The
wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers
down. (Proverbs 14:1)
The
research keeps reaching the same conclusion: single parenthood (and especially
single motherhood) is harmful to the woman and to society. The Washington Post
published an article some time ago that points out that it’s likely not just
marriage that helps, but that it’s a certain type of marriage. That type of
marriage is not the sort one often finds in poverty-ridden areas with high
incarceration rates.[1] In social media, we keep
being told that it’s wrong to shame these poor women, who are struggling
against extreme odds. I agree. But I’ve noticed that the same sort of
instability is found among the “rich and famous.” But I’ve noticed over the
past twenty years or so that rather than address the problems these women face,
rather than learning from their misfortune, the middle-class is emulating them.
When I was growing up, I sometimes heard “If your friends were jumping off a
bridge would you jump, too?” This was pre-bungee-line and the like, so the
point was more obvious then than it is now. Today, when all the evidence points
to the harm of single-parenthood, our society is promoting it. We are tearing
down our own houses. When I bring up the statistics, people tell me, “We can’t
all live that way….” They may be right, we may not all be able to live that way.
We may not all be able to live malaria or ebola-free, either, but I don’t hear people
singing the praises of living a lifestyle that makes contracting one of them likely.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/10/the-relationship-between-single-mothers-and-poverty-is-not-as-simple-as-it-seems/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6671f1277bfe
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