Only white people marry...???

That's a suggestion in this op-ed piece by Joy Jones. She talks about a teacher who was her role model for the way life should be: career, good marriage, two well-adjusted kids. She also mentions the percentage of African American women who have never married: 42%, versus 22% for white women. Jones writes a very good essay that includes much of the current research that discusses the plight of African American men and the ways in which women have been and are now the primary keepers of family values.

Interesting statistic - and very telling, on a number of levels, about the ways we envision and describe marriage and family as a culture. First, of course, it is good to consider the differences present cross-culturally. But second, I think the 22% of white women having never married is a good reminder to white women that marriage is not a forgone conclusion. And finally, and perhaps most important, Christians need to think more seriously about the ways in which culture dictates how marriage is viewed...and that perhaps Christianity offers a more radical view.