And they wonder why I'll never get married...

First of all, I will give you a brief history of what had occurred this past week. I attended a wedding of a [female] cousin, with whom I do not speak with often. I assume it’s because when she found “god”, I was not worthy of her esteem, or maybe I just got into too much trouble as a teen. Anyways, at the ceremony & reception the priest had quoted Carle Zimmerman, and I am not sure if it was in the intended way or not. Apparently C.C. Zimmerman was a ‘celebrated’ sociologist that specialized in family patterning and the specific quote was from his book Family and Civilization (1947) in their wedding ceremony. Zimmerman supposedly states in the book, the following are the reasons of societal break-down in past civilizations were always preceded by the following familial patterning:

“Marriage lost its sacredness [and] is frequently broken by divorce;
Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost;
There is increased public disrespect for parents and authority in general;
An acceleration of juvenile delinquency, promiscuity and rebellion occur;
There is refusal of people with traditional marriages to accept family responsibilities;
A growing desire for, and acceptance of adultery, is evident;
There is increasing interest in, and spread of sexual perversions
and sex-related crimes.

Not only did the preacher quote these general guidelines, he told the congregation, ahem, I mean those gathered to celebrate the joyous occasion what Zimmerman REALLY meant by those words and in fact went through each section and described what he had meant and what god had intended for his ‘children’. (I have doubt if that is really what Zimmerman said, but I refuse to buy the book).

He meant those people who divorce; those that don’t believe in the bonds of marriage, and who do not marry; wives who do not listen to their husbands; those that fornicate outside of the bounds of marriage, whether married or not; children who do not respect or follow what parents or authority say; people who rebel against morality; homosexuals and people that practice other sexual perversions are the cause of societal decay and this has been shown time after time in multiple civilizations and it all starts within the family.

Then in the course of 30 minutes there were 4 separate prayers, further preaching, etc, etc, etc. In which I think all of our family was offended by something or other (I have a couple of lesbian aunts, an aunt who refuses to get married to her boyfriend, half the family is atheist or agnostic and me who can't listen to authority if it bit me on the @$$). If we weren't offended over the whole judgemental nature of the wedding, it was by the reception and dinner where the family was so far back that we were almost outside the tent.
Anyways, I have been doing some research on the venerable CC Zimmerman, and I will report if I find anything of value.
I know what some of you are thinking “it was your COUSIN’S wedding after all, its up to her”, & I was prepared for the whole god & church thing (she is a missionary after all), but this was being talked at for 1 hour about how we all are going to hell, and we will take all of civilization down with us! That was going a bit far in my estimation & no way to win new converts. Other than praying that this marriage works out 4 times in less than an hour & not even counting the reception & dinner (Maybe the preacher doesn’t think it will, LOL).