'Younger wife' for marital bliss

According to the BBC reports, the secret to a happy marriage is choosing a wife who is smarter and at least five years younger than you. This is what UK "experts" say. Couples are more likely to go the distance (presumably unto death), particularly if neither has been divorced in the past, according to the Bath University team.

Well, I fit the bill on both counts. My wife is at least five years younger that me and is a lot smarter. And neither of us has been divorced.

So thank you Bath University experts. You've made my day!

Strange goings-on at Miss USA!

Carrie Prejean is the current Miss California and she believes that "a marriage should be between a man and a woman". This is not an outlandish belief. It is the Christian understanding of human sexuality and is the bedrock of the Sacrament of Matrimony. Whilst a few who profess to Christian belief take alternative opinions and the gay community obviously think otherwise, it is nonetheless orthodox belief.

You may wonder what all this is about. Well, Miss Prejean replied honestly to a question about marriage at the Miss USA contest. "I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offence to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised." This answer caused the libertines and free spirits to turn apoplectic.

Keith Lewis, who runs the Miss California competition, released a statement condemning Miss Prejean's comments. "As co-director of the Miss California USA, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss California believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman." Well, well! What a critically opinionated guy he is, for sure.

Mr. Lewis represents the kind of "democrat" that wants only one course of action. He may think he is a liberal, but some liberals can be very illiberal indeed. So he engineered her demise as Miss USA! Rather spitefully he said, "She lost it because of that question. She was definitely the front-runner before that."

I think Miss Prejean is well out of it. Spending a year promoting his pageant queen business would be hell on earth. At least she knows she has her integrity intact!

As the woman vicar said to the bishop!

For those who say the Church should get modern I suppose adultery and infidelity are not what they are thinking of. The real world has both in spadefuls it seems. It is therefore very sad when such things encroach on the lives of Church members and clergy. Not that those of us in the Church are less capable of falling short. Far from it.

In the Church in Wales, the Right Rev. Carl Cooper resigned as Bishop of St David's yesterday. He had apparently been having an affair with a married woman who was also the bishop's chaplain and communications officer. The Daily Mail erroneously described her as a vicar, but then all priests in the Anglican Church are vicars to the popular press, even if they are curates, chaplains, rectors, assistant priests or priests-in-charge.

This is a sad state of affairs, literally. What I find difficult is that both sides seem more attuned with the ways of the world rather than trying to reconcile their actions with their faith. With the modern approach to a more laissez faire version of Anglicanism, the "moving out" and "splitting up" comes before trying to maintain marriage vows.

The New Testament (1 Timothy 3:2, 12) says, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach. . . ." Not all live up to that and one should never judge, but giving in quite so easily seems to me to suggest a lack of willingness to try again.

Shannon mother in new probe about McCann fund

What a task the police have in unravelling the complicated life of Karen Matthews, the mother of the schoolgirl Shannon, who disappeared for three weeks. Ms Matthews is now seemingly involved in a request for cash from the Madeleine McCann fund. It may be rash to jump to conclusions, but all the latest twists and turns would indicate that the police have always thought that this was not a normal kidnapping.

It should not be forgotten that a nine-year girl has been removed from what is at best a dysfunctional family. I don't know how many families are like this one, but just by keeping my eyes open, I don't find it hard to come across similar situations. As a society, I think we should be trying to revert to raising children within stable families and not encouraging such "freedom" to flourish.