The Briefing with Albert Mohler - Friday, August 28, 2026

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.On today’s edition of The Briefing, Dr. Mohler discusses the precipitous drop in children in big cities, a New York Times article that reflects age-old issues between husbands and wives, Flock cameras and the increase of the surveillance state, if it’s wrong for a Christian couple to utilize a surrogate, and why there has been such a rise in anti-Semitism.Part I (00:14 – 10:34)The Precipitous Drop in Children in Big Cities: There are Massive Worldview Issues Behind ThisAmerica’s Big Cities Are Rapidly Losing Kids by The Wall Street Journal (Rachel Louise Ensign and Paul Overberg)Part II (10:34 – 14:09)‘Men Don’t Want to Go From Screw Up to Screw Up’: New York Times Article Reflects Age-Old Issues Between Husbands and Wives—Especially When Babies ComeDoes Your Relationship Need a ‘Mental Load’ Coach? by The New York Times (Jancee Dunn)Part III (14:09 – 21:18)What About Flock Cameras and the Increase of the Surveillance State? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letters From Listeners of The BriefingPart IV (21:18 – 25:07)Is It Wrong For a Christian Couple to Utilize a Surrogate If They Cannot Have Children on Their Own? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letters From Listeners of The BriefingPart V (25:07 – 27:50)Why Does Antisemitism Exist, and Why Has There Been Such an Increase in Antisemitism Recently? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letters From Listeners of The BriefingSign up to receive The Briefing in your inbox every weekday morning.Follow Dr. Mohler:X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.To write Dr. Mohler or submit a question for The Mailbox, go here.

It's Friday, August 28, 2006. I'm Albert Boller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. You know, there are so many concerns all over the place these days about birth rate and about households and about mothers and fathers and parents and children and all the rest. When these reach a secular concern, there's something big going on. And I think we just need to understand that this is, in one sense, a continuing human story. I think as Christians, we understand some of these issues are perpetual, going all the way back into the book of Genesis, and some are newly complicated. So one of the more new complications has to do with the modern age and the arrival of urbanized culture. Just a few weeks ago, a major study came out saying that one of the most

interesting developments in population studies in recent years, looking at the present right now, is the fact that so many American cities and metropolitan areas have seen a drop in children. And of course, it starts with a drop in babies. And before you know it, you're closing down elementary schools and then middle schools and consolidating high schools. And as you're looking at this, you know, you could say, well, maybe some of this is just a natural pattern. The problem is that it's not a natural pattern. It is the result of what we have seen in terms of this great shift in the worldview and great shift in the culture in which so many young people aren't getting married. They aren't getting married until quite late. And by the time they do

get married, they're putting off having children. And so there's all kinds of things that are going on here. You also have the increased number of women who are not getting married, don't expect to become mothers, all kinds of things. But the birth rate is going down. Now, in the United States, we've talked about this before. There was something of a delayed effect, but over the course of the last several years, it has become very, very apparent. And so, for instance, as you, You just look at the birth rate in the United States. It fell 18% in urban counties between 2010 and 2024. Okay.

Now, it fell by about 9% in all the nation. But you're talking about a very large population in the metro areas, especially in big cities. And if you're talking about that big a drop and burst, you're talking about what will inevitably show up is a population change. What will inevitably show up is closing schools. And, you know, you look at this and at least some people are beginning to ask the question, why is it so? So I read from this report, U.S. cities face drop in children. Big metro areas confront rapid decline of resident families with kids. So that's very interesting.

It's not just a drop off in having babies. It's a drop off in families in particular. So that's interesting. So you have people who aren't marrying, aren't getting married and having children in a predictable pattern, and they aren't getting, they aren't having babies. And so that's part of it. The other part of it is families that are having babies that have decided to do so, raise those children elsewhere.

And so it's a double pattern. It's like scissors. So you have the two blades working together. Well, all right. So you look at this and say, I bet it's really clear in some of the most expensive urban areas in the United States. And no doubt it is. So listen to this, as you're thinking about this, over the period from,

say a 2,000 until now, New York gained a net of 670,000 households of single people or families without kids under 18. So that's a big number, 670,000, but that's single people or couples without children under 18. Quote, parents have to earn $334,000 to be able to comfortably afford child care for a two-year-old, according to an analysis from the city's comptroller. The median rent for apartments with three or more bedrooms is 5,495 citywide, according to the rating organization on a street easy. Okay. So you look at that and how many couples are going to make $334,000?

The point here is that there are economic conditions that explain part of this, but it's also clear that this isn't something that's just happening in New York City. The numbers are really high in New York City. No surprise. there, New York's proud of having big numbers, sometimes the big numbers are bad. But it is also true that in many places in the country that are not so culturally predictable, not so progressive or liberal, some of the same trends are happening. In other words, it's not just great, big Goliath liberal cities that are experiencing this. It's also some much more unexpected conservative cities where you have more conservative states and you have more conservative voters, more conservative families. and it is because at least at this point, it appears that the city context is part of the equation. You compare the city to the suburbs and the countryside. Guess what? It's different.

And for a long time, and especially in the second half of the 20th century, there was the pattern of younger people beginning in cities and then marrying and moving out to suburbs. In some cases now, they're also moving to what are described as regional towns. And so you see this just to take a state like Texas, where it's not just that you have vast growth. So they were talking about a red state. So we're not talking about New York City. But you're talking about very big cities, you know, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Austin, the whole complex of very big cities. But then you have all the cities around them in little towns, county seats and all the rest, where you also have an awful lot of population growth and you see a lot of family.

families. And the families are now more likely to be moving there. So in other words, if you take a 25-year-old single person making a decision as to where he's going to try to work and live, there's been an historic draw to the metropolitan areas, to the cities. But when there's a settling down, getting married, and having children, there's been the pattern of moving out to the suburbs. The point here is that folks are moving actually even further than the suburbs in many of these cases, and sometimes for socioeconomic reasons, sometimes because, as one person said, they just want their child to be able to ride a bicycle in the neighborhood. And that's something is not going to happen in New York City, let's be clear, but it's not going to happen in some other places as well.

I cite here from the Wall Street Journal's report, quote, city economies are starting to feel the shift. Families are important contributors to a city's tax base, and middle class families in particular drive demand for goods such as affordable groceries that benefit everyone. Fewer kids means less support for public schools, often one of the largest employers in many cities, and tough choices as classrooms empty out. But it's not just people with families moving out, it's also just the number of babies that are being born or not being born. Quote, the falling birth rate is also a major factor. The number of births in the U.S. has fallen 9% in the past decade, largely due to fewer women having children in their teens and 20s nationwide. By the way, that's teens. We understand why that would be

very significant, but 20s. So in other words, a radical reduction in the number of babies born to women in their 20s. You need to understand that is a very new thing. Nationwide, the birth rate is, we are told here, quote, falling even more dramatically for Hispanic women who make up a sizable share of the population in some cities. An analysis by O'Brien, that's a research firm, found that birth rates in large urban counties fell 18% between 2010 and 2024, the biggest drop of any county type, end quote. Now, I raise this not just because it is a very important issue. I raise it because the numbers should awaken us all. For one thing, one of the things you look at here is that it is fully explainable why some urban areas, some metropolitan areas that are so

incredibly expensive, why so many people that have children are moving out or who even plan to have children are moving out of those areas. But it's also clear that it's not just an economic issue. It's a cultural issue. It has to do with the difference between an urban area, even if it's a far more, let's just say, less expensive urban area in terms of the cost of living, cost of homes and all the rest. The fact is that this is something bigger than just the money, and it's something that bears watching. The bigger thing for me in this article is not so much who moves where, because that's not even the biggest part of the story. The biggest part of the story It's just not having babies in the first place, which also has a story before that, which is young people not getting married or not getting married in any kind of normal time range where they could also have a large family.

And so this is why you're looking at such a radical decrease in the birth rate. For Christians, this is just a reminder that everything comes with worldview and biblical circumstances and consequences. You look at this and you say, well, we can't look at this as anything other than the reversal. of what God told Adam and Eve in the garden to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. We are seeing a depopulation in many areas. And, of course, economics is a part of it, but I think we all know there's something bigger here than economics. One of the things that is not really addressed in much of the discussion of this issue is that there are lifestyle issues that are very much a part of this. One of the reasons why, you know, the cities are cities, is because of the anonymous

cornucopia of all kinds of things that are available to people in cities that would not be similarly available elsewhere. And there are reasons why we talk about the urban lifestyle is quite different than, say, a rural or a suburban lifestyle. And it does tell you something, and that is that there are some wonderfully faithful Christians raising children in urban areas, but there's a reason why you find kind of a suburban belt where you find a much greater presence of children. The new thing is that even further than the suburbs, you're also seeing a lot of families in motion. By the way, this is not only an issue we want to look at in moral terms and in worldview terms, I think for churches, this also is very much about the ministry landscape. And we need to take that into account as well.

Before we turn to questions, one other dimension of this. The New York Times recently ran a really interesting article. Here's the headline, getting men to do their share of running a home. The subhead in the article, a mental load coach says relationships can improve by rebalancing the workload. Okay, it's written by a woman, Jan C. Dunn. She reports, quote, in heterosexual couples, these tasks, meaning domestic tasks, largely fall to women, even though women now make up nearly half the U.S. workforce. And so this is a young couple that is featured here that has very young infant twins. And he is a coach for other dads. And she is one who's testifying to the fact that she doesn't think her young husband is, or is always pulling his share in terms of the domestic

context. I got to tell here, there are just some things that cry out for attention in this kind of article. I mean, for one thing, you have a young husband talking with other young men who are also husbands and fathers and trying to figure all. this out, how that's helpful. He said, speaking of the situation, otherwise, quote, it doesn't feel like now he says, it doesn't feel like I'm jumping from screw up to screw up. One of the things that becomes very clear here is that a lot of young men just don't have any idea really how to help. And so here's what's kind of new. And maybe I think a lot of even Christian moms and wives are going to say, no, it's not all that new. I think it's an honest statement that young men, even after they are married,

and even after they are fathers have to be taught how to do a lot of things that just don't come naturally. It's not to say they don't want to do them, but it is very frustrating to go from screw up to screw up. And I just look at this and I say, you know, this is a golden opportunity for churches. If the secular world sees this as something that represents a need, helping younger dads and other younger dads and younger husbands, you know, helping out. And then older ones, you know, the secular world has a hard time. coming up with that so they have to hire coaches. I just want to say to Christians, you know, this is what the local church should be doing and what Christians should be invested in. And there's something glorious about seeing older husbands and dads help younger husbands and

dads just to do this better. And as this one young husband father said, you know, not go from screw up to screw up. I also think that this is something in which some conversation would really, really help because I just got to tell you, I think at times there are young husbands and young fathers who want to do the right thing and they simply are not sure exactly how to do this. And, you know, the other part of this is that in creation order, there still is a distinction. I think it's very interesting that even in this secular report, some of the distinctions between men and women are treated as real and maybe even inevitable. You know what?

We understand there's a lot more to it than that. But it is something of an affirmation of creation order that you see in an article like this. I'm just glad that New York Times is writing about young couples and having children and how to raise those children and how to get things done. I mean, that's rather encouraging. But, you know, it's also something that I think most older men who have been fathers and may not be grandfathers look at this and say, yeah, I understand exactly what they're trying to figure out. I just have to say, again, I think the local church here has an incredible opportunity.

Now I want to turn to questions, and as always, I appreciate all the questions sent in by listeners and some really interesting questions this week. I want to start with a question from a young man who wrote me, and he's asking about the flock cameras, flock safety cameras, that are now being used by so many cities, municipalities, and governments. And he shows some real theological knowledge in talking about, understanding the God-given mandate to government in Romans 13 to maintain civil justice, protect property, restrain evil, the necessity of law enforcement. But he also is concerned,

and here he cites the doctrine of total depravity, that these things not only can be used, they can be misused, but he comes down to this question, quote, when a local government establishes a permanent, warrantless digital dragnet that continuously logs the public movements of thousands of innocent citizens by default, has the state overstepped as God-given boundaries under Genesis and Romans, at what point does a municipality's pursuit of absolute physical safety

turn into a form of technocratic hubris that sees as an all-knowing omniscient oversight designed to belong solely to the Creator, end quote. Okay, wow. That's a very informed question. And it's very carefully asked and posed here. I want to say that when you think about these surveillance cameras. I think one of the first things that was shocked many Americans is how many

of them are already out there and are already being used. And furthermore, how many of them are with private firms, with government contracts, and with vast investment in terms of these cameras. And I think one of the most intelligent things I've heard in response to all of this is the fact that given the miniaturization of almost everything, the time is coming when you could have these cameras virtually everywhere and invisible to everyone. They're going to become so small and inconspicuous that you're not going to be able to see them. And yet they're going to be able to see you. You know, I think this raises an issue that goes beyond the traffic cameras. And that has to do with the fact that the entire world is becoming a surveillance state. And I think there's a sense in

which at moments, we're glad of that. And then we have to have very serious second thoughts. we're glad of it when there's the kidnapping of a child or something and all of a sudden they're able to track the movements of a vehicle and locate the child or when someone's lost or even in terms of an accident there are all kinds of things that can happen and you can say well I'm thankful that that's there on the other hand we are talking about a surveillance state of absolutely draconian significance I mean you are talking now about the fact that it's it's conceivable that a municipality or a government contract with a company. And they could put all of these traffic cameras in and they could basically detail your life,

where you go, where you work, you know, how fast you're driving, you know, under what conditions, how many Tuesdays are you driving by, you know, 445, oh, just all kinds of things like that. Now, in most jurisdictions, there is a limit to what can be accessed, even by courts. so there has to be some kind of subpoena or some kind of legal maneuver that is used. On the other hand, it is not clear exactly how that applies all over the country. I think this listener is asking a very important question, but it's bigger than the traffic cameras. The traffic cameras are kind of like Exhibit A for the moment. But quite honestly, I mentioned just recently on the briefing that you can now have your phone

with tracking mechanisms for major airplanes. and for that matter, smaller ones too. You can look at flights all across the United States, and then all of a sudden you realize on this app, you could actually pinch it, and the next thing you know, you're looking at Europe, you're looking across the Pacific, you're able to put your finger on a plane,

and it says at what altitude it's flying, and what plane it is, and what's the tail number, and all the rest. The entire world is being turned into a surveillance state. And so I don't want to minimize this question, and I don't want to dodge it. That's why I've taken it first of all. I just want to admit, I don't know that there's any clear Christian answer other than we do believe in a fallen world that some technologies like this can have very positive impacts.

On the other hand, they can be used by evil people to evil ends. And that would include a repressive government, say, trying to crack down on Christians. It's one of these things where we realize that we are watching in the digital revolution, all the sudden, It's just almost immediate explosion of all these technologies. And quite honestly, it is very difficult to sort them out. It's not just a liberal and conservative issue. It is a Christian worldview issue as compared to a secular worldview. But we're going to have to think through this.

The biblical warnings are clear. I think the biblical warning comes down to the fact that if this information exists, someone will use it for evil purposes. There are those with evil motivations who will use this kind of thing for evil purposes. But if you're trying to find a kidnapped child, you know, that's a very powerful justification for at least I'm glad in this case that it's there. I am not able to answer this question conclusively, which I think is just a worldview principle in and of itself. There are some of these issues in which you can make this argument and that argument, then you have to look at this and you have to look at that. But there is also something else, and that is the fact that our culture is increasingly in the mode of techno-determinism,

which means that there are people who are just going to make the argument before courts and before Congress and before everyone else simply saying someone's going to do this, you need the right people doing this the right way. It's inevitable that this technology is going to be out there and someone's going to be using it. You want the good guys to use it, not just the bad guys. Again, there are limits to that argument. And that just shows you why Christians have to think about these things together, talk about these things together, and watch these issues as they develop. But when it comes to those cameras,

it is interesting that one of the patterns that's been noted even by secular observers is that the response to this is not a traditional left-right response. There are conservatives who are very worried about this, and there are liberals who are very worried about this. That tells you that something very basic is actually at stake, and it's a good thing for this question to be sent.

It's a good thing for us to be thinking about this. And, you know, we also just have to admit, and humility that the technology is moving faster than we're thinking. You know, it also comes down to who is going to be watching this. Who is seeking this information? Who has access to it? All of these are hard questions. I think the obvious answer is we want the police to have access to this when they're

looking for a lost child or a stolen car even. But it's not just the police who are likely to have access to this. And not always, by the way, for good reason. Okay, next, I want to turn to a question sent end by a young listener, 14 years old. And she writes from Alabama, and she says, quote, you have talked a lot about surrogate mothers. I understand most couples use these women because they are same sex. But if there is a biblical couple and they can't have children, is it wrong for them to consider surrogate mothers? End quote.

Okay, you know, that's a good question. It's properly put. And, of course, as she says, when the same-sex couples are talking about a surrogate mother, well, you know, it's already wrong at the same sex level before you get to even the surrogacy. And the surrogacy becomes necessary because a woman and a woman or a man supposedly married to a man, they can't produce a baby. And so hiring a womb, hiring a woman, a surrogate mother becomes a part of the plan. And she's right.

This is where so much of the explosion in surrogacy's happened. But, you know, as we're going to talk next week, some of the more recent headline news about surrogacy has been not same-sex couples, but even some heterosexual couples, a man and a woman, and even some married couples that are unable to have children. She asked about that. If there's a biblical couple, I think that's what she means, a married husband and wife, and they can't have children. Is it wrong for them to consider surrogate mothers?

This gets to the fact that in Christian moral reasoning, there are some things that are immediately, biblically said positively and negatively. And so that's why even in the Ten Commandments, you have some thou shouts and the thou shalt nots. Okay, so even in the first and second chapters of Genesis, you have the shall in terms of a man and a woman coming together in the context of marriage, and then having children, being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth. All right. So that's good. There are also some thou shalt nots.

and some of those now shall nots are things that are directly subversive, so to speak, of biblical sexuality when it comes to marriage and family and parents and all the rest. There's another level, however, in which it's not that something is explicitly named in scripture, but it is a principle that is drawn from scripture. And now we are in an area in which there are some new technologies, there's some new things, and it requires us to really think hard. I want to say the biggest issue I think in all this is the alienation. That's a good moral category. It's very clear from scripture. In other words, this should happen here. It shouldn't happen there.

When you talk about the gestation of a baby and you talk about the experience of even carrying a baby and you talk about the experience of delivering a baby, it's really hard not to refer to that person as the mother of the child. And furthermore, it gets really complicated. The abstraction is part of the problem. So I want to say to this young 14-year-old, this young woman, I want to say when we say it's wrong, it's not wrong in the same way we say, thou shalt not kill. But we would say, look, here's the thing. It is still bringing in a person from outside the marriage as a, as the person to carry the baby. And of course, there are all kinds of other issues, including even the production of the gametes,

you know, the male cell and the female cell. Do they come even from the married couple? And how is all that to happen? all that to say that Christians have to have the honest category of things that are so morally complex that even if there's not a verse in scripture against this, there is a biblical principle in which this is just shown not to meet the biblical standard. This is outside what Christians can commend. And it raises moral risks that Christians have to recognize and articulate out loud. I appreciate the question. I hope that's helpful. It's going to require further thought from Christians

to be sure. There are new technologies that are coming swiftly behind. All right. Finally, a question from an older listener from Arkansas. Why does anti-Semitism exist and how did it get its beginning? Its history. Why is there a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism? Okay. So I want to say anti-Semitism begins when Israel begins. The response of hatred towards God's covenant people is clear from the beginning. And of course, even, and I'm teaching right now verse by verse through the book of Joshua, you know, the children of Israel are met with murderous antipathy. And it is against the Jewish people as a people. It is against the Jewish people as the children of God, as the chosen people of the one true and living God.

And so there is hatred towards Israel that is rooted even in the earliest times of Israel's existence. There's more to it than that. As you look at the history of Western civilization, there have been recurring waves of anti-Semitism. And some of these have been, you know, in the medieval era, but frankly, it, of course, is much older than that, going back to the Roman Empire, which you could say at the very best respond to some degree of toleration, but that toleration then turned to hostility. And then you look, of course, at the 20th century and the Holocaust and the Nazi ideologies. And now you look at much of the anti-Semitism that's taking over American college and

university campuses and the intellectual elites, it's the same thing coming over and over and over again. I think that in biblical theology, that anti-Semitism is a hatred towards God that is then extended to the hatred towards the people who have been God's chosen. And I just want to tell Christians that as you understand, this anti-Semitism comes up again and again and again in terms of the reality of the Old Testament, the fact is that in the New Testament, we are told that the world that treats the Jewish people that way will treat Christians that way as well. I will also say, I think right now this is a key theological and moral test for conservative Christians. Let's just say right here in the United States, but all over the world, we are reaching a crucial moment on this

issue, and we had better be thinking very clearly and very biblically. As always, I appreciate your question, send your question simply by writing me at mail at albertmobler.com. Thanks for listening. For more information, go to my website at Albertmuller.com. You can follow me at X or Twitter simply by going to X.com forward slash Albert Moeller. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbtsketext.org. For informational voice college, just go to voicecollege.com. I'll meet you again on Monday for the briefing.