"More than 8 in 10 Americans think morality is getting worse," reports the Gallup News Service regarding a recent poll. Among those polled who regard American moral values as very low are senior citizens, women in general and those who attend church regularly.

Only one person in six believes that U.S. moral values could be described as excellent. Younger adults, especially those with no overtly religious commitment, tend to be somewhat less negative in their view of morality in the United States.

One category of morality that deeply concerns some of the country's citizens is marriage and divorce. While the American divorce rate is down slightly, the marriage rate has fallen sharply by 30 percent in the last 30 years. "The number of unmarried couples living together [is] up 10-fold since 1960" (Time, May 28, 2007). Clearly there is a widening "marriage gap," with millions simply opting out of traditional matrimony based on the Bible.

Further, more and more college students indulge in premarital sex, sometimes waking up "garmentless after a hook-up" (as The Economist described it), usually preceded by far too much alcohol consumption. The publishers of The Good News offer help in our free booklet Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension. (Sources: Gallup News Service, Time, The Economist.)