Unique TV Show "Marriage Uncensored" - 3/22/07

[Smartmarriages]

Unique TV Show ¹Marriage Uncensored¹ Dares to Take the Gloves Off to be
Culturally-Relevant
By Michael Ireland
March 22, 2007 

> Marriage Uncensored is a division of Family Life Canada ‹ a ministry of Campus
> Crusade for Christ. The show is driven by donors who are committed to help
> turn the tide in the divorce rate in North America and around the world

> Guests this season have included: . . . Dr. Bill & Joyce Harley (authors of
> His Needs, Her Needs),  Dr. Emerson Eggerichs (author of Love & Respect),

> Past shows and other resources can be found at www.marriageuncensored.com.

LANGLEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA ‹ Marriage Uncensored, a unique marriage
counseling TV show, was launched when someone gifted a year of airtime on a
local cable station to Campus Crusade/ Family Life Canada. The show started
as a local effort to provide creative programming for the family in the
local Vancouver, B.C.-viewing area. The program is now aired on the Canwest
Global network across Canada, and on PBS in the U.S.

Marriage Uncensored TV show hosts Dr. Dave Currie and Christie Rayburn

According to Janice Nikkel, one of the producers behind the show : "There is
no other show like Marriage Uncensored on television today. It follows a
talk show format where guests join family coach, Dr. Dave Currie and co-host
Christie Rayburn on various issues that affect the family. We seek to be
entertaining, educational and ¹uncensored.¹ The show isn¹t about white
picket fence issues, but we try and cover the difficult issues ‹ real issues
families might face on their journey and we seek to offer practical support
with specific ways to get through those areas."

Nikkel says of the program : "Our aim is to help build strong marriages.
Two-thirds of our shows are about marriage issues, one-third are about
parenting. We strive to be culturally relevant for audiences outside the
church and help them achieve healthy families."

Topics will range from talks about sex, parenting, kids, teens,
relationships, dating, infidelity, and even losing a child. (You can check
on their website www.marriageuncensored.com to view a list of the past
seasons¹ topics). Some of the show titles include : Marital Mayhem ­ Stupid
Things Couples Do ; Sexual Addiction ­ Does Your Husband Have a Secret ? ;
Shell Shocked ­ Waking up to the Realities of Marriage ; and When Bad Things
Happen to Good Marriage.

Nikkel continued : "We seek to provide information and tips that will help
couples anticipate and hopefully prevent potential problems. For those
seeking help on a current issue, we offer remedial help to our viewers. In
addition, we offer support on our web site through a monthly e-zine. We also
have an online area to ask Dr. Dave any question. For those seeking
additional support, we have also set up an online mentoring relationship
with trained mentors."

Like any relationship, says Nikkel, marriage takes work.

"In marriage you bring two people together who have different personalities,
backgrounds, complexities, and other unique needs. Multiply this with
baggage from their family of origin and you have a recipe for lots of
potential problems. Most relationships have complications, and if you avoid
conflict, you¹ll avoid each other. Failure to deal with problems that do
crop up is asking for a major blow up. In life, you need to take a course to
get a boating license, a driver¹s license or even babysitting license. But
they give marriage licenses to anyone who applies."

Aimed at the 30-something crowd who are busy juggling the demands of raising
kids, careers, and trying to keep their marriages together, Marriage
Uncensored seeks to be a source of real hope with real answers.

The half hour talk show is designed to be engaging, relevant, open and
almost raw, thus uncensored in its discussion on issues many families face.

Program host Dr. Dave Currie says : "We aren¹t afraid to tackle any issue,
be it abortion, broken marriages, pornography, sexual anorexia, affairs ; we
cover all the difficult ones within a marriage and how to face them."

Together with co-host Christie Rayburn, Dr. Currie also covers topics
including raising great kids, having good manners, the effect of media on
families, issues teenagers face, and even great sex in marriage.

When faced with marital struggles, or other crises, people might not go to
marriage counseling or seek help at a church, but they will watch television
or go to the internet for help. Dr. Currie says they hope to "improve what
goes on in the four walls of your house. We maintain over and over again
that you will never regret putting your marriage and family first."

The goals and aims of the program are to provide healthy, culturally
relevant and Biblically based material for an audience that is outside the
church. Dr. Currie continued : "Our goal is to help people achieve healthy
families. It is the tip of the spear into the culture to build a
relationship of trust with the people so we can help them further in their
personal lives and their relationships."

The show seeks to do this through their web site and on-line mentoring.

When asked if the show is relevant to those with good marriages, Dr. Currie
says : "Most relationships have complications. I think for a person to say
that a good marriage doesn¹t have problems is either drunk or dead. A good
marriage is one where we can work through problems in a reasonable, fair and
short order. If you try to avoid conflict you end up avoiding the
relationship and thus each other."

He adds : "Every relationship is permeated with some levels of conflict,
albeit, some more difficult than others because of families of origin,
personal baggage, etc. but the bottom line is all marriages will go through
some stages of conflict at different seasons of the marriage. The failure to
anticipate that there will be problems and the failure to deal with them
properly when they do come up are some of the biggest issues why marriages
have problems. People get education on how to drive cars. They even take a
course to get a boating license. But they can get a marriage license without
taking a course on how to have a great marriage. Our argument is that they
need to get help in just building a good marriage."

What is making marriage so hard to make successful ?

"High expectations," says Nikkel. "The more you put into working at your
marriage, the higher value you will place on it. There aren¹t as many good
role models today, and Marriage Uncensored wants to be a resource they can
use."

ANS wanted to know what are some of the most helpful suggestions for
improving marriage that the hosts have shared with their audience ?

"Dr. Dave explains that this is a show ¹we dare couples to watch together.¹
Every guy likes a dare, and when you take the time to watch it together, you
are both opening up the opportunity to work through things. Dr. Dave ends
every show with the phrase : ¹You¹ll never regret putting your family first
!¹

Nikkel adds : "This show is such a great resource for people to know about.
People may not go to church, or they may not go to counseling, but they will
watch TV and they do surf the web. The show isn¹t good to anyone if they
don¹t know about it !"

Marriage Uncensored is a division of Family Life Canada ‹ a ministry of
Campus Crusade for Christ. The show is driven by donors who are committed to
help turn the tide in the divorce rate in North America and around the
world. When asked how long he sees himself as the director of Family Life
Canada, Dr. Currie quickly stated : "Until I see a decline in the number of
divorces in this country."

Guests this season have included radio personality, Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
After being invited she said she loved what the show was all about and
wanted to be a part of it. Other guests have included : Dr. Gary Chapman
(author of NY Times bestseller, The Five Love Languages), Dr. Henry Cloud
(author of Boundaries and Integrity), Dr. Bill & Joyce Harley (authors of
His Needs, Her Needs), Dr. Bill & Pam Farrel (authors of Red Hot Monogamy,
Dr. Emerson Eggerichs (author of Love & Respect), MovieGuide film critic Dr.
Ted Baehr, and Jeff & Shaunti Feldhahn (authors of For Men Only and For
Women Only).

Marriage Uncensored can be viewed on PBS in the United States, on the
CanWest Global Network across Canada, and in Israel and Guam.

If your local PBS station is not currently carrying Marriage Uncensored,
please call them and ask them to air this show. Past shows and other
resources can be found at www.marriageuncensored.com.


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