The most interesting thing at church today was the RS lesson ... despite my general narcoleptic tendencies in RS, and notwithstanding White Boy's first lesson as a Gospel Doctrine teacher.
The lesson in RS this week focused on Elder Dallin H. Oaks' remarks on divorce at spring general conference. It was a startling topic for a GC address, and I confess that I was excited that it was being discussed in such a public, church-wide forum. Having reread the address, there are certain things I agree with ... like preventing ill-advised marriages as the medicine against divorce, and that divorce should be the last option and not the first. I don't know that I agree with all the statistics he presented ... some of the sources seem to come from a conservative bias. Then again, I haven't reread all hiss source material, and am unlikely to do so either.
The fact is, the mormon marriage has undergone a bit of aging and face lifts just in my lifetime. When I look at LDS women, I no longer get a picture of a barefoot, perpetually pregnant woman with a surburban and a horde of children. More and more, I see lots of marriages with fewer children. Or divorced couples ... mostly single mothers. Or single women. Or second marriages. Or people waiting to get older before getting married. Or part-member families. That isn't to say that the first image of mormon marriage won't always be a golden haired, attractive couple surrounded by 4-6 children dressed in matching clothes prettily arranged in some pastoral setting. It won't. However, that image is now closely followed by other images that help round out the picture of what latter-day saint lives actually look like.
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