Malayan Colleges Laguna

PERFORMANCE-BASED TASK

“For richer or for poorer”

By:

Russhiella M. Barrinuevo

Submitted to:

Ezekiel Gueverra

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in

HUM011-A37

JUNE 2020
 The practice of cohabitation has becoming the modern Christian marriage in a secular
society in the Western world. This is to substitute the married life into some sort of “Marriage
Trial.” According to a Biblical Research Institute, the term "cohabitation" is usually defined as a
short or long-term heterosexual relationship outside marriage. Since the term itself conveys in our
general public a negative or pejorative implication there is a propensity to supplant it with another
and progressively specialized one, to be specific, "collaborating." The topic “cohabitation” is a
complex moral issue and is complicated to address, but we should not be boxed to the thought of
believing a one-sided story, but we should be open and willing to explore it.

These are the main points that this paper will discuss;

 Act of living together as a “Married” even under cohabiting.

 Cohabitation endangers marriage.
 Cohabitation as Biblical and Ethical Concerns.
 The Ethics of love and justice.
 Quality of Relationship under Married life and Cohabitation.
 The Downside of Cohabiting before marriage.
 A commitment “with no strings attached.”
 Trial-run commitment.
 More Broken Relationships because of Cohabitation.
 Cohabitation in a Monist lens.

It’s not surprising that many couples in the World especially in the Philippines are
cohabiting, that is, living together in a sexual relationship without or before marriage. According to
U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Marriage and Family, currently, 60% of all marriages are
preceded by cohabitation, but fewer than half of cohabiting unions end in marriage.

Theologian Scot McKnight says cohabitation is popular in a consumeristic society because

“it is a trial-run commitment,” a commitment “with no strings attached.” 

According to an article about Marriage and Relationship Education, the figure beneath
appears, wedded people were 12 rate focuses bound to report being in the high relationship
fulfillment gathering, 26 rate focuses bound to report being in the most elevated solidness
gathering, and 15 rate focuses bound to report being in the most noteworthy responsibility
gathering. These discoveries affirm past exploration indicating that living together connections
have lower levels of duty, higher paces of disloyalty and strife, and are fundamentally bound to cut
off than wedded associations.
 According to the ethics of love and justice in the era of cohabitation by Greg Warner,
approximately 60 percent of Americans believe the best way to establish a successful marriage is to
cohabit first. Marriage is considered obsolete by about 40 percent of adults, including half of all
Millennials, who otherwise would be the age group walking the aisle right now.    

The act of living together was normally comprehended to be a sign of good social
dishonesty and was viewed as an instance of sex, yet that is not true anymore. Western culture is
tolerating it as an advanced sort of marriage that society itself supports by punishing wedded
couples through high expense laws and by decreasing the government disability advantages of
widows or single men who remarry. Also, dwelling together is advanced and even glamorized by
the correspondence frameworks of Western culture as a legitimate option in contrast to the
conventional comprehension of marriage.

Biblical and Ethical Concerns

It is the regular Christian conviction that marriage was established by God Himself and that
it was generally excellent (Genesis 1:31; 2:22-24). He directed the capacity or activity of all that He
made so as to guarantee their legitimate capacity and collaboration with the remainder of the made
world (Genesis 1:4, 12, 17-18). Subsequent to making Adam and Eve, God united them and
characterized the manner in which they were to identify with one another (Genesis 3:24).
Accordingly, for Christians, marriage ought to be an impression of the first relationship that God
built up among lady and man, whom He made for marriage. Any case for freedom from the heavenly
expectation for marriage is to be truly suspect.

In an account retrieved about the ethics of love and justice in the era of cohabitation,
McKnight, a professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Ill aforementioned that
“It’s rare that a person is willing to jump all the way to the bottom of the valley on the first step,”
moving forward, Christian churches should teach and model the traditional Christian ethic that
limits sex to marriage, he says.       
 “There is no such thing as premarital sex in the Bible because in the Bible sexual intercourse
constituted marriage,” McKnight insists. McKnight says churches should publicly encourage
attendees who are living together to get married.      

Marriage as covenant

All three theologians say the best model for marriage comes from the biblical concept of
covenant.  

“Covenant is an exchange of binding sacred promises made to each other in the sight of God
and a community to bind future action based on present commitment,” Gushee says. The concept is
drawn from the covenant between God and the people of Israel and between Christ and the church,
he said.  

A covenant is stronger than a contract because it covers unforeseen circumstances, says

Gushee, author of Getting Marriage Right. 

“It says I find myself to you for life. So when things happen that are frustrating or difficult or
unforeseen — like you get sick for six months or you have a job change that takes you away for a
while — I’m still covenantally bound to you. So I am committed to working through the challenges.”

Conclusion

Cohabitation lacks satisfaction, commitment, and stability. According to various researches,

it has shown the fact that there’s a what they call the “cohabiting effect” that after cohabitation,
some couples will want to get married, but later on and sometime of marriage, they ended up
having divorce.

Well of course, there are many reasons why relationship and couples are more satisfied,
committed, and stable. In fact, cohabitation in the western countries is a norm. And it will be very
easy to think that this will be a good way to be ready for marriage. However, most of the people that
chooses cohabiting, ending their relationships even they’re a long time partners. Because of the 3
major points mentioned above.

Another point is, expectations and perspective of girls and expectations and perspectives of
guys are very much different from each other when it comes to the topic “cohabiting.” Most of the
women think that cohabitation is a preparation for a lifetime relationship, while most men thinks
cohabitations is a test and a trial for a relationship. That’s the part wherein relationship is becoming
weaker and weaker. Since most of the “visions” are unclear during cohabitation, once they get
married, or go into a longer years of being together, they see things that they didn’t expect from
each other, that is because it’s easy to choose cohabitation, but it’s difficult to build a long lasting
relationship between two couples.

A married life shouldn’t be a testing, a trial and error process. Rather, it should be built in a
stronger foundation of trust and love. Without compromising the fact that marriage is a covenant
and shouldn’t end up in divorce.