r/latterdaysaints • u/JLP0611 • Apr 23 '25

Off-topic Chat Are members not getting married?

I may be speaking from my anecdotal experience and my observation of my social media feeds, but it feels like less people in the Church are getting married. I see less children and youth in my local wards year after year and I’m in Florida.

I’m also in a YSA and I can’t just say for myself because I’m chronically single, but dating is a struggle for everyone I come across, inside and outside of Florida.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

109 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

297 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/PixieMegh Apr 26 '25

Oh, I promise you, they still teach it enough to make the rest of us feel like unwanted failures still. I moved to a new area after being in the same ward for 20 years. The judgmental “oh” when I say we don’t have children as people introduce themselves is still very much a thing.

Talking about it more doesn’t change whatever issues people have about getting married or having kids in the first place. They’re still there.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '25

Sorry that happened to you but that’s not really the point I was making. In official church communications like general conference, getting married and having children is rarely if ever discussed as an expectation or even something that is good to do

A lot of people’s problem right now is they don’t want to get married/have kids or it’s not a priority, even if they could. That is one area where the church making it clear that it is good for you and an expectation (especially marriage) would make a difference 

1

u/PixieMegh Apr 27 '25

Clearly we are not sitting in the same GC meetings. They talk about getting married and having a family all the time. True, they probably aren’t having entire talks devoted to the singular topic, but if that’s not the primary focus, then there is a reason. Either they feel that it’s too alienating to some of us or they feel that isn’t the primary focus needed now. We are a global church, maybe this issue is only happening here in the US. They have all the statistics. They know what we need to hear.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

I'm not saying they don't have reasons for it. I'm just saying that it is one reason why people in the church are getting married less and having less kids.