U.S. Marriage Decline Seen as Foreboding Sign for Society's Future
by Allie Martin
October 31, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A leader in the pro-family movement says a new Census Bureau report points to dark days ahead for American society. The recently released America Community Survey found that for the first time in the nation's history, married couples represent a minority of U.S. households.According to the recently released report on the survey, marriage has been in decline during the past 50 years and has fallen from 76 percent of all U.S. households in 1957 to just below 50 percent today.
Dr. Allan Carlson is founder of the World Congress of Families (WCF), an international network of pro-family organizations and leaders whose goal is to restore the natural family as society's fundamental unit. He says the U.S. needs to rediscover the importance of marriage if the current pattern of decline in married households is to be turned around.
What cultural analysts are seeing at present, Carlson says, is "a greater trend towards an extreme form of individualism, a reluctance to make binding commitments." And a binding commitment is, "in fact, what a marriage is," he points out.
"We've also seen declining public support for marriage," the pro-family leader notes. "Reforms of the marriage laws in the last several decades have weakened the institution of marriage," he says. "I'm thinking, for instance, of things like no-fault divorce."
In light of these factors, Carlson says the decline in married households in American culture is really no surprise. "It's been called a retreat from marriage," he observes. "It's been going on for a number of decades, and I would call it very disturbing."
America has "crossed a symbolic line with the fall of the number of married-couple households below 50 percent of all households," the WCF founder points out. But even though it is a symbolic line, he contends, "it reflects this broader trend which, again, is very troubling."
Carlson says it is time for the U.S. to rediscover and reemphasize the importance of traditional marriage. As things stand, he asserts, the nation is in danger of following in the footsteps of Europe, where married couples are an endangered species.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
