance company, for being evil enablers.

Top marriage news of August 3, 2010

I thought it might be interesting to do a Google news search of marriage to see what the top marriage headlines are today:

1. Hills star Spencer Pratt not sure about his marriage and divorce
2. Chelsea and Marc: Their Mixed Marriage, a Mixed Blessing
3. Chelsea Clinton's Interfaith Marriage Challenge: Kids, Holidays, Soul-Searching
4. 'The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose': Ali and Roberto Talk Marriage, Chris Gets Closure
5. Review | '18 to Life': This teenage TV marriage no laughing matter
6. James Van Der Beek Announces Marriage To Kimberly Brook On Twitter 
7. Anne Rice explains: Catholic bishops funding efforts to stop gay marriage was a last straw
8. Nooses anger gay pastor
9. Behind the numbers of Prop. 8
10. A&M And SEC Marriage In 2013?

Celebrity weddings / pop culture, gay marriage and a random sports story unrelated to the sacrament of marriage.

A friend of mine last night was talking about how she tries to watch BBC news now because the U.S. Hollywood drama doesn't make the cut ... no Britney Spears, no Lindsey Lohan.  I might have to check that out.  As someone who doesn't watch TV, I could really care less about which celebrity married who.

Our housewarming party, August 2009

"Your marriage is in their hands."

Welcome to the NBC show, "The Marriage Ref."  Really.

The TV show that has a slogan of, "Your marriage is in their hands," features celebrities, such as Madonna (divorced twice), Alec Baldwin (divorced), Larry David (divorced) and Ricky Gervais (never married), who critique the marriages of everyday folk who care to share their troubles with the American public on live television.  Hmm.

There are so many things wrong with this; do I even need to go into them? 

First of all, the couples' situations are taken so out of context when their "situations" are played, just to make for entertaining viewing. 

Secondly, in the matter of 30 minutes (or however long the episodes are), random celebrities who have sometimes not been involved in healthy marriages (third problem) wrap up a quick, superficial, random solution to the couples' problems and give recommendations on how these poor people should move forward in their marriages.

What are these couples thinking by going on this show?  Take your marriage seriously, folks, and get some real help if you need it.  Quit watering down your sacramental union, and live up to the promises you made on your wedding day.