LCM decries swelling broken marriages in Liberia

Life Counseling Ministries, a local Non-governmental organization in Zubah Town Community, Paynesville attributes increased divorce cases in Liberia to lack of proper counseling for couples before marriage.

LCM General Overseer Rev. Benjamin Solomon Okai, made the observation in an interview with this paper on Monday, 18 December in Paynesville City outside Monrovia.

Rev. Okai says he sees no reason why the appropriate agency of government responsible to issue certificate of marriage declined to firstly provide adequate counseling services to parties wanting to wed before certificating them.

He notes that most of the divorce cases confronting the Liberian society today is as a result of marriage couples not receiving appropriate counseling that would adequately prepare them for what lies ahead after the euphoria the characterizes the wedding day.

He suggests that government establishes a counseling department at the Ministry of Internal Affairs to counsel couples desirous of wedlock and also to employ services of qualified and professional counselors.

According to him, when this is done, it would better prepare people and make them to understand the true meaning of marriage which he termed as life imprisonment for those entering into the sacred act bless by God.

Rev. Okai explains that when God made man he knew that man could not live on earth alone, so he made woman as a partner, blessing them with everything they need to peacefully co-exist as husband and wife.

He reiterates that unless government places seriousness on counseling before marriage, the country risks more broken marriages because those involved in the process are not spiritually and mentally prepared for aftermath of marriage.

He calls on religious leaders overseeing the affairs of churches not to encourage or endorse marriages among their congregation unless couples go thru rigorous counseling based on Biblical principles.

The Holy Bible subscribes to one man, one wife until death separates a couple. The Bible also prescribes that what God has put together thru wedlock, no man should put asunder.

Divorces leave behind multiple consequences, including broken homes and families, single parenthood, and abandoned children, who eventually become criminals or social deviants.

By Emmanuel Mondaye-Editing by Jonathan Browne