Talk:Open marriage acceptance

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[edit] Released July 26, 2006

I strongly object to the conclusions reached by the following quote on the religiosity of swingers:

"'...Although a little over 70% said they did not currently attend church services in a typical month, the most frequent response concerning church attendance when growing up was every week. Thus, swingers were raised in religious home but, somewhere along the path to adulthood, a majority gave up their religion.' (Jenks, 1998) [10]"

I find it irresponsible at best to equate church attendance with religious identification or "status as a religious person." Surveys of American religious identification regularly reveal large numbers of people who self-identify as religious but who do not regularly attend church. Beyond being an illogical presupposition, the statement is ignorant of religions (or religiousnesses) which exist independently of church structures.

At best, to consider the data provided by this source as encyclopedia-worthy, I expect a comparison with a control population of "marriage-normative" individuals and a demonstrable attempt to avoid sampling bias. Else, the data may appear to suggest a false conclusion: that "swingers" (whose behaviors, in yet another instance of deception (accidental or otherwise), are implied to be relevant to all forms of open marriage) are less religious than individuals in traditional marriages in the same population.

What's more, this poor logic (or worse, ignorance or bias) is treated as an acceptable and valid mode of inquiry. Immediately following the quote we find:

"It is not known whether people give up religion before considering an open marriage, whether they give up religion because they cannot reconcile it with their open marriage, or both."

I will watch this page for a few days for a response before taking appropriate action. Temptinglip 07:36, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Kelly 07:25, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

The material seems inappropriate to the title. The title is about acceptance, while the entry is all about the lack of acceptance. The author is obviously arguing against the legitimacy of open marriage, rather than simply reporting data.

Dudeinhammock 10:51, 1 August 2007 (UTC)