Make the Family Great Again or Fall

Anywhere between 11 and 20 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States over the last four years.

Whatever the actual number, this was not the result of some organic movement or invisible hand. It was the result of deliberate actions and inactions by the visible hands of the federal government, the United Nations, and regime-aligned thought, policy, and business leaders.

But, why?

Some pundits have made the compelling case that it’s the naked self-interest of political actors to permanently shift future elections. Others highlight the perennial desire for plentiful, low-cost labor and the GDP-go-up-arrow that follows having millions more contribute to our economy.

But perhaps the most existential driver of immigration policy is our collapsing fertility rate. Soon to be the Former Majority Leader of the Senate, New York Senator Chuck Schumer, said the quiet part out loud two years ago. “We have a population that is not reproducing on its own at the same level it used to. The only way we are going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants,” he said.

As exploding crime statistics, human trafficking, and multiple gang takeovers of apartment complexes have shown, stopping the flood of illegal immigration should be a priority for public safety, rule of law, and advancing the common good for both American citizens and vulnerable immigrant populations. Yet, Schumer’s comment shows that success of the new administration on immigration will draw alarming attention to the nation’s fertility crisis.

Open borders immigration pays for many things—and our family crisis is certainly one of them.

This should be obvious; America’s collapsing reproduction rate is the direct effect of the cratering marriage rate. Married people have more kids than the unmarried. It’s almost always ignored by the media and policymakers, but fertility for married people is nearly the same today as it was in the mid-90s when America enjoyed replacement-level fertility rates.

The larger problem is that there are 31 percent fewer people getting married each year than in the year 2000.

As a consequence, American fertility followed the marriage slide to 1.62 births per woman. To put this in perspective, staying at this birth rate for just 50 years means that without immigration, the United States’ population will collapse by 50 percent.

This is so catastrophic that we lack the imagination to grasp what this means on a practical basis for the United States.

Sure, the GDP plummets. Despite official efforts, public schools and universities will close in waves. This is already beginning as seen here and here. Businesses will shrink and close as fewer workers are available to support our aging population.

The future becomes increasingly dystopian as public infrastructure disintegrates and government revenues and access to labor fail to keep up with the demand to maintain bridges, roads, drainage systems, and sewer systems. The very basis that our modern social safety net is built on with more young workers than old will vanish. An upside-down population with a massive kinless elderly population means euthanasia becomes encouraged as the responsible route for disposing of the aged.

All of this means to make America great again, we must actually make marriage great again. To do this will require new strategic action in both culture and law by both the church and the state.

In the culture, the causes of marriage’s decline are varied. I lack the space to lay them all out here, but one major cause is the triumph of expressive individualism as a worldview. Expressive individualism is the notion where one seeks personal happiness and fulfillment through the definition of our own unique identity and path.

In layman’s terms, what’s good for you may not be good for me. It’s a view advanced from our culture’s highest towers of influence, and it treats marriage and family as just one among many other life accessories. Advanced degrees, great careers, high earning potential, the acquisition of things and experiences all are prioritized over the decisions that research shows are most likely to make you happiest.

Challenging expressive individualism, Dr. Brad Wilcox in his book, Get Married, shows that contrary to what our mass media preaches, married people with children are, on average, the happiest and most fulfilled. Taking a “Family First” mindset, as Wilcox describes it, is critical to emphasize to our young people if we care about them having the best chance to avoid being a victim of the epidemic of loneliness.

There are many places where this Family First culture message must be advanced, but one place where it is too often shockingly ignored is in the church.

In a study my organization commissioned with the Barna Group, we found that 85 percent of all churches spend nothing on marriage and relationship ministry. The biggest culture threat to our nation and to the Christian faith is our flight from marriage and our churches are absent from the battlefield. And, in the age of smartphones and social media, there is a phenomenal opportunity for churches to provide an “in real life” community for our young people and provide them with both the human skills and spiritual worldview to form a healthy marriage.

Going from the church to the state, whether we acknowledge it or not, the law is also a moral teacher. Our progressive friends know this reality all too well.

Government-sponsored campaigns to combat teenage pregnancy, smoking, and drug use have succeeded in modifying our personal choices in the past. Such a campaign could do the same thing for marriage in the future.

To further shift worldview, law and policy should also teach and encourage people to prioritize marriage at an age where it produces the greatest good for them individually and for society, which is marriage before the age of 30 when female fertility begins to decline.

Policy has fixated on child tax credits, but if we want more babies, we should also create tax credits and other incentives for marriage in the high fertility years. College and trade tuition could be reduced, forgiven, or funded for those who marry soon after graduation or sometime in their 20s.

Future federal and philanthropic grants could ask universities or trade schools to begin tracking the marriage rates of graduates along with employment rates. After all, that which is measured can often be increased.

Finally, driving down the cost of living for married people needs to become the North Star of policy. Government control and mismanagement of housing, land use, transportation, and automobile design need to be reduced to increase supply and improve the cost of living. Of course, having 11-20 million fewer people consuming American housing will also improve those numbers.

American voters have spoken and said that stopping illegal immigration is their priority. The unrestrained flow of illegals will be reduced or stopped. But, in achieving that policy objective, if we are going to make America great again, there will be a greater need than ever before to make marriage great again.

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J.P. De Gance is the founder and president of Communio, a nonprofit organization that equips churches to promote healthy relationships, marriages, and the family. He is co-author of “Endgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America.”