The Observer (Kampala) -“Linguists at the University of Lancaster used computers to trawl through millions of books, speeches, studies and newspaper articles currently in circulation.
They found ‘marriage,’ ‘childhood,’ ‘God’ and ‘religion’ all fell in popularity but ‘Christmas’ was on the up.
And although ‘modesty,’ ‘conscience’ and ‘gentleman’ are no longer in vogue, ‘sex’ and ‘celebrity’ are far more common.”
That, I picked from part of an article on Mail Online, that I found quite interesting. The research may have been done in the UK, but it is very reflective of what is happening elsewhere in the world too.
It says a lot about how life has changed in the last 50 years, the period on which the research was based. As we embrace a life of mortgages, credit and getting ahead by all means, the things that would otherwise keep us grounded are losing foot in everyday conversation.
I found that intriguing; even scary. Common etiquette is increasingly replaced by ‘time-saving’ slang and informalities. Who has not noticed in their community, for example, that being God-fearing or spiritual is increasingly considered boring, even backward? I shudder to think what the next generation’s views about marriage will be; it is already really bad.
About five years ago on a visit to Copenhagen, my hostess spent a lot of time convincing me that marriage did not mean church or mosque ceremonies; that it is simply an amicable arrangement by two adults to stay together and raise children.
In fact in her country Denmark, less young people considered weddings at all; majority was happy cohabiting, after all, the state laws took care of ‘housekeeping’ issues such as financial settlements in the event of a breakup.
The way things are in Uganda, I am afraid we are headed there, unless we really intercede for our nation. Marriage is what keeps a nation, a church, even a home grounded. I have seen it; the more married people an organization or church has, the more stable things seem to be.
That is why some Christian organizations, including universities, insist on their staff being married. It is not just a farfetched assumption.
