As 32 percent of American adults under 30 claim no religious affiliation, government dependency is increasing.

Mary Eberstadt, author of “How the West Really Lost God,” thinks the two are connected. In this interview, she discusses the accelerating secularization of America and its connection to family disintegration in the nation.

But even in decline, she sees hope for the future.

“In a way, I’m optimistic about the future, because I think that the more unstable the modern welfare state becomes, the stronger, in the long run, the family might become as people realize that the family can do things that the government can only do less efficiently and more expensively.”

Rebutting those who see economic issues as most important to the nation, Eberstadt reminds us why the founders structured the United States on the expectation of a moral citizenry.

“They understood that with the degree of liberty that we have in the United States — it’s written into our Constitution, as long as that’s protected — they understood that there is freedom to do good things and be productive citizens, and for that you need to rely on a certain level of understanding about what’s right and what’s wrong,” she said. “You have to rely on habits like discipline and perseverance and all these things that are really hard to come by.”

“But a society full of people who only want to be taken care of or who don’t really want to fend for themselves, particularly, is a society that is unsustainable.”

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