I am convinced that we have rounded a corner as a society and it is leading us down a very dark alley.
Consider the two stories I’ve run across in just the past 16 hours:
First, I see this story on ABC World News Tonight about how 40% of new births are to unwed mothers, not because of an increase in teen pregnancy which has actually dropped slightly, but because of adult women in their 20′s who are simply cohabitating and feel no responsibility to marry. In fact, a staggering 60% of births to women 20-24 were to unwed mothers!
Then, Dennis Rainey sends me this link about how an educator in Australia is suggesting that we have 5-year renewable marriage contracts rather than lifetime covenants. Unbelievable!
We have been speaking for a number of years about being in a “post-Christian” culture. I believe we are rapidly heading into a “post-marriage” culture. Marriage is no longer viewed as the bedrock of the family and has become completely optional to most.
Let me share with you this quote from Dennis Rainey:
A Harvard sociologist and professor by the name of Carle Zimmerman studied civilizations and determined that no nation can outlive the strength of its families. He said “Nations and empires rise and fall on the strength of their families.”
He identified three phases that the family went through as civilizations rose to power and then fell apart. What the family went through during the last stages of the fall was described by the following: marriage lost its sacredness, alternative forms of marriage were advocated, feminist movements flourished, parenting became more difficult, adultery was celebrated, women lost their inclination for childbearing, and sexual perversions abounded, including bestiality, but especially homosexuality and infidelity.
Zimmerman said this marked the final stage of societal disintegration.
If his book had been written last year, you would accuse him of just reading newspapers and being a fear monger. But his book was written in 1947.
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