The Jericho Missile and Marriage Trends

Jericho Missile

I was recently introduced to the “Jericho Missile” while watching the Marvel movie “Iron Man”. The description for the Jericho Missile from a Marvel fandom site states, “In the launch process, the system first is given a target which it then calculates the distance to. The missile is then launched, and when it reaches a designated height and distance away from the target, splits into 16 smaller missiles that all hit the target at strategic places.” ("Jericho Missile," n.d., History section, para. 1) When it comes to the link between the Jericho Missile and Marriage Trends, one can truly tell that the one launching the missile is not marriage friendly and is attacking marriage with full gusto. In the description above we can note that marriage is the target the system is first given. Then after launch the smaller missiles hit the target – marriage – in “strategic places”, like divorce, co-habitation and birth out of wedlock.

Unfortunately, the wounds caused by the Jericho Missile cannot be healed by temporary bandages. Even more unfortunate is that those with power to heal the wounds from the marital Jericho Missile are only using figurative bandages, such as family planning, job training and secondary education. These figurative bandages have been a great start. It has been said before that knowledge is power and helping to provide knowledge and opportunity to improve individuals’ chances at a better life is a fantastic goal. According to “The President’s Marriage Agenda for the Forgotten Sixty Percent”, from The State of Our Union, written by Elizabeth Marquardt and her colleagues, “Scholars prefer to emphasize family planning and contraception for twenty-somethings who are at risk of unwed parenthood, opportunities for job training beyond high school, and sending more high school graduates to college. Yet these strategies, however desirable they may be, have not been very successful thus far.” (Marquardt, Blankenhorn, Lerman, Malone-Colón, & Wilcox, 2012, p. 10). This means that we need to do more then put extra time, energy and money into these initiatives, these strategies are a terrific starting point but they are not the answer to fixing the wounds from the disasters caused by the missile strike.

How do we clean the wounds from this missile while making sure another attack is not made? We follow the direction of our loving Heavenly Father given through the Apostles of our time. In General Conference of April 2007, Elder Oaks shared these profound words “A good marriage does not require a perfect man or a perfect woman. It only requires a man and a woman committed to strive together toward perfection.” (Oaks, 2007, p. 73). We seek the needed programs that will help us to become more loving and Christlike while teaching us to work together for this as a couple. We then turn these moments into teaching moment for our children so they can be passed on from generation to generation. As we advance in our learning with becoming more Christlike and helping our children to do the same, we need to remember that we have all been given the gift of agency. We can help to encourage those that ask for guidance in choosing the Lord’s way, but they will always have the choice to follow the advice or not. Our responsibility is to continue to be Christlike and show unconditional love for all those we meet. In this same talk Elder Oaks shared that “President Spencer W. Kimball taught: “Two individuals approaching the marriage altar must realize that to attain the happy marriage which they hope for they must know that marriage…means sacrifice, sharing, and even a reduction of some personal liberties. It means long, hard economizing. It means children who bring with them financial burdens, service burdens, care and worry burdens; but also it means deepest and sweetest emotions of all.” (Oaks, 2007, p. 73). These are the types of things we should be learning in our youth. We need to learn how to be selfless and caring. We need to learn how to communicate with others in a way that builds them up and helps them to be the child of God that they are. We need to destroy the missile launcher by giving him no place in our communities, our homes and our lives.

Jericho Missile. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2020, from https://marvel-movies.fandom.com/wiki/Jericho_Missile

Marquardt, E., Blankenhorn, D., Lerman, R. I., Malone-Colón, L., and Wilcox, W. B., (2012) “The President’s Marriage Agenda for the Forgotten Sixty Percent,” The State of Our Unions (Charlottesville, VA: National Marriage Project and Institute for American Values).

Oaks, D. H. (2007, May). Divorce. Ensign, 37(5), 70–73.