Without a doubt, marriages that thrive give people an advantage in life. Studies abound with statistics that demonstrate its value, and it is not difficult to prove its truth. Both married men and women are wealthier, happier, and find life more meaningful than their single counterparts (Wilcox, 2024). With those advantages, and many more, those of us who are effective in encouraging marriage and saving those who struggle are vital to the welfare of people and the security of our civilization.
But marriages are under attack. The percentage of those currently married has been falling for decades, making the nuclear family a minority for the first time in American history.
My mission in life has been to make marriages thrive, and I have been very successful in achieving that objective. My books, articles, seminars, radio shows, website, and personal counseling have led to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of couples worldwide who have discovered how to have a successful and fulfilling marriage.
Others have achieved the same success. Some are very well known, and their programs have been proven effective with carefully planned and executed research that has been published in books and journals. But there are many other programs, such as my own, that have not had the resources to demonstrate their effectiveness scientifically. As a result, these programs that could be demonstrated to be more successful than those that are well-known, are somewhat hidden from those who need their help.
If marriage education were successful, we would be seeing more marriages and fewer divorces. Marriages would thrive and the witness of their experience would encourage others to marry. But that is not the case. Single adults express their fear of marriage. They saw first-hand how their parents' divorces, or even their unhappy marriages, have presented a strong argument to avoid marriage.
We urgently need to discover and promote the very best ways to make existing marriages divorce-proof. Through the Association of Marriage Builders, we intend to achieve that objective.
The Case for Financial Support
The mission of the Association of Marriage Builders, Inc. is to help marriages thrive through professional support and research. This not-for-profit corporation uses its resources to support those who work in the trenches--professionals and non-professionals who are trying to help couples who are struggling in their marriage. It will also help identify effective ways to save marriages, and then seek to demonstrate that effectiveness scientifically.
1. Professional Support
The Association of Marriage Builders will provide help to those who want to help married couples thrive. It will achieve that objective at first by (1) providing free access to existing information and research on the subject of marriage education and therapeutic methods. This information will be gathered from as many sources as possible and organized in a way that provides convenient access. The Association will also (2) provide an opportunity for professionals and non-professionals alike to communicate with each other, providing a forum where questions and answers can be freely exchanged. Finally, the Association will (3) provide tools to be used by marriage professionals to organize, document, and evaluate the therapy they provide.
2. Marriage Education and Therapeutic Methods Research
The Association of Marriage Builders will eventually (a) conduct research to evaluate the effectiveness of existing marriage education programs and therapeutic methods. It will (b) build on the results of that research to provide an analysis of what causes existing programs to succeed and what causes them to fail.
Objective evaluation and comparisons will enable the Association to provide the profession with a better understanding of what makes marriages thrive. Categories of marital problems will be studied separately to pair the best education and therapy to the types of problems couples face.
Funding Needs
The initial objective of the Association is to initiate the process of creating professional support for marriage educators and therapists. Information for existing information and research on the subject of marriage education and therapeutic methods will be gathered and made available on this website. A forum will be established where questions and answers can be freely exchanged. Tools to be used by marriage professionals to organize, document, and evaluate the therapy they provide will also be made available. All of this will be free of charge from the Association of Marriage Builders website to those who are helping married couples thrive.
If you would like to partner with us in helping marriages thrive, please contact our president, Dr. Willard Harley, Jr., PhD, at bharley@aomb.org so that he can explain our mission to you in more detail. If you would like to make a tax deductable donation, please send a check to: Association of Marriage Builders, 12568 Ethan Avenue North, White Bear Lake, MN 55110. We will send you an acknowledgment that you can use for your tax return along with a quarterly update regarding the Association.
References
W. Bradford Wilcox, Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization (New York: Harper Collins, 2024), xi-xii.