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Foreign It's Friday, February 27, 2026. I'm Albert Moeller, and this is the Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Well, you know, sometimes you see something and you know that looks important. Other times you look at it and you go, oh, my, that's just massively important. The Spectator, which is a major periodical in London, ran an article, and it is directed primarily at the British people. But trust me, this is important. Here's the headline. The Generation that May Never Marry. So in this case, Arya Schrecker, who writes the article, is looking at recent statistics in the United Kingdom, in Britain, and coming to understand that the young

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adults alive right now may be the generation least likely to marry during their lifetimes of any recordable British generation. That's how fast marriage, not just as a marriage culture, but marriage itself, is disappearing.

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It's just disappearing with frightening velocity. She writes, quote, if you were born in 1960, you had an 85% chance of getting married by the time you turned 40. So if you were born in 1960, and I was born a little bit before that, but that's my generation and 85% chance of getting married by age 40, this fell by more than 10 percentage points for women born in 1970, by more than 10 percentage points again for women born in 1980. And the numbers aren't yet clear for women born in 1990. But the truth is already visible enough to be devastating. The fact is that an awful lot of young people in Great Britain right now are just never going to get married. They aren't. They're not doing the things that lead to marriage. In many cases, they're not even aiming for marriage. Now, when you look at these, you say, how in the world can this happen? Well, number one, the first way it happens is because you have a society that, particularly with birth control and contraception, separated sex from marriage and also sex and marriage from procreation from reproduction. And thus you had a whole new sexual economy that came without the consequence of pregnancy. And of course, Christians understand that is a huge problem going back to a revolt against creation order. But it is coming now with tremendous devastating social effects. Just imagine a generation for which not being married becomes typical rather than being married. Now, here's the other thing. Regardless of the fact that of course there are all kinds of things, in which case you have children born outside of marriage, the reality is that failing to get married in the main means you also fail to become a mother or a father. And so there are people looking at this and recognizing the birth rate is falling fast. And by the way, I'm talking about this not just because it's important for Britain, because it's important for the rest of us. This is not a pattern that appears only in the United Kingdom. This isn't safely across the Atlantic. This is a problem appearing to a lesser extent so far, but it is still a pattern by trajectory in the United States as well. By the way, this article points to the fact that a lot of people want to blame a smartphone. You know, you're looking at an awful lot of people just everywhere looking at their smartphones all the time. That means not talking to another human being. That means also, you know, not the social connection that might one day lead to marriage and all the rest. But as this article makes clear, the trends began before anyone knew what a smartphone was. These trends are now decades in progression. You go back to the 60s and the 70s, you see this. You also have arguments made in here which are really interesting. So listen to this. So let's just take the words as they're written. Despite the fact that the Internet, contraception and women's liberation are overall good things, the combination will have devastating consequences for all of society. Most importantly, it means people will be unhappy. Marriage rates have fallen much faster than people's desire to get married. And most Brits under age 35 still say they want to get married. And married people across cultures are consistently happier. End quote. Okay, so this is really interesting, the first part here. We are told that the Internet, contraception and women's liberation are overall good things, but the combination has not been so good. You know, this is what you have to say, right? If you want to even gain an argument in many circles, you have to begin your entire statement by saying, no, I'm not against the Internet, contraception or women's liberation. No, those are good things in and of themselves. It's just the combination. Combination of these things that is the problem that tells you about the Untouchables in terms of the moral revolution. And that's true on both sides of the Atlantic. You also have an acknowledgement here that married people are measurably happier than unmarried people. And they're healthier, too, by the way. This is particularly true for men. I speak as a man who's so thankful for my wife and thankful for marriage. And I will just tell you that men live longer when they're married because they have a wife to tell them to take their pills. As a generalization, that's just true. The fact is that men live longer because they have someone watching for them, watching out for them, loving them. And both men and women are happier inside marriage. Now, happiness is not everything, and we're going to talk about that at greater length. Happiness isn't everything, but in this case, it really means lifelong satisfaction. And that's opposed to something else, which is another problem, and that's loneliness. As the article states, people are getting lonelier. We live in a world in which everyone, but particularly men, have fewer friends. In the United Kingdom, Britain, small families are becoming more common. The proportion of families with just one child has been growing since the turn of the century. After their parents die, these children may have no family left at all. Without marriage and children, they risk being totally alone. That is a stark statement. Let's just remind ourselves as Christians. Creation order is about men and women coming together in marriage and then being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth with image bearers. And so here you have a situation in which, guess what? You deny. You subvert creation order. What you end up with is unhealth and unhappiness. By the way, credit to the Spectator for being honest about what's at stake. It is well documented that we are facing a collapse in birth rates across the developed world, and Britain is no exception. Falling birth rates have many causes, but falling marriage rates are certainly a critical part. Without more people, Britain will become bankrupt. We are facing a future in which the elderly outnumber working people. Okay, so that is a problem. I mean, again, if you don't understand the morality, well, shame on you. But at the very least, you've got to face the math. And it may be in our society, there are some people who just overtly reject the moral dimension to all of this. But you know what? You can't escape the math. The math is going to get you fewer marriages, fewer babies. Fewer babies, fewer workers, fewer people adding to the society in terms of their work lives, more people drawing from the societies. Eventually, the. The bubble bursts. So, all right. I just found that very, very interesting and ominous. I do think it's interesting that even in the secular world, there's a dawning realization that something is not working. Here, the pattern is turning really dark, and it's going to come with consequences. I'm going to stay in Britain for a moment because there's another development in Britain that has my attention. Huge worldview consequences. You have an article that appeared in the Telegraph that's a more center right, a more conservative than liberal daily newspaper there in London. It's a paper with A very long history, and it takes on a lot of issues. Here's a headline. Think children will make you happier, Think again. The subhead, it's no surprise that financially squeezed young people are choosing not to become parents. Now, this is written by a woman who is identified as an economics correspondent for the Telegraph. And the article begins, quote, getting married and having children has long been considered the cornerstone of a good life or simply the done thing. It's a good English expression, simply the done thing, quote. Yet around the world, women are choosing to have fewer children, and there is no consensus on why. And we are then told that when you look at this, there's an economic explanation on the one hand, and that is because the failure. And that is because the decline in birth rates is disproportionate in socioeconomic matters. It is people with fewer resources who are also more likely to have fewer children. And this paper, just like the Spectator, they're in the same country, is pointing to the financial consequences of falling birth rates, falling marriage rates. It's going to come as a huge economic crisis. And of course, Christians understand before that it's a creation order crisis. It is a moral crisis, it is a worldview crisis, it is a spiritual crisis. But then the Telegraph article gets even more interesting because the whole point of this article is, is that apparently many people think that having children will make them happier, and yet actually having children does not make them happier. That's what we're told here. That's what we're told. So let's look at this. Number one, you have to ask the question, how in the world are they defining happiness? Well, you look pretty quickly, the article, and it has to do with the fact that children require a lot of time. They represent an enormous obligation. Someone's got to take care of them, someone has to feed them, someone has to bathe them, someone has to send them to school. Yes. And you know what? Those of us who have been parents know it. Those of us who are grandparents now watching our children raise our grandchildren. It's an amazing thing to see. It is exhausting. It is total. It is just all encompassing. It takes parents. What a great idea. I love one line in this, by the way, which I can certainly see. Quote, in general, women who opt for children also experience bigger emotional highs and. And lows, end of quote. So isn't that interesting? Yeah, I think it's because that's the way life works. That is the way life works. I think sheer exhaustion probably has a lot to do with some of those lows. But the highs, as I think most mothers would be keen to say, are very, very high indeed. The article goes on to cite the fact that this is not claiming that parents who have had children regret having children. It's just to say that they're just not as happy as they thought they probably would be. Quote their expectations. Reality might be very different. That's what we know for sure. But all right, there's another part of this which is just as interesting, and that is the statement that came from one of the major figures in this article, that when you look throughout social groups, no matter the age, education level or country, people with children generally experience their life as a little bit more meaningful than those without children. That's an astounding statement. It's buried in the article. Those who have children experience their life as more meaningful than those without children. You know, isn't that a more important word than happy? And by the way, the Christian worldview, especially using the English language, expressed in the English language, means that the biblical issue is not happiness, but joy. And I think meaning here is in many ways a stand in for the biblical understanding of joy or joy is the replacement for meaning. Happiness is something that is very contextual and happiness is something that can come very quickly and leave just as quickly. Happiness is context dependent. And I don't doubt for a moment that there are some parents, particularly young parents with young children, who quite frankly just drag themselves into bed for whatever sleep they're going to be able to have and they are physically exhausted and you know, physical exhaustion, that doesn't translate into happiness. But you know what? Physical exhaustion really can't diminish joy. And by the way, after making some of these claims, for example, the author goes back to say, in the Nordic countries, parents report both a greater sense of meaning and higher overall happiness than their child free peers. So look at this. Well, I just think it's interesting the question is being asked and it's in the context of falling birth rates and falling marriage rates. Isn't it interesting that some people are now coming back to say, well, you know, maybe this isn't a source of endless happiness. Well, you know, maybe it isn't. What dimension of life is entirely filled with happiness? You know, again, Christians just have to come back and say, I would not trade happiness for joy. And even as happiness is extremely context dependent, moment dependent, joy is not. Joy is based in an objective truth and that is based in the objective gift of children and the objective goodness of marriage and the objective rightness of the entire picture with the family together again. Maybe not unbroken happiness, but then again, what in the world can deliver on that promise? Joy in a fallen world is infinitely more precious than happiness. So to put it another way, I don't know if you think about these things today on the briefing, it makes you happy. But I can tell you that talking about them in a biblical context does bring me joy. Okay, now let's turn to questions. And again, I always appreciate questions from listeners and just write me@mailbertmuller.com we get to as many as we can. The first one is coming from a 19 year old young man who is a very proud engineering major at Texas A and M University. And thus he has to end his email with GigaM. Okay, I get it, I receive it. I just want to tell you I've had tremendous experiences there on the campus of Texas A and M University. It's a remarkable place. But Anyway, here's a 19 year old and he says, I'm a freshman general engineering major and he says, I'm a fellow slave to truth. Isn't that encouraging? Quote, my goal is to obtain a degree in aerospace engineering and work in the national defense sector. A few people close to me have raised moral concerns, concerns about my desired field, and I have provided my best answers. He says, I wanted to ask your opinion on the question of whether or not being a missile designer is contrary to the Christian faith. He says, I don't want my goal to be something displeasing to God. Well, wow, that is really important. Let's understand though what's going on here. So let's take this apart. So let's say that the conversation about a missile is pretty much the same conversation as, as about a gun, which is pretty much the same conversation as about a sword, which takes us back, oh, I don't know, all the way to the Old Testament. Now I think the quick answer, and I'm going to get to this first, the quick answer is I do not believe that it is necessarily in any way displeasing to God that this young man would be a missile designer. The context here is that in the Christian worldview it has to be that this weapon, regardless of whether it's a sword or a gun or a cannon or a missile or whatever, that it would be intended for use in order to uphold that which is right, to uphold that which is good, to uphold the dignity of human life. And that comes back to Christian just war theory that says that war and military action, even with lethal force, is at times in a fallen world, not Only justified, but necessary in order to restrain evil and to protect human life and human dignity. And thus war should be defensive rather than offensive. And, you know, I think when you look at the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, ICBMs, or missiles in general, we have to say that's an extension of the same moral logic as would be found with a sword or a knife or a club in the Old Testament. And so looking at that, yes, I want to say to this young man at Texas A and M University, I think it can be God honoring to be involved in this. And by the way, I would say the same thing as I have. I've been asked the same question about