It's Friday, January 9, 2006. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

William Galston went to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to declare that America is facing something of an emergency.

But here's the headline. America needs

more husband material. The subhead in the article, marriage disdained by many elites, has collapsed

among the working class. Now, the statistics are beyond undeniable at this point. We're simply

looking at the fact that what is is and what is represents a

vast emergency. And Christians have to see this in deeper and more urgent terms even than others.

William Galston is very well known for his social commentary, his study of American society.

He's served in many roles. He's been influential, particularly

in some Democratic administrations. I think it would be fair to say that his politics basically

center left, but these days he can look downright conservative compared to people who are

committed to more leftist and progressivist agendas. And I think it's very interesting that William

A. Galston here is calling for more young men to be ready to be husbands. He's even writing about a

crisis of sort. When he says America needs more husband material, he does this over against the

background of a picture he sees in pretty stark terms. This is how he begins the article.

He says, at any given time between 1950 to 1980, about 6% of 40-year-olds had never married.

Then the never-married rate began an inexorable rise, quadrupling to 25% by 2020.

So this is 40-year-olds who have never married, now one out of four.

Now, William Galston looks at this and recognizes that there are some reasons that you can document,

just in terms of statistics. One of the most important is that you have a declining proportion

of young men who are successfully entering higher education

and then successfully entering the professional workforce.

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