meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Breakpoint

Why Siblings Matter

Breakpoint

Colson Center

News, Religion & Spirituality, News Commentary, Christianity

4.82.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2023

⏱️ 1 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For a lot of people, writes Angela Chen in The Atlantic, "[s]ibling bonds are the longest relationships of our lives. We know siblings before we meet our partners (and before we have our own kids), and we'll know them after our parents die." 

Some research even suggests that siblings have a higher impact than parents on whether teens do drugs and alcohol. Another study found that "subjects who had conflict or distance in their relationships with siblings before age 20 were more likely to be depressed at age 50."  

What G.K. Chesterton once wrote about neighbors describes siblings even better, 

"We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbor. Hence, he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain."

The fewer children that Western couples have, the fewer siblings there will be in the world. And that will be a poorer world indeed. 

For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit Colsoncenter.org

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

With a woman to look at culture from a Christian worldview, I'm John Stone Street with the point.

0:05.0

For a lot of people, writes Angela Chan and the Atlantic sibling bonds are the longest

0:09.0

relationship of our lives.

0:10.0

We know siblings before we meet our partners and before we have our own kids.

0:13.0

And we know them after our parents die.

0:15.0

Some research even suggests that siblings have a higher impact than parents on whether a team

0:20.0

does alcohol or drugs.

0:22.0

Another study found that subjects who had conflict or distance in their relationships with siblings

0:26.0

before age 20 were more likely to be depressed at age 50.

0:29.0

Which UK Chesterton once wrote about neighbors also described siblings.

0:33.0

Quote, we make our friends, we make our enemies, but God makes our next door neighbor.

0:37.0

Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature.

0:40.0

He's as strange as the stars as reckless and indifferent as the rain.

0:44.0

And of course the fewer children that Western couples have, the fewer siblings will be in the world.

0:49.0

And that will be a poorer world indeed.

0:52.0

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with the point.

0:56.0

Thank you.

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Colson Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Colson Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.