For several years, I have been warning audiences that America now faces a generation of young people unwilling to grow up, assume adult responsibility, marry, and start raising families. I have addressed this issue in various articles, public lectures, and church settings. My observations have been drawn from constant contact with young adults, including college students, and are backed up by a wealth of demographic and statistical information. Nevertheless, my warnings have often been met with incredulity, suspicion, and even outrage.

Vice President Dick Cheney set off something of a firestorm last week when he broke with President George W. Bush on the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment. Speaking to a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa, the vice president answered a question with a personal response that mixed family issues with national policy. In so doing, he demonstrated a growing trend that should concern all who care about moral clarity.

Those who attended the 2004 New Attitude Conference responded to my message on “The Mystery of Marriage” with a great deal of appreciation and receptivity. I was quickly surrounded by young men who had felt a brotherly kick to the seat of their pants, and by many young women who appreciated the fact that I had articulated what many of them had hoped to hear.

Well, at least I know how to strike a nerve. Earlier this year, I delivered a major address on marriage to the 2004 New Attitude Conference organized by Joshua Harris, author of influential books like I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Not Even a Hint. Now, a few months later, that message seems something like a bomb with a delay-action fuse. Those attending the conference seemed to receive the message with great appreciation, but in recent days a rather significant reaction has come from those who take issue with what I had to say.

Voters in Missouri have sent the nation a clear message–no compromise on same-sex marriage. Voting by an overwhelming margin, this past Tuesday voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution defining marriage in Missouri as “a union between one man and one woman.” Even as Missouri citizens amended their constitution with an overwhelming vote, a single state judge in Seattle, Washington invalidated that state’s legislation banning same-sex marriage. The nation now confronts a clear choice: Either the citizens of this nation will define marriage, or an elite group of activist judges will do the defining for us.

2004 New Attitude Conference

Are we witnessing the end of marriage? In a fascinating study, researcher Stanley Kurtz of the Hoover Institution indicates that marriage is already dying in Scandinavia, and his evidence demands attention. In Sweden and Norway, a majority of children are now born out of wedlock. A full 60-percent of first-born children in Denmark have unmarried parents.

Is the battle against same-sex marriage already lost? With homosexual marriage now legal in Massachusetts and with momentum toward legalization now spreading across the nation, homosexual advocates are increasingly confident that victory is in sight. Now, some conservatives are beginning to wonder if the gay activists might be right. Christopher Caldwell, writing in The Financial Times, notes the momentum of the gay rights movement as it achieved its great victory in Massachusetts. “In gaining full legal marriage rights in an important state, American gays have effected the quickest transition from pariah status to protected status in the history of civil rights movements.” Caldwell, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, appears certain that same-sex marriage is now an established social reality.

Like mile-markers in time, certain calendar dates stand in memory as not only historic, but momentous. Dates like December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001 represent far more than mere days on a calendar. Now, May 17, 2004 must be added to that list.

Supporters of same-sex marriage have been aided in their quest to normalize homosexuality by a constellation of liberal religious groups–including some of the historic Christian denominations. These groups now serve as theological enablers for the homosexual movement’s rejection of Christian morality.