Unmarried are invisible, forgotten

[liberalhistorian]

41. As a liberal Christian, I can say you're generally

correct about the role of organized religion in perpetuating both the glory of marriage and discrimination against those who are not married (it's not just Christianity, though; more conservative sects of Judaism and Islam, etc., also do the same thing). However, there are also plenty of churches that are now recognizing the growing numbers of singles in this society, including among Christians, and recognizing their particular needs and that have ministries for them.

One of the best churches I attended, while it was more conservative than I would have liked, also had a full-fledged singles ministry with a full-time pastor for it; it had programs and ministries for all types of singleness, including older singles and single parents, and focused on how to have a good life as a single instead of falling into the "how to tolerate being single until you're married", trap that too many other singles ministries seem to devolve into. More and more churches are doing this and hopefully it will catch on. One of the best singles pastors of that church's program also had a great sense of humor; he used to say that Jesus was single and so we shouldn't ever feel bad about it, lol.

DePaulo may have recognized religion's role, but she may have been afraid to delve too deeply into it, for a variety of reasons. Authoritarian patriarchs do not like being challenged, especially by a woman.