For decades, research has indicated that marital status matters for individuals’ risk of developing certain illnesses—such as cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes—and even seems to impact all-cause mortality. Researchers have long hypothesized that married individuals enjoy less stress and loneliness than do their never-married or divorced/widowed peers, and also tend to exercise better self-care. […]
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For decades, the media and even various policy groups have told Americans that it’s OK—nay, it’s good and healthy—to explore multiple sexual relationships with multiple partners. Merely watching television may lead one to conclude that most Americans lead sex lives that are wildly promiscuous and adventurous. But a new study out of the Institute for […]
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Family and relationship scholars have observed the growing trend toward cohabitation with wonder. Is this a new substitute, as most such scholars claim, for the old-fashioned concept of marriage? Or is it a passing behavioral blip? One argument runs thus: Yes, cohabitation tends to be associated with slightly lower rates of happiness and commitment, but […]
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Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy Mark Regnerus Oxford University Press, 2017; 280 pages, $29.95 Marriage has been on a steep, decades-long decline in the United States. Some have worried about this decline; others have simply attributed it to inevitable changes. Marriage is outdated, they say, soon to be replaced by cohabitation […]
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Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline Darrell Bricker & John Ibbitson Penguin Random House, 2019; 304 pages, $14.76 The most dangerous lies are half-truths. Empty Planet was written by journalists Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson. As journalists, these men write engagingly about the state of the global population and its future. They get […]
Read MoreTwo Speeches by Margaret Ogola (1958-2011) On June 12 of this year, Google honored the late Dr. Margaret Ogola with a “Google doodle” on the Kenyan Google homepage, on what would have been her 61st birthday. Margaret Ogola is best known for her award-winning novel, The River and the Source, which follows the life of […]
Read MoreLet us imagine for a moment that someone very important—perhaps a prominent politician, a brilliant academic, or a wealthy businessman—yearning for humanity, has come to you asking for a favor: “I need you to help me to develop a program to make the world a better place.” Then he would probably have added something like […]
Read MoreEverywhere we look today, the champions of secular liberalism are celebrating another victory. Whether it’s so-called same-sex marriage, or the 50 different gender options on Facebook, or lawsuits against Christian business owners, every day we are reminded that our world is changing in ways hitherto unimaginable. And yet, behind all the indignant insults and blustering […]
Read MoreEconomics, Autonomy, and Legal Threats to the Family On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing up to 90,000 people. Modern scientists had discovered how to split the nucleus of the atom and destroy a city. I was born six years later into a nuclear family in […]
Read MoreIn my time today, I want to focus on two matters regarding family policy. The first is the absolutely critical need to craft an “ideal family” structure as a model or goal in shaping policy. Without such a model, it becomes impossible to build a coherent public policy; the results would actually be social chaos […]
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