Cohabitation (WJEC Eduqas GCSE Religious Studies): Revision Note

What is cohabitation?

• Cohabitation is a couple living together and having a sexual relationship without being married to one another or in a civil partnership

• Cohabiting couple families occur when a cohabiting couple is raising children

• Cohabitation and cohabiting couple families are becoming increasingly common in society

  • Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the number of cohabiting couple families is growing faster than married couple families

    • The number of cohabiting families increased by 25.8% between 2008 and 2018

    • The total number of families in the UK rose by 8% between 2008 and 2018, from 17.7 million to 19.1 million

• Some couples choose to cohabit before getting married, while other couples remain together without ever marrying

Christian views on cohabitation

• Traditionally, Christian teachings have always opposed cohabitation

• However, as society changes, many Christians take an increasingly tolerant line

• Views vary between denominations

• Catholic and Orthodox Churches are opposed to cohabitation because they believe the only acceptable place for a sexual relationship is within a marriage

  • They expect people to wait until they are married to have sex and live together

• The Catholic Catechism teaches that sex outside marriage is a “grave sin”

• Some Christian denominations, including the Church of England, state that although marriage is the best state, people may cohabit (live together) in a loving, faithful and committed way

• Some Baptist Churches may refuse to marry a cohabiting couple

Muslim views on cohabitation

• Islam sees marriage as important to God

• Islam teaches that a sexual relationship should only occur within a marriage; sex before marriage is wrong and is not supported

• Muslims are against cohabitation; they believe that if a couple lives together before marriage, they may be more tempted to begin a sexual relationship and so they should wait until they are married to live together and have a sexual relationship

• However, society is changing, and some Muslims may choose to cohabit or be more accepting of cohabitation generally

• The Qur’an suggests that failing to follow teachings on issues such as cohabitation could lead to Muslims committing other evils