Marriage is "absolutely essential to the success of any nation"

Dr. Rick Scarborough, Founder and President of Vision America on marriage and culture. 


How importance is marriage to the Kingdom of God and our nation?

It's absolutely essential to the success of any nation.

There's a passage in the old testament that says a cord of two strands is not easily broken. A cord of three strands can't be broken.

When the two are separated..they become easily broken.

I'm not sure if the church has stood up for heterosexual marriage in the past.

I can't think of one thing that the church has done a good job of in the past fifty years, but certainly not marriage.

Why don't we go to great expense for the training for marriage?

Not only do you focus on marriage, but you focus on the components of marriage.

You work on the components as well as the joint effort as well as seminars.

The first and most important thing is that you go back to Malachi, God hates divorce. He hates divorce, because He loves people.

We've worked so hard on self-esteem that we've forgotten about sin.

How important is it to train with gender specificity?

I don't think it's the only thing, but it's one of the ingredients.

Most men don't know how to be godly people, so they aren't godly husbands.

If we don't get our marriages together, will we suffer serious consequences?

Yes, sir. We're suffering those consequences.

One of the reasons we have so much conflict in the church is that there's so much conflict at home.

Not until we get this family thing straightened out...will we ever begin to grow as church as as a consequence as a nation.

If you were to give a few pieces of advice to the males listening, what would you say?

I would say simply, your concentration simply needs to be on being a godly person.

We don't need to learn to be better husbands. We need to be godly people.

Yes, there are certain things that we do, but what's more important is who we are.

Advice for the Women listening?

I joke and say, "If my wife is spirit-filled all the time, I won't have to be and we'll have harmony."

The worst thing a woman can do is...beat him over the head with how godly he is, and then lay blame for her behavior at his behavior.

The worst thing a wife can do is point out a man's faults and failures. The best thing a woman can do is pray.

The scripture says it's better to live on a rooftop than with a railing woman.

The man has to pursue being a godly man. The woman has to pursue being a godly woman.

What are the barriers between the church doing better at marriage?

We've got to take a knife spiritually and stab it into the heart of church growth.

We've gotten so busy with the mechanics of how to grow a church that we've forgotten it's Jesus' church.

We're not going to build strong and healthy families unless we stab a knife into the heart of this false god.

If you do the right things and godly things, growth will follow.

Matthew 6:33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.