SOCIAL STATUSES A CONDITION IN CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE: A CASE STUDY OF CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH, BABAYARE ASSEMBLY

Abstract

This study was on social statuses a condition in Christian marriage. Using Christ Apostolic church as a case study. Four objectives were raised which included: To ascertain whether social status influence Christian marriage in Christ Apostolic Church, to find out the important of social status in Christian marriage in Christ Apostolic Church, to whether Christian welcome social status in their marriages in Christ Apostolic Church and to find out whether social status really matter in marriage especially Christian marriage in Christ Apostolic Church. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up of pastors, elders, deacons and members were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies

Chapter one

Introduction

1.1Background of the study

Social status is the level of social value a person is considered to possess. More specifically, it refers to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, and deference accorded to people, groups, and organizations in a society. Status is based in widely shared beliefs about whom members of a society think holds comparatively more or less social value, in other words, who they believe is better in terms of competence or moral traits. Status is determined by the possession of various characteristics culturally believed to indicate superiority or inferiority (e.g., confident manner of speech or race). As such, people use status hierarchies to allocate resources, leadership positions, and other forms of power. In doing so, these shared cultural beliefs make unequal distributions of resources and power appear natural and fair, supporting systems of social stratification. Status hierarchies appear to be universal across human societies, affording valued benefits to those who occupy the higher rungs, such as better health, social approval, resources, influence, and freedom (Sauder, Michael 2012)

From the earliest days of the Christian faith, Christians have honored holy matrimony (as Christian marriages are referred to) as a divinely blessed, lifelong, monogamous union, between a man and a woman. According to the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (1979), reflecting the traditional view, “Christian marriage is a solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God, intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God’s will, for the procreation of children and their nurture. However, while many Christians might agree with the traditional definition, the terminology and theological views of marriage have varied through time in different countries, and among Christian denominations (Erwin and Geoffrey, 2000)

Many Protestants consider marriage to be a sacred institution or “holy ordinance” of God. Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians consider marriage as a holy sacrament or sacred mystery. However, there have been and are differing attitudes among denominations and individual Christians towards not only the concept of Christian marriage, but also concerning divorce, remarriage, gender roles, family authority (the “headship” of the husband), the legal status of married women, birth control, marriageable age, cousin marriage, marriage of in-laws, interfaith marriage, same-sex marriage, and polygamy, among other topics, so that in the 21st century there cannot be said to be a single, uniform, worldwide view of marriage among all who profess to be Christians (Cole, Steven J, 2020)

Mixed marriage is seen as a social problem in contemporary Nigerian society. According to Hornsby (2002:915) mixed marriage is a marriage between two people from different races or religions. Mixed marriage can also be described as the marriage of a couple who have different cultural; ethnic or national heritages or backgrounds. While a great many people unapologetically kick against such marriages and are vociferous in their opposition to it; another class no less formidable, is equally irate that the union of persons from different tribal origins should create rumpus, which at times leads to broken relationship, pains, disillusionment and in some cases suicide.

Church marriage was strictly monogamous unlike other types of marriages that gave room for polygamy. Church marriage was meant to be permanent. Divorce could be there in case one partner was dead or unfaithful. The church marriage usually it was based on love and it encouraged equality, companionship of both man and woman. In most cases children produced in such marriage were seen as God’s blessing, Psalms 1273:3, but even if without children or the childless couples still had to stay together in love because apart from bearing children, marriage had other values in life. The reason why I had decided to research on this was that most people had neglected church marriage so much both the elders, church leaders and most especially the youth tend to look at church marriage as wastage of resources.

It is well-established that Christians (and most adherents of other religions) generally hold more traditional marriage attitudes than the non-religious, with the former being much more likely than the latter to object to behaviours such as unmarried cohabitation and divorce, that are seen as undermining the centrality of marriage (Thornton, 1985; Pearce and Thornton, 2007; Adamczyk, 2013; Wilkins-LaFlamme, 2016). This general statement, however, does not take into account the wide variety of social contexts in which religious differences express themselves. In the past decades, processes like secularization and the fall of Communism have shaken up the religious map of Europe. Nowadays, large variability exists across countries and across regions within countries in the proportion of people that belong to a Christian denomination. Moreover, among Christians, large variation exists in the extent to which they identify with and engage in religion and religious activity. This raises a number of questions on the relationship between Christianity and marriage attitudes. A first question is which aspect of Christianity matters. Is it whether people identify themselves as Christians at all, is it the denomination they adhere to, or is it the extent to which people actively identify with and engage in religion and religious activity? Most studies that examine the relationship between religiosity and attitudes suggest that both active engagement and denomination matter, but their relative importance varies across studies, with active engagement generally (Moore and Vanneman, 2003; Pearce and Thornton, 2007; Finke and Adamczyk, 2008; Halman and Van Ingen, 2015), but not always (Adamczyk, 2008), being more important than denomination.

Religion only is important for its adherents or whether it also influences the broader community. Christianity is a major societal institution, and it could be that just living in a context that is highly religious may influence marriage attitudes, even for those who do not or only slightly identify themselves as religious. Evidence is not unequivocal though, with some studies suggesting that people hold more traditional attitudes in more religious contexts (Thornton, 1985; Moore and Vanneman, 2003; Finke and Adamczyk, 2008; Adamczyk and Hayes, 2012; Wilkins-LaFlamme, 2016), whereas others did not find such a contextual effect (Jaspers, Lubbers and De Graaf, 2007; Adamczyk, 2008). If a contextual effect would exist, the question is how large it is in comparison to the effect of indicators of individual religiosity

Statement of the problem

Some Christians perceive church marriage as friendship, companionship, love, sharing, humour, and ability to trust in each other, common, interests, set life commitment to each other, family unit and the future togetherness in church marriage. However other Christians perceive church marriage as a type of marriage that involved a lot of commitments; promise made in church, vows shared time wasted when organizing the ceremony, a lot of responsibilities.

Social class impacts your life in many other ways as well, including your happiness, your health, and even your intimate relationships. For instance, lower socio-economic status couples are less likely to get married and more likely to get divorced than higher counterparts

when it comes to the structure and quality of marriage and family life, America is increasingly divided by class. Middle- and upper-class are more likely to benefit from strong and stable marriages; by comparison, working-class and poor increasingly face more fragile families. Your social class can influence both your interests and your values, which makes a difference in your relationships. Although social status is not the only influence on relationships, it does matter, and should be recognized so you can deal with it successfully. Based on this background the researcher wants to investigate about social status a condition in Christian marriage

Objective of the study

The objective of the study is to find out social statuses a condition in Christian marriage. The specific objectives are;

1. To ascertain whether social status influence Christian marriage in Christ Apostolic Church
2. To find out the important of social status in Christian marriage in Christ Apostolic Church
3. To whether Christian welcome social status in their marriages in Christ Apostolic Church
4. To find out whether social status really matter in marriage especially Christian marriage in Christ Apostolic Church

Research Question

The following research questions were formulated;

1. Does social status influence Christian marriage in Christ Apostolic Church?
2. What is the important of social status in Christian marriage in Christ Apostolic Church?
3. Is right for Christians to welcome social status in their marriages in Christ Apostolic Church?
4. Does social status really matter in marriage especially Christian marriage?

Significance of the study

The study will be very significant to students, Christian family especially  Christ Apostolic church and education the general public. The study will give a clear insight on the social statuses a condition in Christian marriage. The study will educate the public the important on social status in marriage. The study will also serve as a reference to other researcher that will embark on the related topic

Scope and limitation of the study

The scope of the study covers social statuses a condition in Christian marriage. The study will be limited to Christ Apostolic church in Babayare assembly

The limitations of this study include:

Finance: Due to the economic hardship that is faced by people, including the researchers, the possibility of a larger sample size which may have helped the work to cover many areas has become impossible. Hence, this work will be limited to case study.

Time: It was not unusual that the researcher was constrained by a time limit, as it posed a serious threat to the successful coverage intended in the course of this study. It is the intention of the researcher to interview all the respondents from the selected case study, but because of various activities of the researcher which border on both academics, work schedules and other social activities, it has become relatively impossible to justify that intention.

₦5,000.00 – DOWNLOAD FULL PROJECT DOWNLOAD FULL PROJECT Added to cart

---

---

---

---

Related Project Topics :