On January 31, 2018, my wife and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. At the end of this year, in mid-December, my wonderful parents will celebrate their 50th. Before my beloved father-in-law was criminally taken from us by a drunk driver in 2015, he and my sweet mother-in-law were married for almost 46 years. Taken together, those are rare numbers these days in our slow-to-marry, quick-to-divorce, sex-crazed, hook-up culture.

Like every other marriage in human history, none of the unions mentioned above were, or are, perfect. Each of us has certainly seen our fair share of tough times, but, as far as I know, there has never been even a hint of adultery, and “divorce” has never even been whispered. Of course, if any of us decided to abandon what God has revealed and go our own way when it comes to sex and marriage, disaster would result.

If you are similarly blessed in marriage within your own family, then almost certainly you or your spouse, parents, siblings, in-laws, and the like, subscribe to -- or at least are heavily influenced by -- Christian teaching on marriage, sex, and the family. Tragically, that is true of fewer and fewer Americans.

As we broadly examine the condition of and attitudes toward sex, marriage, and the family across the U.S., “disaster” would be a fair description of what exists. U.S. marriage rates continue to remain at record lows, while out-of-wedlock births remain at record highs. Again, the results of these trends are particularly devastating for children. The breakdown of the family is the single greatest cause of poverty in the U.S. As Robert Rector pointed out years ago, “Being raised in a married family reduced a child’s probability of living in poverty by about 80 percent.”

In order to further their big government agenda, modern liberals often point to education as the answer to poverty in America. However, marriage is a far better weapon against poverty than is education. Again, as Rector points out, “being married has the same effect in reducing poverty that adding five to six years to a parent’s level of education has.” In addition, a child in a single-parent home where the parent is a college graduate is nearly twice as likely to live in poverty as a child living with his or her married parents whose highest level of education is completing high school.

Along with poverty, children brought up outside of a marriage relationship (with their biological mom and dad) face a significantly greater danger of experiencing physical and sexual abuse. As Marripedia points out:

• The rate of physical abuse is 3 times higher in the single-parent family.
• The rate of physical abuse is 4 times higher if mother is cohabiting with the child’s biological father (unmarried).
• The rate of physical abuse is 5 times higher if the child is living in a married step family.
• The rate of physical abuse is 10 times higher if the mother is cohabiting with a boyfriend.

The rates for sexual abuse are even worse than physical abuse:

• The rate of sexual abuse is 5 times higher in the single parent family and when both biological parents are cohabiting (i.e. unmarried).
• The rate of sexual abuse is 8.6 times higher if the child is living in a married step family.
• The rate of sexual abuse is 20 times higher if the mother is cohabiting with a boyfriend.

As both of the last bullet points above imply, one of the most dangerous places for a child in America is with mom and her live-in boyfriend. However, because modern liberalism teaches that we have the “right” to do whatever we wish in the sexual realm, without any consequences, the most dangerous place for a child in America is in the womb. This is particularly tragic considering that a mother’s womb should be one of the safest places in the universe.

In a wicked attempt to justify the killing of the most helpless and innocent among us, aided and abetted by Hollywood and the Democrat Party, for decades the left in America has dehumanized the unborn. In other words, ignoring what Christianity has long revealed about human life, tens of millions of unborn children have suffered death because liberals in the United States have rejected basic science and morality.

After a half century of denying the irrefutable science of life in the womb, liberals have become quite adept at denial of almost any truth. Thus, we now must debate who is a man and who is a woman -- along with pretending that there is all sorts of in-between nonsense along the mythical “gender spectrum.”

As long as American liberals hold any significant amount of political or judicial power -- especially within or over the federal courts -- don’t be surprised to see the gender debate go the way of the marriage debate. Ignoring the laws of the Law Giver, ruling in favor of the “right” to kill children in the womb (Planned Parenthood v. Casey), the perpetually deceived Anthony Kennedy declared a quarter of a century ago, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

Of course, Kennedy reinforced this ignorant thinking with his perverse decision on marriage. Because such folly is almost standard today among the left, it wouldn’t be surprising to read a ruling from a federal judge that declares a man has a “right” to live his life as a woman, because “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence…”

And, if Justice Anthony Kennedy has such a say in the matter, given his previous decisions on abortion and marriage, don’t be surprised to see Hollywood attempt to lionize his life through film.

Depictions of graphic sex have become the sine qua non of Hollywood productions and have given rise to the massive and deadly porn industry. As U.S. marriage rates plummet and out-of-wedlock births skyrocket, porn use and STD rates are at astronomical levels.

In 2015, viewers watched a shocking 4,392,486,580 hours -- equivalent to over 500,000 years -- of porn on PornHub. As millions of Americans have replaced healthy human relationships with porn addiction, no doubt this obsession with fake sex has played a role in the declining rate of marriage in the U.S. 

Additionally, and equally shocking, according to the New York Times, 110 million Americans --over one-third of our population -- are now saddled with a sexually transmitted disease. Thus, when they’re not watching porn, many Americans are headed to a bar, a club, a house party, a frat party, and the like, looking for their next “hook-up,” and many are paying a steep physical -- along with emotional -- price.

Because those who rebel in the sexual realm are prone to rebel as it pleases them, individuals steeped in the hook-up culture are prone to a whole host of risky behaviors. As a 2016 study of American high school students published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals, teens who engage in dangerous (and sinful) sexual activity -- such as homosexuality or heterosexual promiscuity -- were much more likely also to engage in other unhealthy activities.

Teenagers least likely to put their health and lives in danger (along with the health and lives of others) are those who are choosing to follow the moral precepts of their Creator by refraining from sex until they are married. We didn’t used to need a “study” to know such was the case, because waiting for sex until marriage is exactly what Christianity teaches.

If much of America continues to embrace the lies of Hollywood -- and the rest of the perverse modern left -- on sex and the like, the next study, the next set of data, along with many personal anecdotes more and more of us will witness, will continue to paint a bleak picture for our nation.

Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.

www.trevorgrantthomas.com

Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America

tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com