A dramatic rise in unmarried men is cause for concern, warned Christian apologist Dr. Sean McDowell. “At its core, we have a spiritual battle that’s taking place,” he said on “Washington Watch.” “People have believed lies — in particular men — that their happiness and meaning and purpose that men are built to yearn for is going to be found somewhere else than in family.”
The Institute for Family Studies (IFS) recently reported that the U.S. contained 30.4 million single men aged 18 to 39 in 2025, nearly 50% more than in 2000, when there were 20.7 million. This increase corresponded with a 15% drop in married men among that age group, from 18.1 million in 2000 to 15.4 million in 2025 — despite 22% overall population growth.
“I don’t want to leave out that both Paul and Jesus say there is a role for single men,” McDowell allowed. “Jesus was single. Paul was single. We can honor the Lord through singleness and honor the Lord through marriage.” When the disciples responded to Jesus’s teaching on marriage by exclaiming, “It is better not to marry,” Jesus answered, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given” (Matthew 19:10-11). Similarly, Paul said, “I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” (1 Corinthians 7:7).
But both Paul and Jesus envisioned a life of sacrificial singleness lived “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:12). In general, that does not describe the increase in America’s “young single male” demographic.
“A lot of these men that we’re talking about are kind of like drifters,” said FRC Senior Fellow Jody Hice, guest host of “Washington Watch.” “Many of them are out of work. They’re out of college, some of them even out of community for all practical purposes.”
This profile parallels economic reasons for remaining single. “The number of men going to college is now being dwarfed by women,” said McDowell. “Economic instability is on the rise. Joblessness is on the rise when it comes to men. So they’re drifting here. That’s a piece of the story.” In July, employment among men aged 16-24 was 13% lower than in 2000.
However, “the larger piece is a lack of a larger vision, a lack of a deeper purpose, and the goodness and beauty of marriage,” McDowell suggested.
Consider the popular messages young men hear from entertainment, celebrities, and social media: wealth creation is bad; masculinity is toxic; men can do nothing that women cannot; if anything, men are oppressors who should feel bad about themselves. What young man would want to participate in a culture that show him so little respect? Men are playing down to society’s expectations.
McDowell proposed a proverbial analogue to describe the current situation. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18 KJV) is “what’s happening in terms of marriage perishing in our society, so to speak,” he said. “People have lacked a biblical vision of what marriage is for.”
“Marriage is pretty central to the Bible and what it means to be human,” McDowell explained. “We have marriage … clearly laid out in Genesis chapter two, ‘A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife’ [Genesis 2:24 KJV]. So, marriage is God’s design.”
Marriage is for, “of course, companionship. And, of course, as we see in the beginning of Genesis, to populate and fill the earth [Genesis 1:28],” he continued. But the purpose of marriage is, “more than anything else, to reflect God’s love for the church, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter five [5:25-33]. That’s really the primary purpose of marriage itself.”
Contrary to the biblical view, “the large theme that we’re seeing here is certain secular ideas about what it means to be human, about the purpose of human life, about what brings happiness,” McDowell added. “Marriage in itself is now seen as just my means to find my romantic partner and finding happiness. … So, if a lot of people think they can get happy without having that, what’s the purpose of getting married?”
In a culture of deteriorating moral norms, counterfeit versions of happiness abound. Pornography, video games, sports betting, and other technological enticements promise instant gratification, compared to the long, hard road of faithful marriage. Young men now have access to all these and more in their pocket. Combined with other cultural messages that denigrate masculine endeavor and dissuade men from pursuing any productive purpose, many young men even dare to believe that the longer, slower road holds greater joy.
But sin always deceives, and many young men are now finding its promises to be empty. While some grope for meaning in conspiracy theories, radicalism, or violence, others are turning to the church. “One hopeful sign in the numbers” is that “young men are returning to church,” said Hice. From 2022 to 2025, the number of men aged 18-29 who said religion was “very important” to them climbed from 28% to 42%.
“I remember the conversations 10, 20, 25 years ago about the ‘feminization of the church,’ whether it was in worship, whether it was in the sermons, that women were far more likely to go to church and men would kind of only go if the women would drag them there,” McDowell recalled. “We’ve seen a shift in this. Now, I mourn that a lot less women apparently want to go to church as a whole … but I am thrilled that more men want to go back to church.”
The return of men to church is biblically exciting, as Scripture obligates men to be spiritual leaders in their home.
Furthermore, “there is a connection between going to church and the message you get there about God’s design for sexuality, about God’s design for history and the world. That includes marriage,” McDowell said. “Also, if you just start going to church, you’re likely to meet people of the opposite sex with common values who also probably want to get married.”
Thus, the return of young men to church may reduce the singleness rate, as well as fortifying them against the culture’s easy lies.
“I would just tell churches, this is an opportunity to meet together and lean into this, take advantage of this and make sure you’re equipping men,” McDowell encouraged. “Make sure the church services that you have are inviting to men and giving them the practical resources to lead their families and even single men, potentially, to find a spouse.”
Men are attracted to church not by cultural platitudes — they can find those anywhere — or milquetoast Christianity. Rather, men are stirred to action by bold words and calls to courageous actions, like repentance. Fortunately, this is exactly how the word of God should be preached (Ephesians 6:19). “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). May the church’s counsel to young men be sharp and pointed, and different from the world.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared at The Washington Stand.
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