Lesson video

Learners, and welcome to this lesson on cohabitation.

On your last lesson, we talked about Muslim, Christian and secular views with regards to same-sex marriage, and today we're going to be looking at different views again on cohabitation, and it promises to be a really interesting lesson.

Fun fact before we begin.

Did you know that in the animal kingdom there are creatures who live together for life, who mate and stay together for the rest of their lives? Isn't that fascinating? Well, it's really, really interesting particularly because there are animals like wolves and penguins and the albatrosses or Gibbons, and they all mate and stay together for the rest of their lives.

And of course, today we are looking at cohabitation, when people live together in a personal relationship, and it promises to be a really, really fascinating lesson.

I'm very excited and I hope you are as well.

So when you are ready, you know what I'm going to say at this point.

Let's begin.

But before we begin, let's make sure that you are correctly equipped to learn in this lesson.

And that means making sure that you've got a pen or a pencil that is something to write with, or another pen or a pencil to correct with.

You also want paper or an exercise book to write on.

Make sure you've got a quiet space to work in.

And most importantly, that you've brought your curious brain so you can do some thinking and learning.

I'm going to ask you also at this point to remove any distractions.

That means if you've got your TV or music playing in the background, please turn that off.

If you're using your mobile phone for this lesson, please disable your notifications and end your current conversations.

If you are using a desktop then make sure you put your mobile phone to one side or turn it off or put it on silent, and make sure any other desktop application is closed.

Again, just so you have no disruption to your lesson.

You can continue, you can think, you can learn, and you can take in lots and lots of new information throughout the course of this lesson.

So at this point, I'm going to ask you to pause your video and make sure that you are ready to learn.

That you've got your pen or pencil.

That you've got your paper, your exercise book, a quiet space, and that you're ready to think, and that you are ready to learn.

You're going to resume once you're finished and you are ready to continue.

Good, welcome back.

I trust that you are ready to learn, and we are now going to continue with our learning.

All right, in this lesson we are going to be recapping the purpose of marriage and we'll also go over sex outside of marriage, as it lays a good foundation for us to discuss Islamic, Christian and non-religious views on cohabitation.

And, of course, today we will explore some current trends in the UK to what cohabitation as well.

So there's going to be lots and lots of interesting stuff on this interesting topic.

So let's start off then by some recapping some really, really key terms. But do you remember what that term cohabitation mean? What is cohabitation? Good, if you said it's the state of living together and having a sexual relationship without being married, then you are absolutely correct.

Fantastic, well done.

What is the term for the state of abstaining from sex outside of marriage? Good, if you said chastity, you are absolutely correct.

What is fornication? Brilliant, if you said sex before marriage or between two single unmarried people, then you are absolutely right.

What is a married person having sex with someone other than their spouse called? Good, that's adultery, and that person will be called an adulterer.

What is sexual immorality? Perfect, it's sex outside marriage, including fornication or adultery.

I hope you've mastered these key terms. Let's go over them one more time and see if we can do it again.

I'm going to put the definitions this time.

You try to tell me the term.

What is the state of living together and having a sexual relationship without being married? Perfect, that is cohabitation.

The state of abstaining from sex outside of marriage? Brilliant, that's chastity.

Sex before marriage or between single unmarried people? Yes indeed, that's fornication.

A married person having sex with someone other than their spouse.

Absolutely perfect in a row.

Sex outside marriage, i.

e.

fornication or adultery.

What is that? Perfect, that is sexual immorality.

One more time.

I know I said one more time before.

But one more time just to make sure that we master it.

I want to really teach it to know this like the back of your hand.

So one more time.

And so I'm going to put the key terms. You tell me the definition.

What is cohabitation? Good, if you said living together in a sexual relationship, you are right.

Chastity? Good, abstaining from sex before marriage or outside of marriage.

Fornication? Good, having sex before you're married or sex between two unmarried people.

Adultery? Perfect, unmarried persons having sex with someone other than their spouse is sexual immorality.

Any sex outside of marriage, including fornication and adultery.

You've been so fantastic.

I hope you really now have mastered these key terms. Now that you know those key words so well, I'm going to ask you to pause your video and complete the following task.

You're going to define each of those five words for me.

Write the key term and the definition on your paper or in your exercise book, and show me that you have mastered this information.

And we're going to pause the video at this point and you're going to press resume once you are finished.

Good, welcome back.

I trust now you have finished this task and you have written down all of your definitions.

Well done.

We're remembering each of the definitions for these key words.

Let's go through three more key terms at this point, and we're going to look at three interesting, which again that relate to our discussion on cohabitation.

So three more words.

I'll put a definition on the screen.

You tell me the key term.

What is the key term for the legally or formally recognised union of two people as partners in a personal relationship? Good, if you said marriage, you are fantastic.

Well done.

What is Haram? Good, if you said something that's proscribed or forbidden by Islamic law, you would be absolutely correct.

What is the state of abstaining from marriage and sexual relations? Good.

If you said celibacy, you are absolutely correct.

One more.

So let's go through that and make sure we've mastered this key terms, this specialist vocabulary.

So I'll put the definitions there.

You tell me the key term.

The legally or formally recognised union of two people as partners in a personal relationship.

What is that? Good, if you said marriage, well done.

Forbidden or proscribed by Islamic law.

What's the key term? Haram, perfect.

The state of abstaining from marriage and sexual relations.

Good, that is celibacy.

Well done, I hope you got those key terms. Good, I'm going to ask you to pause your video again and make sure you have mastered these key terms. Write again for me the terms and the definitions.

Terms and the definitions.

Don't cheat.

Don't look back in your book.

Don't look back at the slides.

What I want you to do is to make sure you know these from memory.

So try to write the key terms and their definitions from memory for me.

Pause the video, and then resume once you are ready to continue.

Good, welcome back.

I trust now that you are finished defining those three key terms, and you know it like the back of your hand.

Well done.

Let's now move forward with the rest of the lesson.

And we're going to start off by doing some quick-fire questions.

Let's see how well you've mastered those key words.

So first question.

Which of the following is considered sexual immorality by many Christians? If you said both, you are correct.

Fornication and adultery are both forms of sexual immorality.

Which religious tradition does not permit celibacy? Good, if you said Islam, you are correct.

It does not allow celibacy.

People must marry and have children.

Which Christian denomination has celibate priests? Good, that would be Catholicism, the Catholic, Roman Catholic Church.

Well done.

What is chastity? Good, abstaining from sex outside marriage.

Good, what is Haram? Perfect if you said something proscribed and forbidden by Islamic law, then you are absolutely correct.

Good, and it's also important that we recap Christian and Muslim views on marriage because we are talking a related topic when we talk about cohabitation.

So what do Christians and Muslims say about marriage? Well, let's try to recall.

Many Christians and Muslims believe that marriage is a lifelong union, and they believe heterosexual and monogamous marriage is designed by God to enable sex, procreation and for the upbringing of children for society.

Therefore, for Muslims and Christians, marriage is the foundation of family life.

As a result, Muslim parents may arrange marriages for their children, and for some Christians, such as the Orthodox and Catholic church, marriage is a sacrament, which means it is the visible sign of God's invisible grace that comes through marriage.

So we can see can see that Christians and Muslims have lots of things in common when it comes to their viewpoints on marriage.

I'm going to ask you to pause your video at this point.

And here is a text taken from the Bible that tells us about Christian views on marriage.

I would like you for me to use the words in the white box to fill in the blanks in this text.

So copy the text and fill it in using the words in the white box.

You're going to pause your video at this point, and you're going to complete the task, and you're going to press resume once you are ready to continue.

Good, welcome back.

I trust you have completed this task.

Well, let's have a look at what you have done.

You're going to correct it for me.

The text says, "Marriage is to be honoured by all, and husbands and wives should be faithful to each other.

God will judge those who are immoral and those who commit adultery." So here we've got a text in the Bible, specifically from the Book of Hebrews, and it's talking about marriage being an important and honourable thing between husbands and wives, and God will judge those who have fornication and who commit adultery.

That means having sex outside of marriage.

This is about sexual immorality.

Good.

So quick-fire questions then on Christian and Islamic views on marriage.

Most Christians believe in same-sex marriage.

Is that true or false? If you said false, you would be correct.

Some Christians do, but not most Christians.

Few Christians believe sex outside marriage is not immoral.

Is that true or false? That is true.

Few Christians do believe that.

For example, the Quakers believe that sex outside of marriage is not immoral, but there are many Christians who do believe fornication and adultery is immoral.

Most Muslims and Christians agree that marriage isn't the right context for living together, sex and procreation.

Is that true or false? That is absolutely true.

Christians and Muslims both believe that you must live together after you are married and then you can have sex, and you can procreate.

That means having children.

Many Christians, many Muslims rather, do not that think that marriage is the foundation for the family.

Is that true or false? That is absolutely false.

Good, at this point I'm going to ask you to pause your video again, and you can see on your screen several different purposes of marriage because we've been reviewing the different purposes of marriage for Christians and for Muslims. And we can see here several things that will apply for both Christians and Muslims as being a purpose for marriage.

So what I would like you to do at this point is to pause your video and organise these blocks for me in order of how Christians believe they should occur from bottom to top.

So what comes first? Which things should happen first at the bottom and which things should happen later at the top? Organise the building blocks for me in order of how Christians and Muslims believe they should occur from the first things being at the bottom and the last things being at the top for me.

So pause your video at this point and organise the building blocks.

Of course, once you are finished spending a few minutes on this task, press play so that we can resume.

Good, well done.

Welcome back.

I trust now you have completed that task.

You've organised those building blocks.

Let's have a look and see if you've got it right.

So we can start off with the first two building blocks that which is foundational.

It comes before everything else.

And we've got the endless union.

I've put those two there together.

The endless union.

A lifelong union between two people joined together for Muslims and Christians by God.

So those are the things that come first.

The endless union, that is a marital relationship.

And, of course, that marriage is a sacrament for some Christians, but it's also a blessing from God or from Allah for Muslim and many Christians also.

So that's the thing that comes next.

It's a blessing from God.

And once God has blessed this endless union, we have people living together in a marital relationship.

That is a man and a woman living together in a marital relationship, and that is a personal relationship that may involve sex.

And when sex happens they then have the ability to procreate, to have children, have many children according to the Bible.

And, of course, also encouraged in Islam to have the family, which is 50% of the responsibility of a Muslim according to the Hadith.

Once they've procreated, they then rear children.

They raise them up, give them an academic education, maybe give them a religious upbringing.

And of course this whole thing, it's a pattern for society.

I hope you did really, really well in arranging these from what comes first to what comes much later or what comes last.

I hope you did really, really well on this task.

Well done if you got them all correct.

Okay, so we've been recapping the purpose of marriage.

How much do you remember on the purpose of marriage? I'm going to go through some quick-fire questions, true or false, to start off with.

Many Christians believe a lifelong union should proceed sex.

Is that true or false? That is true.

For the majority of Christians, marriage is a sacrament.

True or false? That is true.

Remember the largest Christian branches of Catholicism and the Orthodox branch also, and they make up more than 50% of Christianity.

Therefore, the majority of Christians do believe that marriage is a sacrament.

Christians believe procreation is the only purpose of marriage.

Is that true or false? That, of course, is false.

We looked at at least seven purposes, and procreation was only one of them.

Christians or Muslims agree that the family is the foundation for society.

True or false? Good, that is true.

Good, at this point, therefore, we have looked at the purpose of marriage.

We've recapped some key terms when it comes to marriage and sex outside of marriage also.

But of course today we are looking at cohabitation.

This was just to prepare us for a study of cohabitation.

So the first thing about cohabitation is to look at some recent trends in the UK.

So what happens in the UK at the moment when it comes to marriage, when it comes to different types of families, when it comes to sex outside of marriage, and when it comes to cohabiting? Well, let's look at what's happening in the UK as of 2017.

As you know that in the UK, there are over 19 million families as of 2017, and of those 19 million, 12.

9 are married-couple families, whether their couple is in a same-sex, civil partnership, whether they're in a same-sex marriage or a heterosexual marriage.

That 12.

9 consists of all of those type of married-couple families.

Of that 19 million, 3.

4 million are cohabiting families, cohabiting couple families.

And actually cohabiting for couple families are the fastest growing families in the UK because there is an increasing trend to cohabit instead of marry, or to cohabit before marriage.

So lots and lots of interesting stuff happening in contemporary British society.

Quick-fire questions on cohabiting couples in the UK, or cohabitation in the UK.

What type of family is the fastest growing family type? Good, if you said cohabiting-couple families, you are absolutely correct.

How many cohabiting-couple families were in the UK in 2017? Good, if you said 3.

4 million, you've done so well.

Your brain is really, really recalling this information.

What type of family is the most common family type? Good, that is a married-couple families including, of course, same-sex couple or same-sex marriage.

How many families were there in the UK in 2017? Good, there were 19 million families.

19 million families in the UK in 2017.

How many married-couple families were there in the UK in 2017? Brilliant, there were 12.

9 million married-couple families in the UK.

You have been so fantastic in memorising all of these key information.

You've done so well.

You should be proud of yourself.

At this point what I'd like you to do for me is to pause your video and read through the passages on the screen because now we want to look at Christian, Muslim and non-religious views on cohabitation.

We've recapped the purposes of marriage for Christians and Muslims. We've recapped some key terms and the purpose of marriage, and also sex outside the marriage, and we looked at some current trends in the UK when it comes to cohabiting couples and cohabitation in general.

So I want you now to think about and predict what is going to be the Muslim, Christian point of view when it comes to cohabitation? Read the passage for me, pause your video, and write down what you think their view is going to be.

Pause your video at this point, and once you've finished your task spending a few minutes guessing what the Islamic and Christian view is going to be, I want you to press resume once you are finished and you are ready to continue.

All right, welcome back.

I trust at this point you have finished reading the passages and predicting what you think is going to be the Christian and Islamic point of view.

But let's have a look now and see whether or not your predictions were correct.

We're going to start with Christianity.

So what do Christians think about cohabitation? Well, of course we know that Roman Catholics say that sex is designed by God, but it's designed by God for marriage and for procreation, and procreation should only for the Catholic Church occur in marriage.

And therefore for the Catholic Church, cohabitation is a sin.

And Catholics expect chastity before marriage.

And therefore, that church does not accept cohabitation as a good practise.

So what about the Anglicans? What do they think? Well, for Anglicans it's an acceptable practise, but it's not ideal.

It's not what God has intended for human relationships, but it is a good method of getting to know your partner before marriage.

And therefore for Anglicans, cohabitation is a premarital step.

It's something that you do before you get married to someone, and it's not something you do if you have no intention of marrying that person, and even if you are living together they will still expect you to be chaste, to maintain yourself or to keep yourself until you are married.

What about Quakers? What do they think? Well, remember Quakers accept sex outside of marriage, and that lends itself to their view on cohabitation.

Because for Quakers, marriage is not the essence of a good relationship.

Rather, it's commitment and trust and sharing and acceptance.

And therefore, as long as you have these things in a relationship, then you are in a good, long-term stable relationship.

And therefore sex and cohabitation is completely permissible.

So we got different views among Christians on cohabitation.

But what about Muslims? What do they say about cohabitation? Well, but both Sunni and Shi'a Islam believes that sex is meant to be within marriage.

And therefore they are against cohabitation.

And of course, this links with their views on sex outside of marriage because for Muslims sex outside of marriage leads to fornication or adultery, both of which are seen are they are sin.

And therefore Muslims don't allow men and woman to be together because that would cause temptation because that would then lead them to having fornication or committing adultery if you're a married person.

And therefore for Muslims, cohabitation it is not ideal because it is also a form of temptation, and remember, sex outside of marriage in Islamic country is a crime.

So Muslims expect their adherents to be chaste, to keep themselves until they are married, and that is when they are permitted to have sex.

As Surah 24 says, "But let them who find not the means of marriage abstain from sexual relations." That is the Muslim view on cohabitation.

What about humanists? What about non-religious people? What do they say about cohabitation? Well, most humanists will argue that it's the alternative to lifelong marriage, and it is a justifiable, credible alternative to getting married.

You got lots and lots of different views, different divergent views between Christians and Muslims and secular or non-religious people.

So how much do you remember at this point? I am going to take myself off the screen and I'm going to ask you to summarise the following religious or non-religious viewpoints.

What is the viewpoint of the Catholics, of the Quakers, of Muslims, and of non-religious people? I would like you at this point to pause your video and to write a summary for me of these different religious or non-religious positions.

Pause your video now, and you're going to resume once you spent a few minutes on this task and you've finished.

Brilliant, welcome back.

I trust now that you have written a summary of these different religious or non-religious perspectives.

I know you were able to tell me that Quakers who accept sex outside of marriage say that actually the essence of a good relationship is that there's commitment and acceptance and sharing.

And that, of course, means that people can cohabitate.

They can live together before marriage.

And, of course, it's a suitable alternative for non-religious people to marriage.

They don't necessarily agree that marriage is necessary in order to be in a sexual and in personal relationships.

We know that Christians have different points of view here like the Catholics, for example, who say that cohabitation is a sin because it promotes sexual immorality including fornication, and therefore, Catholics do not permit sex before marriage and do not permit cohabitation for that reason.

Muslims, of course, also agree with this, that sex is something that should not happen outside of marriage.

And therefore, allowing people to live together would be a loving temptation, and therefore that's not permissible in Islam either.

And therefore, people cannot live together before they are married.

So let's have some quick-fire questions.

What do Quakers believe about sex outside of marriage? Good, if you said it's acceptable in a loving, stable, long-term relationship, you are absolutely correct.

Quakers do not promote promiscuity, and it's not acceptable under any circumstances.

It has to be in a long-term stable relationship.

What do humanists believe? Good, if you said cohabitation is a legitimate alternative to marriage, you are absolutely correct.

Well done.

Your memory is so good, and I want you to continue transferring these things from your working memory into your short-term and then, eventually, your long-term memory.

Which religious tradition or Christian denomination does not require chastity? Of course.

That would be the Quakers who allow sex before marriage.

What is the punishment for sexual immorality, otherwise known as Zinah in an Islamic country? Good, the punishment is 100 lashes.

Well done.

Which branch of Islam is against sexual immorality? Sunni, Shi'a or both? Good, if you said both, you are correct.

Both of them are against sexual immorality.

Which of the following is the Anglican position of cohabitation? Brilliant.

If you said it's a useful step towards marriage but it's not ideal, then you would be absolutely correct.

We have done so much in this lesson.

We have managed to recap on the key terms for sex outside of marriage, and we've talked about the key terms of purpose of marriage and recapped the purpose of marriage as well.

We've looked at current trends in the UK when it comes to cohabitation, and we've looked at Christian, Islamic and secular views on cohabitation.

It has been a brilliant, fast-paced, exciting lesson.

I've very much enjoyed it, and I hope you did as well.

Quick reminder to complete your exit quiz to demonstrate your wonderful learning throughout this lesson.

And of course, you're going to continue reviewing and revising so you transfer information into your long-term memories.

It's been my absolute pleasure and privilege to teach you today, and I look forward to teaching you in our next lesson where we'll be looking at contraception.

And again, looking at Christian, Muslim and non-religious views on different types of contraceptive.

I very much look forward to seeing you then.

Until next time, stay safe and take care.