Is Quebec becoming the world’s first post-marriage society? A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (cbc) radio documentary broadcast on August 9 posed this question based on a national survey on marriage and cohabitation in Canada, particularly in the province of Quebec.

The 2006 study titled “Marriage and Cohabitation: Demographic and Socioeconomic Differences in Quebec and Canada,” by sociologists Don Kerr, Melissa Moyser and Roderic Beaujot, noted that Quebec had rates of divorce, cohabitation outside of marriage and childbirth out of wedlock that were substantially higher than the rest of the country combined!

For a Canadian province that has historical roots in the French language and the traditional Roman Catholic religion, these statistics are startling, to say the least. Kerr, Moyser and Beaujot made comparisons with similar statistics for Sweden, Norway and Denmark, “that now have very low marriage rates and very high levels of cohabitation.”

The study, which documented family change in Canada, examined two important points of transition. The first came in the late 19th century, when fertility and mortality rates declined as a consequence of Canada’s entry into the modern world; this decline continued until the mid-20th century and ended with the post-World War ii baby boom.

The second transition was much more recent. The authors observed “the particularly rapid pace at which cohabitation became a popular alternative to marriage in the province of Quebec.” As an example, in 1986 approximately 12 percent of Quebec couples were living common law—the same percentage observed today in the rest of Canada. In 2001, the percentage of cohabiting couples in Quebec had reached an alarming 29.8 percent! (That figure is confirmed by a similar independent study by The Vanier Institute of the Family.) According to The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, by 2006, common-law-couple families in Quebec represented 44.4 percent of the national total, which came in at 17.9 percent.

Along with commenting on Quebec’s having the dubious distinction of the highest divorce and cohabitation rates in the entire country, the radio documentary also reported the shocking statistic that 60 percent of children in Quebec are born out of wedlock. This statistic included births to single mothers as well as cohabiting couples.

In attempting to explain the reason for the increase in cohabitation, one of the authors of the study said, “Many men and women in the event of a divorce are hesitant to marry for a second time, and subsequently, cohabitation serves as popular alternative.”

In The United States and Britain in Prophecy, Herbert W. Armstrong identified France’s ancestor as Reuben, the son of Jacob. That would include those from northern France who eventually migrated to New France (Canada). Mr. Armstrong wrote, “The tribe of Reuben settled in the country that is France today. They had lost their national identity. But the French have the very characteristics of their ancestor, Reuben.”

As Jacob’s firstborn son (Genesis 29:32), Reuben would have automatically inherited the birthright upon the death of his father. However, due to sexual impropriety, Jacob “disinherited” Reuben and passed on the birthright to Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 35:22; 48:14-16). Under God’s inspiration, when Jacob (Israel) outlined the prophecies of what would happen to his sons in the end time, he singled out Reuben as “unstable as water” because he had defiled his father’s bed (Genesis 49:3-4).

It seems Reuben’s proclivity for illicit sexual relations and marriage problems can be seen even among his modern-day descendants.

To obtain God’s revealed understanding about the spiritual principles of the marriage state and the roles of the husband and wife within that relationship, read Mr. Armstrong’s booklet Why Marriage! Soon Obsolete?, available free upon request.