Video Contest Asks Youths: Is Lifelong Marriage Possible?
The National Organization for Marriage is encouraging youths to consider lifelong marriage with a video making contest called Reel Love Challenge.
The Ruth Institute, an offspring of the National Organization for Marriage, is hosting a video contest it hopes will open up dialogue about marriage. The Reel Love Challenge encourages millennials to send in video entries answering one or both of these questions: What makes lifelong love possible? And, why is it worth the effort?
Aside from the stipulations of no unoriginal music or images, and videos must be between 30 seconds to three minutes long, there are little rules.
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However, there are plenty of prizes to lure young adults to participate. So far, the institute has given away $700, with the first seven people who posted a video receiving $100 each. The institute also gave a Flip video camera in a fill-in-the-blank contest with the phrase, "Marriage is." The contest winner completed the phrase with the words, "a fortress."
Amazingly, the Ruth Institute is not done. It will be awarding another Flip camera Friday after its Thursday Early Bird deadline, and another three Flips and $4,500 in top prize money at the end of its final February 1 deadline.
Institute founder Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse says all the money and prizes are worth it to find out what the next generation thinks about marriage. Young adults in their late teens to early thirties are, as Morse explains, "the real people who are going to make marriage what it's going to be."
For this reason, the institute has expanded its qualifications to include adults ages 18 to 30, single or married, college educated or not, religion or no religion so that it hears from as many people as possible.
A TIME-Pew poll recently made headlines concluding overwhelmingly that younger men and women are moving away from marriage. But pro-family groups such as the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family and NOM have all denounced those headlines saying that marriage is still relevant in society.
"From a Christian perspective, we believe that God's written on the hearts of everyone, those who know Him and those who do not, that desire to be married," Gary Schneeberger, vice president of communications at Focus on the Family, said of the poll.
Morse agrees, saying she does not put much stock in media reports about marriage. However, she is concerned about what young adults know about maintaining a marriage.
"Nobody talks about marriage and yet we know from polls that marriage is an important goal for young people," she observed.
The videos, she says, are the beginning of a conversation. So far, videos, featured on the contest's blog and Facebook pages, show young adults interviewing their parents and older siblings about lifelong love. There is even a homemade cartoon.
The videos, Morse says, will likely inform future contests and educational efforts.
On the Web: www.ruthinstitute.org/reellovechallenge
