Don't listen to the marriage cynics

When I wrote about my wedding in last week's post, several readers left

comments on the Deseret News Web site decrying my naivete and

predicting certain disaster for my marriage.

"One can't help but wonder if maybe you married too young," someone wrote.

"Every social scientist will tell you that in study after study people

who marry younger have a much higher incidence of divorce," wrote

another.

One reader even went so far as to publicly discourage any potential

"copycat weddings" prompted by my marriage (what?) and said I was

"setting a bad example."

This, apparently, is the neo-Mormon view of marriage. Gone are the days

of congratulating the newlyweds, replaced by the en vogue practice of

condemning their foolishness for marrying young.

It worries me that so many active Latter-day Saints would react so

negatively to what should be deemed happy news. Did the cultural

pendulum really swing so far toward obsessive mate-hunting that it has

now rebounded to the point where we shudder at the mere mention of

marriage?

I learned long ago not to be offended by anonymous readers who make

entirely unfounded assumptions about my personal life. After all, I

wrote about my wedding, and I suppose anything in my column is fair

game.

So rather than talking to the embittered marriage cynics, I will

address those who are still single; those who the cynics are trying to

reach.