Majority of Americans nowadays believe it's acceptable for couples to live together prior to marriage.
This was revealed in a new report conducted by The Barna Group, according to The Christian Post. The report, titled Barna Trends 2017, showed that nearly two-thirds of 65 percent of American adults believe cohabitation is a good idea.
Only 35 percent believe it's a bad idea. Around 57 percent of the respondents even say that they are either currently living in or have previously lived in with their significant other.
For them, living together is not just for convenience or cutting down on expenses. Most couples actually believe that living together is a rite of passage before marriage. Around 84 percent of couples answered that cohabitation is a good way to test compatibility, while 62 percent said it did not reduce or increase the pressure to tie the knot. Only 18 percent thought that it increased pressure.
Meanwhile, the same report said a lot of women are leaving the church. Their reasons include competing priorities, a busy lifestyle, changing family structures, as well as lack of emotional engagement or support.
Compared to women, men are historically less likely to attend church regularly. But the report noted that the trend has somewhat shifted, since only 52 percent of America's unchurched population now are men.
"One of the greatest challenges for the Church today is to make the gospel relevant to women," the report quoted evangelist and activist Christine Caine. "We are hemorrhaging a generation of women who have often been made to feel that they have a limited role to play in the Church. The landscape has changed dramatically for many women in the Western world when it comes to their inclusion in and contribution to all sectors of society and decision making — but there has not necessarily been a corresponding shift in church."
