Thursday, January 28, 2010

Is America in Moral Decline?

Peter Wehner:

Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, is starting a new radio show. . . . In announcing his new venture on his Facebook page, Dobson wrote, “Our nation is facing a crisis that threatens its very existence. We are in a moral decline of shocking dimensions.”

In fact, a great deal of empirical evidence argues that, if anything, we are in the midst of a social and cultural re-norming of some significance. For example, on issues of particular concern to Dobson—abortion and divorce—we have made great strides. The number of abortions performed annually in the United States has dropped to a level not seen since the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.

The divorce rate, meanwhile, is now at its lowest level in decades. It fell from a historic high of 22.6 divorces per 1,000 married women in 1980 to 17.5 in 2007. “In real terms,” according to Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia, “this means that slightly more than 40% of contemporary first marriages are likely to end in divorce, down from approximately 50% in 1980. Perhaps even more important, recent declines in divorce suggest that a clear majority of children who are now born to married couples will grow up with their married mothers and fathers.”

Since the high-water mark of 1994, the national welfare caseload has declined by around 60 percent. Teen drug use has declined significantly since the 1990s; so has the birth rate for teenagers aged 15 to 19. . . . By 2008, the murder rate had dropped to the lowest level since 1965. And given the preliminary figures released by the FBI a few weeks ago, the rate for 2009 should be lower still.

I suppose Dobson thinks accepting gay marriage is more important than any of this stuff.

I have always been puzzled by those people, common on both the religious right and the eco left, who refuse to believe good news about the world. Honestly, folks, sometimes things really do get better.

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