Generation Unwed Motherhood

One of the most alarming charts from Charles Murray's Coming Apart — an unparalleled treatise on the decline of white America — traces the increase in non-marital births during the 20th century. Between 1917 and 1965, rates of unwed motherhood in white America were well below 5 percent. Between 1965 and 2010, that figure spiked by over 25 percentage points.

And that's in white America alone. Including minority groups, the out-of-wedlock birth rate in the United States is now 40 percent, nearly half of all births. Perhaps more than any other cultural developments, unwed motherhood — and absent fatherhood — are having a disastrous economic and cultural impact on the United States.

In Coming Apart, Murray writes about the growing acceptance of single-parenthood households as both normal and good — perhaps even desirable. "For the first time in human history, we now have societies in which a group consisting of a lone woman and her offspring is not considered to be sociologically incomplete — not considered to be illegitimate," he writes.

Unfortunately, Generation Y (or Millennials) — those Americans in their late teens, 20s, and early 30s — is the primarily culprit for this rise in single motherhood. As a generation, we Gen Y'ers tend to take a lackadaisical approach to relationships, marriage, and childbearing. It's an approach that is having a seismic impact on American culture today, and will have an even greater impact in future decades as Generation Y gains more clout in the business, cultural, and political worlds.

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Buck

None of this just happened , it was ALL planned by the socialists and communists , calling themselves liberals and progressives , to break down our society so that they can minimize God and elevate themselves to fullfill his roles and thus gain his power over us . Social engineering as it is known has been going on since governments began , and have always ended in destruction of said society .
- evermyrtle
  
  Ever since Satan was cast out of heaven he has been working to overcome GOD. His aim is to take over the universe from GOD. He it is, who controls all social, liberal anti-GOD peoples. He will continue this insane fight until he is cast into Hades..
Wayne

I agree with the writer for the most part that single parenthood with households led primarily by women will tend toward poverty. The unknown part of this equation is how many of those "Single Mom" families actually have a male cohabitant? In that case the single mother does not claim the income of their cohabitant. This allows them to take advantage of government programs and tax monies toward their welfare, while claiming to be below the poverty level. It is also quite possible that the cohabitant is a lazy, shiftless, womanizer who is there only to live off of the woman and her income generated by welfare for her child or children. A lot of deception goes on in these cases. I know of three single parent mothers on welfare, each of them with a male cohabitant who will NEVER marry for fear of losing their preferred welfare status!
Jerry

For any that doubt the impact of taking prayer and Bibles out of school, or the Ten Commandments from the halls of justice all one has to do is to look at the statistics. Even American history cannot properly be taught any longer since it is forbidden to teach that America was founded upon Judeo-Christian principles. We have only begun to see the devastating effects that are coming. There is only one answer to the many problems facing us today, and it can be found in II Chronicles 7:14.
American Nurse

I work in a hospital nursery and we are more surprised when parents are married than when they are not!
The earlier comment about welfare benefits is absolutely true. Most all of these babies have involved fathers, but if they were to get married the mothers would lose welfare,housing,food stamp, and medical benefits. Personally I think if they told these mothers that if they can't provide for their children, they will be placed with someone who can, they would stop having them. For these people today, another child is a "pay increase", not an additional expense.
msjallen

None of this will change until people in mass numbers turn back to the Lord or more people become believers in Jesus Christ in our country. Our churches are not teaching spiritual growth from God's Word and quite frankly I doubt that most people are even interested. Too many are so use to being entertained that going to church is boring and if a church offers entertainment there is no spiritual growth.
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by MY name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
HOW?
II Peter 3:8… but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.
Michael Payne

Conspirators don't raise up kings and turn kings hearts withsoever they want. GOD DOES! We have pitted God's Law against His Grace. The opposite of Law is Lawlessness and God promises over and over and over what comes to a people that forget him, honor Him with their lips alone, and lean on their own understanding. Do we even know how to think like Christians or have we taken on the worldview of our enemies? We must return to the "five solas" of the reformation and obey the great commission that tells us to teach people to obey God's Law. David was not saved by law, but He was able to say, oh how I love thy law; because, he understood that the Law is a reflection of God's righteous character. Gratia!
prodigal48

In both of my grandchildrens' school classes, they are the exception instead of the rule, because they are with both biological, married parents. I watched a program on Fox News on Sunday where a libertarian tried to say that things are getting better morally in America, that, according to him, unwed pregnancies and promiscuity are down. Where he got his statistics, I don't know, but this is not a real big city, and the situation is desperate here. Our church did an outreach to teenagers, and what they found were thousands of 11-16 year-olds who are living basically on their own, both parents on drugs or alcohol, or absent (few of them even know their fathers), never been to church, have no idea who Jesus is, have attempted suicide numerous times..if that man thinks that things are getting better, he should visit our town. And as I said, this is not a big city. We are losing an entire generation, and with it will go our country. No, things are not getting better. Some Christian leaders are saying they see the beginning of a turnaround. I hope and pray they are right but I do not see it yet. God help America.
- keyboardshark
  
  You really nailed it, prodigal48. As you have seen for yourself, once it becomes acceptable to live together or otherwise have children out of wedlock, it is a slippery slope that only gets worse, not better as some would lead us to believe.
wesley

we got here from a church that refused to talk about sex in the first place besides telling the high schoolers God's plan for sex. many acted like it did not exist then hid the teenage pregnancies by sending the pregnant girl away to where no one knew her. when the sexual revolution started the church decided to stick its head in the sand. the church can turn this around it they promote chastity (saving oneself for marriage), courage, justice, and wisdom among its attendees especially in the youth groups. the church also needs to stop promoting singleness among the young adults to start promoting Biblical marriage will solve the main reason for these out-of-wedlock births. Paul wrote, but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. I Corinthians 7:9 God can use us as married better the as singles for marriage is counter-cultural.