In a new book, Get Married, and in countless op-eds, white papers, and columns, Wilcox makes the case that traditional marriage and family are the lynchpin to a flourishing life, economically, socially, and spiritually. Consider one stunning fact: “The best community predictor of poor children remaining stuck in poverty as adults was the share of kids in their communities living in a single-parent family. Not income inequality. Not race. Not school quality.”

Let’s do a thought experiment. Let’s imagine you are a young Christian burdened by the state of the world. You want to make a difference.

Let’s get more specific.

You see documented in headline after headline, rising crime, addiction, and deaths of despair. You believe God has called you to be a small part of what He wants to do to redeem the communities most left behind.

What issue would you make your priority in this desire to engage in genuine social justice? One scholar suggests an issue that would probably not be the first, for you, to come to mind: marriage.

Brad Wilcox is a professor of sociology and director of The National Marriage Project at The University of Virginia and a fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. For the last decade and a half, Brad has been studying marriage and family in America and he’s come to one conclusion:

So many of the biggest problems across America are rooted in the collapse of marriage and family life in all too many communities and homes across the country.

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