It has long been shown in the academic literature that marriage serves as a substantial buffer against numerous life factors that harm one’s health and as a powerful promoter of those things which enhance personal well-being.

This is true for men, women and children who have married parents, as well as society as a whole when marriage rates are strong in a community.

A new study published by the American Sociological Association examines how marital status impacts deaths of despair stemming from alcohol, drug overdose and suicide in the United States from the years 2000 to 2021.

The four scholars authoring this study explain, “We found the nonmarried exhibit mortality rates 2 to 3 times higher in alcohol and suicide deaths and 4 to 5 times higher in drug-related deaths compared to the married population, net of education.” Those differentials are stunning.

They explain how powerful the marriage well-being premium is: “This magnitude of marriage advantage is comparable to educational differences in these deaths.” Marriage is as powerful as education in improving lives because it is an education. It teaches us to live well with others and with ourselves.

Examining these three factors for life well-being is important as “the increase in mortality due to suicide, alcohol, and drug overdose has become the main factor leading to stagnation or decline in U.S. life expectancy over recent decades.” These scholars add, “The marriage advantage widened substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

It’s been exactly 30 years since the Sony PlayStation made its debut in Japan, a product that was created because of a failed venture between the video game maker and Nintendo — another Japanese company that began in 1889 by selling playing cards.

PlayStation made it to America and the rest of the world the next year, and to date has sold over 400 million consoles. The PlayStation 5, or PS5, is the latest iteration.

Hailed as a game where “Play has no limits,” the company is promoting the console in a fantastical, gritty, city-based video advertisement where everyday structures turn into playful objects.

A metal garbage can becomes a basketball hoop, awnings are trampolines, the side of a building is a “Connect Four” game, and a stairway turns into a slide on which commuters are invited to descend, work clothes, bags and all.

The message is clear: Play shouldn’t be limited to the conventional.

Adding flair and additional fun to the ad is the all-important musical soundtrack. Appropriately, it’s called “I Feel Just Like a Child” by an artist named Devendra Obi Banhart.

A Venezuelan American singer-songwriter, Banhart wouldn’t be familiar to those who prefer Christian music. Instead, his music falls into the genres of what’s known as “Freak Folk,” “Psychedelic Folk,” and “New Weird America.”

But consider the lyrics you hear as the PS5 ad unfolds.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said, “If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

While Bonhoeffer was talking about stopping Hitler and the Nazis, his statement applies to us today as we combat “gender ideology” and the damage done to children who are irreparably harmed by the catastrophe of “transgender” madness.

It’s time to wrestle the steering wheel away from those who sterilize and mutilate children.

The Supreme Court has the opportunity to do this, as the justices hear arguments December 4 in the case United States v. Skrmetti. The Court will rule on the constitutionality of Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, a measure which prohibits medical procedures “enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”

Gender ideology tells children lies about who they are, including: “You may be born into the wrong body,” “Your gender may be different from your sex,” and “Drugs, hormones and surgeries can somehow transform you into the opposite sex.”

We all know that there are two sexes, male and female, and no one can change to the opposite sex. But gender dogma asks us to believe that what’s in a person’s head trumps biological truth. These beliefs are a flight into unreality and fantasy.

Lawmakers in Britain voted on Friday to legalize physician-assisted suicide in England and Wales.

The House of Commons approved the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in a 330 to 275 vote among the MPs. However, it has not been enacted yet. The bill will face additionally scrutiny in parliamentary committees and future amendments may also be proposed, according to The New York Times.

The bill would legalize physician-assisted suicide for those over 18 and are terminally ill. It stipulates several requirements for residents of England and Wales to be given assistance to die, the BBC reports, including:

• They must have the mental capacity to make the choice and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressure.
• They must be expected to die within six months.
• They must make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed (by them or a proxy on their behalf), about their wish to die.
• Two independent doctors must be satisfied the person is eligible — and there must be at least seven days between the doctors’ assessments.
• A High Court judge must hear from at least one of the doctors and can also question the dying person, or anyone else they consider appropriate. There must be a further 14 days after the judge has made the ruling (although this can be shortened to 48 hours in some circumstances).