Religion & Law

Brad Wilcox and Chuck Donovan report that marriage's decline is expanding from the lower socioeconomic classes into the middle class.  An excerpt:

The breakdown of marriage and family has afflicted the poorest Americans for more than a generation. What is happening today is a widening gulf between the middle class, where a sharp decline in marriage is at work, and the most educated and affluent Americans, where marriage indicators are either stable or improving. . . .

Among moderately educated Americans, the out-of-wedlock birth rate hit 44 percent, up from 13 percent as recently as 1982.  Again, Middle America moved closer in behavioral norms to the poorest Americans, even as more educated and wealthier Americans are embracing a marriage mindset.