Daniel Darling: Authentic social justice

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 27th, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, marriage and social justice. WORLD Commentator Daniel Darling says a new book is reframing the debate on how to bring prosperity to poor communities.

DANIEL DARLING: Imagine you are a young Christian burdened by the state of the world. You see headline after headline about rising crime, addiction, and deaths of despair. What should you prioritize in your efforts to engage in genuine social justice? You might be surprised to learn one scholar suggests marriage.

Professor Brad Wilcox is director of The National Marriage Project at The University of Virginia and a fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. He says many of the biggest problems across America are rooted in the collapse of marriage and family life. In fact, marriage and family are often better predictors of outcomes for people than the topics that currently dominate our public conversation—like race, education, and government spending.

Wilcox’s new book, Get Married, makes the case that traditional marriage and family are the lynchpin to a flourishing life. Consider one stunning fact: “The best community predictor of poor children remaining stuck in poverty as adults was the share of kids in their communities living in a single-parent family. Not income inequality. Not race. Not school quality.”

Wilcox’s work reveals an opportunity for the Church to lean into what we already know and believe: the Biblical vision for marriage and family is not only right, it is good for our neighbors.

Local churches are uniquely situated to help alleviate this crisis. In our communities, there are shattered families, trapped in despair, lied to by cultural institutions that have made false promises about the sexual revolution. This is especially true among poor Americans with the least resources and social capital. Churches are the kinds of communities where the broken can find a new family. Imagine if our churches took a two-fold approach: they could strengthen marriages and families within their congregations. And in the wider community, they could address marriage as a social justice issue, bringing marriage retreats, counseling, and other innovative approaches to their neighborhoods.

Ironically, this is coming at a time when many commentators and influencers urge pastors and church leaders to talk less about marriage. Some seek to avoid offending those called to singleness. Others tire of being harangued about so-called “idolatry of the family.” But how can we withhold truth about the one human factor with the greatest chance of lifting communities out of despair?

Scripture tells us that marriage is a creational good, embedded in God’s world as a mystery that points to the kingdom of God. (See Ephesians 5:32.) We can show our neighbors that in the longing they have for stable family life there is a deeper longing for the love of their Heavenly Father and their new family in the Body of Christ.

A healthy Christian community can stabilize families through difficult times. Christian families aren’t immune to despair or divorce, but this new research from the University of Virginia shows that faithful church attendance significantly reduces the incidence of family breakup.

All of this means that in an age of despair, churches that take the call of justice seriously will take marriage seriously and not be afraid to champion what God declares to be good.

I’m Daniel Darling.

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