Marriage, Class and Social Justice

Glenn Stanton, Focus on the Family’s Director of Family Formation Studies, published an article in National Review Online recently entitled, “Marriage, Class and Social Justice.” Stanton points to statistics indicating that marriage rates in the U.S. have divided along class lines.

Overall, marriage rates have remained steady and even increased slightly among highly educated, top-earning Americans. Meanwhile, the rates have plummeted among middle and lower-class Americans. “All other factors being equal,” Stanton writes, “the never married generally experience a reduction in wealth of 75-percent compared to their continuously married peers.” Stanton also argues that marriage has become a social justice issue.

“Our attention to the well-being of marriage among the various strata of society is not about mere traditionalism or empty moralism,” he writes. “Marriage is unarguably a central social-justice issue, a love-of-neighbor issue. No one can contend to help the poor and ignore this truth.”

Click HERE to read the National Review Online article.