Sanctification In Marriage

As mentioned above, Clinton (2003), argued that the primary goal of marriage was not happiness or satisfaction, but holiness and sanctification. Marriage is considered a sanctifying institution that achieves holiness (Dane, 2009). Sanctification is the, “process through which God transforms profane objects into sacred entities”, while holiness is the outcome: being set apart, consecrated to God (Mahoney, Pargament, Murray-Swank, & Murray-Swank, 2003). For example, God uses marriage to change selfishness and arrogance into selflessness and humility (Clinton, 2003). Again, Martin (2010) insisted that, “marriage is to integrate the full spectrum of spiritual, social, psychological, physical, and sexual aspects of humanness” (p. 111).

In

Communities that revere monogamous, heterosexual, lifelong marriage, and promote getting married, report fewer occurrences of several social phenomena that can be problematic. Examples of social problems that occur less frequently in marriage promoting communities include adolescent pregnancy, childhood poverty, divorce, lack of psychological wellbeing, instances of domestic violence, drug use, and juvenile delinquency (Gault-Sherman & Draper, 2012; Village, Williams, & Francis, 2010; Waite & Lehrer,

Married women are less likely to report infidelity in their relationships than both dating and cohabitating women (Mark et al., 2011). Married relationships are more reliable as spouses are more invested because of long term commitments natural to marriage such as raising children, mutual house ownership, and mutual savings; for these reasons, the cost of the dissolution of the marriage is usually greater than for couples who are cohabitating or dating. Hence, those dating or cohabitating are more likely to have extra martial relationships in some cases because the costs of ending the relationship are less severe (Treas & Giesen,