Most Young Folks Think Marriage is a Stupid Idea

 Not too many years ago, young women would hold onto their virginity and save it for their husband.  Men might be less likely to wait for marriage but 100% of men believed that marriage was one man plus one woman for life.  Also, not so long ago most Americans had some type of respect and/or fear for the God of the Bible.  They might not know Him but they understood there would be some kind of future judgment.

Today things are now radically different.  Little boys and little girls are exposed to porn at a very young age and I don't just mean one dirty magazine from 1967, I'm talking about the most vile and most graphic porn you could imagine.  And if you can't imagine, then the porn site will imagine for you.  Most young women today understand that if they are going to be popular with the boys they better get good at sex and recreating some porn scenes early on.

Many young men are content to live in their mom's basement playing video games and then swipe right on a hook-up app and go have casual sex.  No strings, no commitments.  If the sex is good and they seem to get along they might one day try moving in with each other.

Does this sound like a recipe for a successful society?  Can anyone turn it around?  Do young men and women ever dream of having one soul-mate/spouse for life?

The Marriage Strengthening Research & Dissemination Center (or MAST Center) recently released a new report illustrating the vast scale of disillusionment regarding the institution of marriage in the eyes of America's young people. Among other findings, the study found that almost 80% of teenagers (categorized as 15 to 19-year-olds) expect to cohabit before marriage, with 95% saying that they expect to marry someday.

In an article analyzing the report, Alysse ElHage of the Institute for Family Studies highlighted some particularly revealing comments from teenagers about their thoughts on marriage.

A teen from Texas reflected:

I feel like nowadays it's not really as important to get married, especially for people of my age and generation. The reason being is that we are being taught by our parents and educators that our education should come first in order to have a stable life financially and career wise, which causes many people to neglect the thought of marriage. Not only that, but society has also made marriage seem like it should be like the least important thing for a person to think about.

Another student from North Carolina wrote:

Asking if I want to get married someday is a poor question in my opinion. Marriage is just a title, a contract; it only begins to matter once love is in the picture. … I think it’s acceptable to live with a romantic partner without having plans to get married.

These findings and quotes combine for a perfect encapsulation of our current cultural view of relationships and marriage: living together is expected, while marriage is simultaneously a throwaway relic from prehistoric times but also a mythical ideal. As has become customary in our modern society, confusion and disillusionment now reign supreme.

How did we get to a cultural place where the concept of marriage has become so mocked and diluted? While many factors are at play here, arguably the most important factor is the societal loss of knowledge of why God created marriage for the human race, a covenantal relationship instituted at the very beginning of creation: "He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one'? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:4-6).

The extent to which teens are without solid foundational beliefs has been documented by the Barna Group, which found that about 4% of Generation Z has a biblical worldview. They also note that this number is the lowest of the three previous generations (10% of Boomers, 7% of Generation X, and 6% of Millennials).

The specific loss of a Christian understanding of marriage is key here. For the secular culture, marriage has simply become the formalization of a relationship of two people who are already living together. As alluded to in the two teen quotes above, marriage is seen as a foolish and unimportant idea, unless it has been thoroughly road tested by two people who have shacked up together to see how it goes, and then maybe done as a second thought if it happens to suit their fancy.

The first problem with this hypothesis is that it doesn't work. Studies have consistently shown that couples who cohabitate before getting married divorce at higher rates than those who wait until marriage to move in together. 

The reasons for this have been intensely debated amongst university elites, but for believers, the reason is clear: When God's laws against premarital sex are broken and ignored, the results are an absolute disaster. Since the sexual revolution began in the 1960s (when premarital sex began to become widely culturally accepted), the rates of divorce, abortion, and sexually transmitted diseases skyrocketed.

Still, it's quite telling that fully 95% of teenagers say they want to get married someday. Despite how profoundly our society has cheapened marriage and sex, our souls still yearn for God's design for humankind at the deepest level. 

Here;  American Teens Vast Disillusionment With Marriage - Most Expect To Cohabitate (prophecynewswatch.com)

Amazing!  Some 95% still say they want to get married!  But to whom or what or how many do they want to be married?  And for how long do they want to be married?  Til death parts them or until they aren't "happy" anymore?

The traditional family appears to be passing away in America.  And I'm quite convinces society won't survive it.