an observation regarding our culture

Have you been noticing a trend lately? As another celebrity couple announces another unwed pregnancy (today it was Brangelina), I see reflected in the news and gossip rags a major cultural shift overtaking America. Can you see it too? Now it is not out of the ordinary for people to decide to have a baby together before marriage or even engagement. Women also are deciding to have a baby on their own or adopt as a single parent. These decisions are praised, congratulated, and thought to be so wonderful.

America's perception of what is inappropriate is shifting so quickly that it is apparent to even a young person such as myself. Another example--Brokeback Mountain--a story of homosexual love (as Hollywood defines love) that is now a critically acclaimed movie in national theaters.

Here's another one (that makes me so frustrated sometimes): Bill and I are so different from everyone else because we were married young and did not live together before we were married. Why are people so shocked? If our wedding date had been June 8, 1952, no one would have thought twice about it. People would have been scandalized if we did live together unwed. Topic for another time: benefits of being young marrieds in our current day and age.

Back to my first observation of the newfound popularity of babies without weddings. There is going to be a whole generation of young people with parents who are not together. Not just because of the unmarried parents, but also because of the excessively high divorce rate.

If I think that Bill and I feel different by being married young, how different will our children be? How many of their peers will have both their biological parents still married? The selfish acts of my generation are going to have a profound impact on these children. People are being blinded by their self serving to the point that they have a disturbing lack of foresight.

Those of us who still believe in the sanctity of marriage and raising children within that marriage need to stand up for what we believe in and impact the culture (and the hurting children) around us as best we can. We will be needed.