Over the past 60 years, traditional biblical views of marriage and family have been on the decline. According to a recent report from law firm Gillespie, Shields, Goldfarb, & Taylor, “Americans today are marrying later than ever before, divorcing sooner, or avoiding the institution altogether.”

Among the report’s findings are the following:

• Four out of every 10 children are born to single mothers.
• One in four children under the age of 18 are being raised without a father.
• Around 49 percent of single mothers have never married, while 51 percent are either divorced, separated, or widowed.
• There has been a nine-fold increase in single-father households since 1960.

There are a number of reasons for this, including the influence of media and popular culture through movies, music, and the internet. Studies consistently show wide disparities in economic, psychological and physical well-being between homes with and without two married parents.  Nevertheless, media continue to portray divorce, cohabitation, and single parenthood as the norm rather than the exception.

The LGBTQ agenda is also dramatically changing the culture. Politicians, corporations, and even some churches are affirming homosexual relationships – what used to be considered a psychological disorder. 

The rise of divorce, cohabitating couples, and other nontraditional relationships has changed the family structure in America, and not for the better. Adults who choose to raise families this way ignore the benefits of the traditional heterosexual and married framework on children. 

Attacks on Marriage

During its mainstream-media stardom in 2020, the leftist Black Lives Matter organization openly attacked “the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” BLM instead encouraged village collectives to raise children rather than married heterosexual couples. The organization is also LGBTQ “affirming” in an attempt to free the community from “the belief that all in the world are heterosexual.”

According to journalist Jonathan Miltimore, BLM’s overall goals fit “a Marxist paradigm” and the organization’s views on marriage and family are consistent with historical examples.

“Karl Marx was interested in abolishing much more than just private property,” wrote Miltimore. “In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and his associate Frederick Engels defend attempts by Communists to abolish the traditional family.”

In the early years of the communist Soviet Union, new laws made divorces quick and easy, while also removing distinctions between married and unmarried relationships.

According to Miltimore, “One of the first steps the Bolsheviks took after seizing power was to begin a decades-long struggle to abolish marriage and weaken the traditional family.”

The Biblical Model

A biblical marriage between one man and one woman is still the best place to raise children. From the beginning, God intended for a man and wife (Gen. 2:18-23) to raise children together from a position of loving and nurturing authority:

God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. [emphasis added]

—Genesis 1:27-28 (KJV)

Throughout the Bible, God directs that children should be raised by two married parents :

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

—Exodus 20:12 (KJV)(with emphasis added)(emphasis added).

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.

—Proverbs 1:8 (KJV)

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise.

—Ephesians 6:1-2 (KJV)

It is understood that no marriage is perfect and even homes with two married couples can have devastating strife and abuse. Nevertheless, it remains true that in a two-parent home, a married couple can present a united example for their children while providing physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual stability. Separation and divorce, in contrast, almost inevitably creates envy and strife, and confuses children with unstable living arrangements or parents’ new relationships. It divides loyalties, undermines authority, and sends a message that love is conditional and promises can be broken. In a healthy marriage, by contrast, parents and children live in relative peace and unity. (James 3:16).  

Benefits of Married Parenthood

According to the report from Gillespie, Shields, Goldfarb, & Taylor, the benefits of raising children in a traditional home with two married parents include the following:

• Children are less likely to experience academic, social, emotional, and cognitive problems in childhood and adulthood.
• Family intactness can increase high school and college graduation rates, and lead to higher employment rates.
• Children living with both biological parents are 20 percent to 35 percent more physically healthy.
• Being raised in a married family reduces a child’s probability of living in poverty by about 82 percent.

God’s Design for Healthy Families

While the barrage of negative media influences seems overwhelming, attacks against families are nothing new.

The state-as-village model of parenting was famously promoted by former first lady and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the 1990s. Even then, when traditional marriage was under attack, those who knew the truth about the benefits of traditional biblical views of family and marriage were willing to take a stand.

“After the virtual devastation of the American family, the rock upon which this country was founded, we are told that it takes a village, that is collective, and thus the state, to raise a child,” said former Sen. Bob Dole in 1996. “And with all due respect, I am here to tell you it does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a family to raise a child.”

Learn More

Visit our Research Center for great practical resources, including links to America’s foundational documents. Also learn how you can become a Truth & Liberty Coalition member and join us in standing for truth in the public square.