Journal: Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry
Volume: JDFM 05:1 (Fall 2015)
Article: Millennials And Marriage: Evaluating The Younger Generation’s Views On Sexuality And Marriage
Author: Andrew T. Walker

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JDFM 5:1 (Fall 2015) p. 67

Millennials And Marriage: Evaluating The Younger Generation’s Views On Sexuality And Marriage

Andrew Walker

with Eric Teetsel, John Stonestreet, Lindsay Swartz, and Trevin Wax

The following is an adaptation of a panel discussion from the 2014 Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s National Conference on The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage.

Andrew Walker (AW): The topic for this panel is “Millennials and Marriage: Evaluating The Younger Generation’s Views on Sexuality and Marriage.” We need to ask the question, “Why are we discussing this issue to begin with?” It’s because Millennials find themselves in a culture that’s obsessed with sex. As Millennials age in maturity they’ll take on or correct the sexual attitudes of their previous generations. So today we’re asking, “What’s the culture saying about sex and marriage to Millennials?” and “How is this shaping their perspective as they mature into adulthood.” Eric, my first question is for you and I’m going to ask it with a little anecdotal story.

A couple years ago I was in my hometown in Central Illinois. I was at a wedding which had a lot of individuals between the ages of twenty to thirty-three present. I noticed when I was looking out at all the people in attendance that I was the only one there who was married with kids and driving a mini-van. With that in mind, a few weeks back, new statistics indicated that marriage rates are

JDFM 5:1 (Fall 2015) p. 68

at their all time lowest in America. Out of wedlock child-bearing remains catastrophically high at over 40 percent nationally. People are marrying later than they ever have in American history. Co-habitation is the norm for Millennials it seems. One question to all those complex questions: What attitudes do Millennials have towards marriage today, given those realities?

Eric Teetsel (ET): Great question. If I can, I’d like to counter your anecdote with one of my own. My wife and I recently moved from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City, Kansas. The first week we were back, we went to church together at a really neat Southern Baptist Church, Redeemer Fellowship in Kansas City. I was shocked because there were a thousand people there in the same age range that you just described and they all had kids. I had never seen a group of young people my age and around my age who had kids, who were married. I think there’s still hope. There are still pockets of people our age who do have some basic understanding of the life narrative that we’re supposed to follow and they actually follow it. They just live in the real world and not Washington, D.C. I would say that even for those in...

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