As a black American who lived through the Civil Rights movement, I would never romanticize America’s past. But there was indeed a time when the overwhelming majority of American children were born to married parents, the divorce rate was very low, and men generally did what it took to provide for their families. Those days are quickly slipping away from us, and unless we make radical changes in our culture, those days may be gone forever. But it is not in the grave yet!
Since 2001, Gallup has conducted a “Values and Beliefs” survey of American attitudes toward various social issues. Participants are asked whether they approve or disapprove of various behaviors ranging from divorce to abortion. In the twelve years the survey has been conducted, approval of certain sexual behaviors—homosexual sex, sex between unmarried individuals and out of wedlock childbearing—has steadily risen. The most dramatic change has been in the approval of homosexual sex, which rose from 40% to 59%.
It was not all bad news for the old-fashioned among us, however. Approval of pornography rose only 1%, approval of abortion neither rose nor fell, and approval of adultery dropped 1%. The current trend, though, is undeniable: Americans increasingly view sex more as a recreational choice than a sacred covenant.
The change in attitudes toward sexuality can be interpreted to support either side of the culture war. Proponents of redefining marriage to include homosexual couples point to growing approval of homosexual behavior and declare that the acceptance of same-sex marriage is inevitable. The rest of us will remind everyone that this fight was never about hospital visitation rights, but about codifying approval of homosexual behavior into law. But any honest person must admit that as we have accepted more relaxed views about sexuality, they haven’t been associated with greater levels of human happiness, but rather with greater rates of disease, poverty and family instability.
While we can and should see these poll numbers as a warning, it is a huge mistake to assume that such trends can only move in one direction. For example, in 1950, just 16% of married mothers worked outside the home. This began to change rapidly in the 1960s, and many predicted the era of the stay at home mother was over. Since 2000, however, the rates of mothers working outside the home has reversed, and is currently (as of January 2013) at its lowest rate since 1991. Vanderbilt University even released a study recently, documenting the increasing number of female graduates from top tier universities who opt to stay home with their children.
Similarly, Gallup’s data shows that approval of abortion has held steady for the past 12 years at 42%. Although this is much higher than it would have been fifty years ago, it is unclear what will happen now. Technology which wasn’t available at the time of the Roe v. Wade decision—such as three dimensional ultrasounds—has changed the debate over when a human life deserves human rights.
In fact, in January of this year, Time Magazine ran a cover story to mark the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade that declared that abortion-activists have been “losing ever since” the landmark decision. They cite data such as waning public support for abortion among younger Americans and the fact that a larger percentage of the population considers themselves pro-life than pro-choice.
How will public opinion of the moral acceptability of homosexuality change in the next several generations? It is impossible to say for sure, but it would be foolish to assume that acceptance will only grow from this point. Despite resistance from enforcers of the prevailing politically correct view, data is beginning to emerge on the struggles of children raised by gay parents. The New York Times recently ran a touching piece by a gay adoptive father discussing the deep longing that his children feel for a mother in their lives. He notes that there are two main arguments for gay parenting; first, that homosexual parenting is a basic human right; and second, that there is no evidence that homosexuals do not make comparable parents to heterosexuals. He then draws attention to what has been missing from the discussion:
“[My daughter’s] awareness of being a motherless child is not addressed. I don’t want to appropriate our child’s voice, but I want to speak up for her, and her older brother, and I want to acknowledge their feelings…When [the mother] is not physically there, she is — as we know from many accounts of adult adoptees — still present in dreams, fantasies, longings and worries.”
Growing approval of immorality does not change the consequences of immoral behavior. We have gone from a society where the overwhelming majority of children had both birth parents to care for them to a land where children are being raised by parents in all sorts of unstable romantic arrangements. In a few years, we will learn how they feel about the world we have given them.
We do not have to stand by and wait for the “inevitability” of moral decline in our nation. You have a voice in your family, workplace, neighborhood, circle of friends and the local church. Be sure your reputation is above reproof. And start a discussion that can open the eyes of others around you. History is in the making!
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