Reports suggest that married people live longer and are less likely to commit suicide, suffer from alcoholism, depression or acute and chronic illnesses. They earn more, save more, are promoted faster and have better sex lives. Conversely, studies show children of single-parent households have a higher rate of infant mortality and behavioral problems and are twice as likely to drop out of school. Even so, these factors are not proving to be enough of an incentive to keep black couples together.

Family therapist Audrey Chapman says black couples face more obstacles than whites. Education and finance affect all marriages, she says, but because of higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, black couples are affected more. Also, because many blacks have been raised in single-parent or dysfunctional two-parent families, they do not have a template of a successful marriage.

Couples, activists and the government are realizing that there may be no better place to turn for a message of hope on marriage than the black church.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that couples for whom religion was important divorced at a lower rate than other couples. This month, the Brookings Institution conducted a panel discussion called "The Marriage Movement and the Black Church." And House Republicans have introduced a measure that would provide funding to religious institutions to promote healthy marriages.

Though Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, does not believe that marriage can be legislated, he says African-Americans should seek out institutions, such as the church, that provide a nurturing environment. Chapman, too, concedes that her clients with religious influences fare better. It seems for African-Americans to make their marriages work, they've got to have faith.

Yolanda Young is author of On Our Way to Beautiful: A Family Memoir.