Cohabitation (people living together outside of marriage) becomes ever more widespread.  An article on “What Cohabitation Does for Marriage” from last September:

If couples want to dramatically boost their likelihood of divorcing once married, few things so widely practiced will ensure that than cohabiting. This is just the opposite of what most believe.

Or this:

If women want to significantly increase their chances of being a victim of physical, sexual and verbal violence from their mate, cohabitation is what they are looking for.

He doesn’t mention that it greatly increases the chance of children also being victims.  All too often it is the new man in mum’s life who abuses her kids.

This is a very thoroughly researched article which gives some of the many negative effects which come from ignoring God’s plan and His direct instructions. 

Why isn’t this government (or the last one) giving warnings about this?  They want to tell us how caring they are, and play “nanny” in all kinds of ways.  Anyone who reads this article and the many studies which he cites has to acknowledge that cohabitation has done more societal damage than banker bonuses, phone hacking, or whatever the “villain of the day” might be.  The obvious answer is that one must not offend voters by encouraging them to do anything that is consistent with God’s Word.

Our author misses the biggest negative effect of cohabitation.

Isaiah 59:1-2

1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

That effect has eternal ramifications.