美国出生率已降至每名女性仅生育1.57个孩子，一位基督教领袖警告称，若这一趋势持续，可能会重塑国家的未来。
America's birthrate has fallen to just 1.57 births per woman, a level that one Christian leader warns could reshape the nation's future if the trend continues.
“每200人只能被157人取代，”Communio创始人兼总裁J.P. De Gance对Fox News Digital表示。“我们正处于重大文明瓶颈的边缘。”如今，Communio正在启动一项全国性的“家庭与文明”运动，该消息由Fox News Digital首家获得，呼吁教会在加强婚姻和家庭方面发挥更积极的作用。
"For every 200 people in a population, they'll be replaced by only 157," Communio founder and President J.P. De Gance told Fox News Digital. "We're at the cusp of a major civilizational bottleneck." Now, Communio is launching a nationwide "Family and Civilization" campaign, obtained first by Fox News Digital, urging churches to take a more active role in strengthening marriages and families.
宾夕法尼亚州家庭破裂促使信仰团体努力让婚姻回归 该倡议主张，教会而非政府，历史上曾在社会衰退时期帮助重建家庭生活，并能通过在关系走向危机前鼓励健康关系，再次发挥这一作用。
FAMILY BREAKDOWN IN PENNSYLVANIA PROMPTS FAITH-BASED EFFORT TO BRING MARRIAGE BACK The initiative argues that churches, not government, have historically helped rebuild family life during periods of societal decline and can do so again by encouraging healthy relationships before they reach crisis.
“我们对教会的信息是，我们应该提供帮助，”De Gance说。“我们的年轻人知道这一点，对吧？我们不应该比起寻找和有意识地建立关系，更频繁地跟孩子谈论上名校、谋好职业。这些都是好事，但不应以排斥寻求和有意识地建立关系为代价。”据De Gance称，人群中最孤独、最不幸福的群体是未婚年轻人。
"Our message to churches is we should be helping," De Gance said. "Our young people know this, right? We shouldn't be talking to our kids more frequently about a great college, a great career over and above. These are good things, but they shouldn't be spoken of in exclusion to seeking and being intentional about relationships." According to De Gance, the loneliest and unhappiest segment of the population are unmarried young people.
德甘斯说：“现实情况是，目前美国最孤独的人群并非老年人或鳏寡孤独者，而是30多岁的未婚人士，他们更有可能感到孤独，比例高得不成比例。”“如果父母们明白这意味着他们的孩子寿命可能会缩短15年——公共卫生数据就是这么说的——他们可能会在孩子年幼、高中和大学期间传达不同的信息，鼓励他们在20多岁时有意识地经营人际关系。”
六分之一的成年人深受孤独困扰，研究人员揭示了新冠疫情的持久影响。除了教会鼓励婚姻外，德甘斯表示，父母也有责任鼓励自己的孩子，因为在孩子未来的职业和生活决策中，婚姻往往是最后才被考虑的事情。
"And the reality is, the loneliest people in America right now are not the elderly and are not the widow, it's the unmarried in their 30s are disproportionately the most likely to say that they're lonely," De Gance said. "And if parents understood that this means that their kids are more likely to die 15 years shorter — that's what the public health data says — they would be probably sharing a different message to their kids in youth, in high school, in those college years and to be intentional with their relationships in their 20s." 1 IN 6 ADULTS PLAGUED BY LONELINESS AS RESEARCHERS REVEAL LASTING IMPACT OF COVID PANDEMIC In addition to churches encouraging marriage, De Gance said it is also on parents to encourage their children, as marriage is often the last thing prioritized when it comes to a child’s future career and life decisions.
“十分之九的父母认为孩子拥有充实的职业生涯很重要，但只有十分之二或五分之一的父母认为孩子结婚很重要，同样只有五分之一的父母认为孩子生儿育女很重要，”德甘斯说。
"Nine out of 10 parents say it's important that their kids have a fulfilling career, but only 2 in 10 or 1 in 5 parents say it's important that their kids get married, and only 1 in 5 say it's important that their kids have children, right," De Gance said.
“现在的现实是，我们的孩子、我们的年轻人实际上正在做他们被教导要做的事情。他们追求物质福祉，胜过追求通过婚姻和家庭建立亲密关系这种持久且终身的益处。我们希望做的是激励教会积极地为婚姻和家庭树立愿景，”他说。
"Now the reality is, our kids, our young people, are actually doing what they're being taught to do. That they're seeking material well-being over and above these enduring, lifelong goods of close connection through marriage and family. What we're hoping to do is inspire churches to cast vision positively around marriage and family," he said.
皮尤研究中心2023年的一项研究发现，近一半受访父母表示，孩子结婚甚至生子对他们来说并不重要或完全不重要。
A 2023 study from Pew Research found nearly half the parents who responded to the survey said that it is not very important or not important at all to them for their kids to marry, or even have kids themselves. AOC FROZE HER EGGS AT 36.
亚历山德里娅·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯（AOC）在36岁时冷冻了卵子。以下是我的这一代人在母亲身份问题上犯的错误。对于父母来说，经济独立、拥有事业和获得大学学位，其重要性远高于孩子结婚或生子。
HERE’S WHAT MY GENERATION GOT WRONG ABOUT MOTHERHOOD Being financially independent, having careers, and earning a college degree ranked much higher for parents than their kids getting married or having children.
德甘斯表示，他们向教会和牧师提出的要求之一，是鼓励教会更多地谈论婚姻。
Part of their ask to churches and pastors, De Gance said, is to encourage churches to talk about marriage more.
“你看，85%的教会在婚姻和关系事工方面没有任何投入。91%的教会没有为单身人士提供任何服务，”德甘斯说。
"Look, 85% of all churches spend nothing in the area of marriage and relationship ministry. Ninety-one percent have nothing for singles," DeGance said.
“但他们这周日以及未来每个周日都能做一件事，那就是始终以充满憧憬的方式谈论和宣讲基督教婚姻的美好，帮助人们向往婚姻，阐述使徒保罗在《以弗所书》第五章中提到的那个伟大奥秘：人类的婚姻实际上是基督对其新娘——教会——牺牲之爱的象征和记号。这是教会现在就可以做的事，让我们的年轻人始终思考婚姻，向往婚姻，然后提供实际的指导，使他们能够追求婚姻，”他说。
"But one thing they can do this Sunday and in future Sundays is always talk aspirationally, preach aspirationally about the beauty of Christian marriage, help folks, aspire to it, lay out that great mystery that the Apostle Paul talks about in Ephesians 5, that human marriage is actually the symbol, the sign of Christ's sacrificial love for his bride, the church? And that's something a church can do right now, so that our young people are always thinking about it. And aspire to it, and then provide the practical guidance to be able to seek it out," he said.
婚前守贞？不婚前同居？数据显示，两者都跳过的夫妇可能拥有更牢固的婚姻。德甘斯表示，教会可以做的另一件事是将年轻人聚集在一起，无论是在教会内部还是外部，以促进更多婚姻的发生。
CHASTITY BEFORE MARRIAGE? NO COHABITATION? DATA SAYS COUPLES WHO SKIP BOTH MAY HAVE STRONGER UNIONS Another thing churches can do, De Gance said, is to bring young people together, both inside and outside of church, in order to help spur more marriages.
“在那之后，我们可以变得更加有策略性，创造让人们在现实生活中相遇的环境。我们不应该把责任推给技术和约会应用，对吧，”他说。
"We can become a lot more strategic after that, where we're creating environments where people meet in real life. We should not abdicate our responsibility to technology and dating apps, right," he said.
“教会应该是一个让年轻人相遇、建立社区、在灵修和信仰培育之外享受乐趣的场所。地方教会曾经是公民生活的中心。我们的信息是，鉴于当前的孤独和孤立现象，教会完全有能力再次成为那个中心。”他表示，他抱有希望，社会将通过见证婚姻的美好而重新认识到婚姻的价值。
"Church should be a venue where young people meet, form community, have fun outside of spiritual and faith formation. The local church used to be the hub for civic life. And it's our message that given the loneliness and isolation, the church is perfectly positioned, to be that hub once again." He said he holds on to hope that society will be reminded of the beauty of marriage by witnessing it.
好市多在美国人爱情生活中的意外新角色：“秘诀在于试吃。”德甘斯说：“经济学里有句老话：‘不可持续的趋势终将结束’，而现实是，我们目前的下滑趋势不会持续下去。”
COSTCO'S UNEXPECTED NEW ROLE IN AMERICANS' LOVE LIVES: 'SECRET SAUCE IS THE SAMPLING' "There's an old saying in economics, ‘A trend that can't go on forever, won't,’ and the reality is, our current decline isn't going to continue," De Gance said.
总有一天会出现一次强劲反弹。我充满希望，也乐观地认为，那些懂得婚姻生活的巨大美好、追求其中最常见幸福的人，最有可能步入婚姻，也最有可能生育子女。这将在西方带来显著的更新与复兴。我们认为，教会能够加速这一进程。
"At some point, there will be a major rebound. I'm filled with hope, and I'm also an optimist that those who grasp the great good of married life and seek the happiness that's most frequently found in it. These are the folks that are most likely to marry, the most likely to have kids. It's going to bring about a significant renewal and revival in the West. We think that the church can accelerate that."