Gordian 'knot' for evangelicals

By Julia
Thursday, July 30, 2009

It's been more than two years since I adopted a little girl and entered the world of single-momhood. Recently, my child, now 4, has decided she wants a daddy.

You and me both, I tell her.

Tying the knot is quite difficult these days for many women, especially those who belong to any sort of ethnic minority or subgroup. I've been an evangelical Christian since my teens, but even back then, in my high school Young Life group, it was hard to not notice the fact that we girls far outnumbered the boys.

The ratios got worse the older I grew. In an article titled "The Case for Early Marriage" in the most recent issue of Christianity Today, an evangelical monthly, the author estimates the ratio of single women to men in church is 3-to-2. I'd say the true ratio on the ground is more like 5-to-1.

The problem with evangelicals, author Mark Regnerus says, is that they value marriage less than individual freedom, which is why their 20-somethings are encouraged to get out in the world, travel and find themselves before marrying. As a result, he says, young evangelicals are marrying later - if at all, but 80 percent are having premarital sex.

All the abstinence pledges in the world, he adds, aren't going to change this. Early marriage will. the rest