The study was conducted by researchers for the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and the Relate Institute. The study is part of “a growing body of research into the impact of delayed marriage.” Nationally, “the median age when people marry has risen to 27 for women and 29 for men.”

“‘Everyone is pushing marriage to their late 20s and early 30s, the Wal-Mart cashier as well as the Wells Fargo executive,’” said W. Bradley Wilcox of the University of Virginia, one of the authors of the study. “‘But the Wells Fargo executive is getting married in her late 20s and having her first child in her early 30s. The Wal-Mart checkout guy is having his first kid in his early 20s, and often marries in his late 20s, often to someone who is not the mother of his first child.’”

“The study found a large educational and class divide. College-educated women typically have their first child two years after marrying. The high school graduates as a group have their first child two years before they marry.”

Joan Williams, director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California at Hastings, said the trend for working-class Americans to delay marriage and have children before they marry “echoes behavior that was noticed in lower-income people several decades ago.” She said that “‘marriage is linked with the white picket fence in your head. When they can’t get the white picket fence, and a certain level of stability, they defer marriage and have higher rates of non-marital births. That in turn fuels more poverty, and takes them further away from the white picket fence.’”

Marriage and family have long been the focus and primary concern of the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of the Church, often called Mormons, believe that the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles were prophetic when they issued “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” in September 1995. In it they declare that

“…marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. . . . Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.”1

In the October General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ, Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reminded Latter-day Saints that the influence of Satan, or the adversary, is widespread. “As we know, he is attempting to erode and destroy the very foundation of our society—the family. In clever and carefully camouflaged ways, he is attacking commitment to family life throughout the world.”2

In the same General Conference, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke on the subject of protecting children. He said,

“A Harvard law professor describes the current law and attitude toward marriage and divorce: ‘The [current] American story about marriage, as told in the law and in much popular literature, goes something like this: marriage is a relationship that exists primarily for the fulfillment of the individual spouses. If it ceases to perform this function, no one is to blame and either spouse may terminate it at will. . . . Children hardly appear in the story; at most they are rather shadowy characters in the background.’”3

Oaks also noted:

“Children are also victimized by marriages that do not occur. Few measures of the welfare of our rising generation are more disturbing than the recent report that 41 percent of all births in the United States were to women who were not married. . . . Most of the children born to unmarried mothers—58 percent—were born to couples who were cohabitating. Whatever we may say about these couples’ forgoing marriage, studies show that their children suffer significant comparative disadvantages. For children, the relative stability of marriage matters.”4

Elder D. Todd Christofferson spoke strongly to the male members of the Church in the priesthood session of the same General Conference:

“In the Church and kingdom of God in these latter days, we cannot afford to have boys and men who are drifting. We cannot afford young men who lack self-discipline and live only to be entertained. We cannot afford young adult men who are going nowhere in life, who are not serious about forming families and making a real contribution in this world.”5

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ believe that if they prioritize marriage and family and seek God’s help when obstacles—including financial and educational—arise, they will find ways to obey their Heavenly Father and prophetic counsel to marry, have children, and safeguard both.

Notes:

1. The Family: A Proclamation to the World

2. Becoming Godly Parents

3. Protect the Children

4. Protect the Children

5. Brethren, We Have Work to Do

Reference:

Study: Delaying marriage hurts middle-class Americans most

This article was written by Paula Hicken, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Paula Hicken was an editor with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship from 2000 to 2013. She earned her BA degree in English from Brigham Young University. She edited Insights, the Maxwell Institute newsletter, and was the production editor for Faith, Philosophy, Scripture, Hebrew Law in Biblical Times (2nd ed.), Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture, and was one of the copy editors for Analysis of the Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. She also helped manage the Maxwell Institute intellectual property and oversaw rights and permissions. She has published in the Ensign, the Liahona, the LDS Church News, and the FARMS Review.

Additional Resource:

LDS Church News

A coalition of churches—the National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Romanian-American Evangelical Alliance of North America, Truth in Action Ministries, and The Church of Jesus Christ (Mormons)—joined together to ask that the Ninth Circuit Court reverse their decision that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

Lawyers for The Church of Jesus Christ drafted the briefs. Von Keetch of the Utah-based Kirton McConkie law firm wrote, “Our theological perspectives, though often differing, converge to support the proposition that the traditional, opposite-sex definition of marriage in the civil law is not only constitutional but essential to the welfare of families, children, and society.”

The passage of Proposition 8 in 2008 banned same-sex marriage in California. The brief defends the state constitutional amendment: “The people of California violated no one’s civil rights when they adopted Proposition 8. Their twice-expressed preference for the traditional definition of marriage over an untested rival conception was thoroughly rational. It is therefore thoroughly constitutional.”

In June 2008, the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ distributed a letter about “Preserving Traditional Marriage and Strengthening Families” that announced the Church’s participation with a coalition of churches, organizations, and individuals sponsoring a November ballot measure, Proposition 8, that would amend the California state constitution to ensure that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be legally recognized.1 The Church of Jesus Christ and many of its members experienced “violence and intimidation” because of the Church’s support of Proposition 8.2

Although The Church of Jesus Christ insists that marriage is between a man and a woman, they express compassion for those seeking gay rights. They created a website devoted to same-sex attraction that indicates where The Church of Jesus Christ stands on the issue: “The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them. With love and understanding the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.”3 The website features conversations with members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as well as videos of people sharing their real experiences.

The LDS Church and the coalition churches are not the only groups taking strong stances and filing briefs with the U. S. Supreme Court. Other religious, civic, and private organizations are filing “‘friend of the court’ briefs, weighing in on whether same-sex marriage should be allowed.” Utah Attorney General John Swallow has “joined other states in asking the court to uphold Prop. 8 and DOMA,” and the Utah Pride Center and twenty-six other groups filed a brief expressing support of same-sex marriage. On March 26-27, 2013, the U. S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on legal challenges to California’s Proposition 8 and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.

This article was written by Paula Hicken, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Paula Hicken was an editor with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship from 2000 to 2013. She earned her BA degree in English from Brigham Young University. She edited Insights, the Maxwell Institute newsletter, and was the production editor for Faith, Philosophy, Scripture, Hebrew Law in Biblical Times (2nd ed.), Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture, and was one of the copy editors for Analysis of the Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. She also helped manage the Maxwell Institute intellectual property and oversaw rights and permissions. She has published in the Ensign, the Liahona, the LDS Church News, and the FARMS Review.

Notes:

1. The Divine Institution of Marriage

2. Prop 8 Baclash Is “An Outrage That Must Stop,” Goup Says in Support of Church

3. Love One Another: A Discussion on Same-Sex Attraction

Additional Resources:

Love One Another: A Discussion on Same-Sex Attraction 

Helping Those Who Struggle with Same-Gender Attraction

In What to Expect When No One’s Expecting, author Jonathan Last “offers the stunning facts about America’s demographic demise and what happens as our fertility rate plummets.”

As baby boomers grew older, fears from overpopulation included “people jostling for space on a planet that’s running out of oil and food and land and everything else.” The picture of under population, however, is just as bleak: “Disease. War. Economic collapse. All are on the horizon—absent a drastic change in our views about the value of raising children.”

The United States isn’t the only country experiencing a slowdown in population growth. China, for instance is already in decline. Fearing overpopulation of their country, the Chinese government, in 1980, limited family size to one child. Due to that and the age-old bias for boys, the birth ratio is almost 120 boys for every 100 girls. Projections suggest that China will face a growing number of young men who will never marry. Last said that “by 2050, China will be losing 20 million people every five years.”

Marriage and family trends in America are startling. “Middle-class Americans have their own, informal one-child policy these days. And an alarming number of upscale professionals don’t even go that far—they have dogs, not kids. In fact, if it weren’t for the wave of immigration we experienced over the last thirty years, the United States would be on the verge of shrinking, too.”

The trend is a concern for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the Mormon Church. In 1995, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ issued “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” which details the eternal nature of the family and the responsibilities of family members. Latter-day Saints believe the declaration that “God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.” (See Genesis 1:28.) Five or six children in a Mormon family in the United States is common, although the Church has no set rule on how many children parents should have. The desire and commitment to bear children is so prevalent within the membership of The Church of Jesus Christ, a Latter-day Saint reading the title of Last’s book may have understood it to mean that he would be exploring the heartache of couples who face infertility.

The new research and statistics about America’s population that Last reveals are startling:

“America has its very own One Child Policy: The fertility rate for white, college-educated women is 1.6—roughly equal to China’s.”

“The cost to raise a child in 2012 is $1.1 million. . . . Education is the main driver of costs, increasing in real dollars by 1,000 percent in the last 35 years.”

“Children are now a marker of social failure: the more successful a couple is, the fewer children they’re likely to have.”

“America’s fertility rate is the highest in the industrialized world, but that’s only because of illegal immigration. And contrary to conservative fears, without the fertility of our immigrants, we’d be in even worse shape.”

“Abortion has played a role in declining fertility rates. In the ten years after Roe, 13.62 million children were aborted, more than 1 in 4 pregnancies.”

Last’s book explores why the “population implosion happened and how it is remaking culture, the economy, and politics both at home and around the world.” Reversing this trend is key to revitalizing America.

This article was written by Paula Hicken, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Paula Hicken was an editor with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship from 2000 to 2013. She earned her BA degree in English from Brigham Young University. She edited Insights, the Maxwell Institute newsletter, and was the production editor for Faith, Philosophy, Scripture, Hebrew Law in Biblical Times (2nd ed.), Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture, and was one of the copy editors for Analysis of the Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. She also helped manage the Maxwell Institute intellectual property and oversaw rights and permissions. She has published in the Ensign, the Liahona, the LDS Church News, and the FARMS Review.

Additional Resources:

Defending the Family in a Troubled World

Purpose of Family – Happiness in Family Life

China grapples with legacy of its ‘missing girls’