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Thank you. I'm In 1960, the U.S. birth rate was 23.7 births per 1,000 people.

Today, that number has fallen to 10.74 births per thousand people. Likewise, fertility rates have plummeted.

In 1960, the average number of children per woman was 3.58. In 2023, it's fallen to 1.6,

which is below replacement levels for a society. According to secular researchers, the causes are actually

quite simple to identify. Widespread access to contraceptives, including the birth control pill,

societal acceptance of the murder of children in the womb, women entering the workforce and

pursuing higher education well into their childbearing years, massive inflation, which lessens

the value of money and requires more of it to afford a basic standard of living. Each of these

factors has resulted in fewer marriages, fewer children, and the destruction of the biblical

household, which is the bedrock foundation of any healthy people. And of course, as the old saying

goes, first comes love, then comes marriage, then come the babies in the baby carriage. If people

aren't getting married, the likelihood they have children also diminishes. Going back to

1960, in that year, 72% of American adults were married. In 2023, that number dropped to 51%. In the 1960s,

the average age of a first marriage was 20. Today, it's almost 28. Fewer and fewer people view

marriage as an ideal goal for their lives. Rather than combating this decline, the church started warning against the idol of the family

and began celebrating the gift of singleness.

For example, in John Piper and Wade Grudham's late 1980s book,

recovering biblical manhood and womanhood,

which sought to confront the issues surrounding sexed piety,

...