A group of pro-marriage activists are launching an interfaith initiative to get more couples married, with a mass wedding ceremony kicking off the movement March 2 in Lanham, Maryland.
The La Fontaine Bleue Center will host an interfaith wedding ceremony and expects roughly 150 celebrants, as part of the coalition’s mission to make 2015 the year of marriage.
Marriage scholars and religious leaders argue that divorce and cohabitation contribute to numerous problems plaguing American communities, including poverty and crime.
“The best social welfare agency that mankind can get is a mom and a dad that say ’I do,’” said Dr. Michael T. Ross, a marriage scholar and emergency medicine doctor in Michigan during a panel discussion hosted by the Interfaith Marriage Coalition at The Washington Times.
The Interfaith Marriage Coalition is affiliated with the Unification Church, founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who also founded The Washington Times.
According to Dr. Ross, statistics show that efforts to persuade more couples to get married instead of simply “shacking up” have led to a drop crime rates in El Paso, once the fourth-most-dangerous city in America.
Dr. Ross hopes to bring the same initiative to impoverished Detroit, America’s most dangerous city currently, and to launch efforts on a global level as well by bringing Christian, Jewish, and Islamic leaders together to push for more marriages.
“The imams are on board and they are excited about this,” he said. “We see it as an international solution for what’s going on in Iraq.”
Members of the coalition are also pushing for divorce and cohabitation reform, arguing that the current judicial system and tax code encourages couples to remain unmarried, leading to a slew of community problems. Panelists said that the movement must start in the nation’s churches.
“If the churches can’t come together, what makes you think marriages will come together?” said Bishop Vandy Kennedy, pastor of the Walker Mill Baptist Church in Capitol Heights, Maryland.
The Interfaith Marriage Coalition plans to begin a national civil rights movement starting in D.C., advocating for the human rights of children who are hurt by divorce and cohabitation.
“The restoration of a nation begins in the homes of its people,” said Archbishop George Augustus Stallings, Jr., founder of the Imani Temple.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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