MORAL TIDE IS REFLECTED IN NEW CENSUS FIGURES

It really hasn't been that many years since "living in sin" had a social connotation that served as a societal barrier to out-of-wedlock living arrangements. Those also were the days when babies born to unwed mothers didn't get listed in newspaper birth notices.

But so much has changed.

Laws were changed.

Divorce became no-fault dissolution of marriage.

Churches -- often experiencing declining membership -- opted for positive outreaches that skirted tough moral condescension.

And newspapers went along with the social tide, listing all newborns but often leaving out the names of the fathers rather than publishing "unknown."

Without much in the way of legal, religious or social stigma, many Americans pay little attention to such old-fashioned notions as marriage commitments.

The 2000 census clearly measures this trend. Nationally, the number of single mothers with children under age 17 rose 25 percent.

And the number of unmarried couples went up 71 percent across the United States, according to the census.

Most observers would regard Cape Girardeau County -- and Southeast Missouri as well -- as a primarily conservative part of the nation, one likely to go counter to census trends showing looser morals.

But just the opposite is reflected in the latest people-counting figures.

In fact, increases in both unwed mothers (30 percent) and unmarried couples (135 percent) in Cape Girardeau County were at far higher rates than the national averages.

Now that census figures have confirmed the trends we already knew were there, what, if anything, do we do about it?

Churches in Cape Girardeau banded together a few years ago to require premarital counseling as a way of preventing future divorces among couples who sought religious sanctions of their marriages. Whether or not the effort has succeeded is difficult to pinpoint, because so many couples who opt for a marriage license have their unions sealed by a judge or go off to Las Vegas for a quickie flowers-and-rice-included ceremony. But there can be little doubt that sound counseling benefits newly married couples, so the hope is that the divorce rate among those who have participated in the Marriage Savers program is lower than the average.

The reality of American lifestyles has even gained the attention of the Roman Catholic Church. Meeting at the Vatican this week, assembled cardinals listened to Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia as he cited the latest census findings. Some cardinals pointed to the divide between official church directives and the reality of how people live.

As moral strictures fade away, society quickly adapts. The every-10-year census shows us just how fast.