The Delay of Marriage and the Decline of Church Attendance

W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia has written a must-read article in the “Houses of Worship” column of The Wall Street Journal. Wilcox considers the impact of the expansion of the government sector in American society, concluding that as the “welfare state” expands, the church recedes as the source of needed charity and social services. Thus, as Wilcox notes, the expansion of the state is, in effect, a driving force behind the secularization of the society. On today’s program, Mohler notes that all of this suggests that the extension of adolescence into the twenties (maybe now even the thirties) is highly correlated with the rise of secularism and with lower rates of church attendance.

“Abortion is as American as Apple Pie” — The Culture of Death Finds a Voice

Friday, January 20, 2012

Abortion is now one of America’s most common surgical procedures performed on adults. As many as one out of three women will have at least one abortion. In some American neighborhoods, the number of abortions far exceeds the number of live births.

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Learning from Christopher Hitchens: Lessons Evangelicals Must Not Miss

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The death of Christopher Hitchens on December 15 was not unexpected, and that seemed only to add to the tragedy. His fight against cancer had been lived, like almost every other aspect of his colorful life, in full public view. He had told numerous interviewers that he wanted to die in an active, not a passive sense. Then again, there may never have been a truly passive moment in Christopher Hitchens’ life.

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President Obama and Same-Sex Marriage — The Dance Continues

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Some predictions are rather safe to make. 2012 is almost certain to be a determinative year on the issue of same-sex marriage. Multiple courts appear poised to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] and, even more urgently, the appeal on California’s Proposition 8 at the Ninth Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals will set up a certain appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court. Given the facts of this case and the significance of the nation’s most populous state, the Supreme Court is almost certain to take the case. This sets the stage for the courts to make some determinative statement on same-sex marriage within the next several months — a decision that will go a long way toward setting the direction of the larger culture.

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