Think again. Maggie Gallagher has an informed response to Time’s recent hit on marriage:
What do the American people think of marriage? A new Pew Research Center/Time magazine poll has been misused to suggest Americans love family diversity and, oh by the way, marriage is “changing,” not declining, and for the better! Nothing to worry about.
Meanwhile, scratch the surface support for pieties like “diversity,” and you find a core of deep family traditionalism, unease and concern — primarily about children.
Yes, 39 percent of Americans applaud or worry that marriage is “becoming obsolete,” and a majority describe the growing diversity of family arrangements as either a good thing or a neutral thing.
Meanwhile, 61 percent of adults believe that a child needs a home with both a father and a mother to grow up happily; 69 percent say that single women raising children alone is bad for society; and 77 percent of Americans agree that it’s easier to raise a family if you are married than if you are single.
More here.