I began blogging back in 2004. Without any introduction, prefacing remarks, or words of explanation, I jumped right in with this as my first post:

Save Marriage!! Defend Marriage!!

If I get one more hysterical email about saving marriage, I think I’m going to scream. Mind you, I have nothing against marriage. I have nothing against saving or defending marriage. In fact, I’m all for it. And I’m old-fashioned enough to think that marriage, by definition, is between one man and one woman.

But I’m growing weary of the current hysteria.

I’ll know that the marriage-saving enthusiasts are truly serious about saving actual marriages when they begin to turn their energies to the following real problems that are threatening and destroying real marriages:

1. Pornography. I’m sure I’m not alone in knowing a number of marriages that have been damaged and destroyed by this blight.

2. Spousal abuse. Just recently, yet another aquaintance’s marriage dissolved as a result of ongoing abuse at the hands of her husband. At least she survived. She’s just one among many, many women I know who have tried for years to make an abusive marriage “work”.

3. Lack of good teaching about marriage—more talk about unity, self-sacrifice, friendship, and love, please, and less about the husband ruling the roost.

When I get some emails expressing alarm about the very real issues that I see destroying the marriages around me, then maybe I’ll join one of these campaigns to save and defend marriages.

At the end, it said:

Thus wrote Rebecca at 5/26/2004 07:04:00 PM

I had some idea that I was going to blog semi-anonymous, but that didn’t work for very long.

It’s interesting to revisit this post a decade later, especially since I’m planning some upcoming posts about marriage. I still think much of the Church gets a lot of things wrong about marriage, but I’m encouraged to see progress being made.