On Thursday, March 13, BYU students crowded into an overflowing lecture hall in the JFSB to hear a special BYU Studies lecture titled “What’s Going on with Relationships? We’re Designed for Them!” Professor Jenet Erickson provided students with an incisive and profound perspective of dating, marriage, and generational hardships through the lens of both her deep academic expertise as well as her testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Professor Erickson is an Affiliated Scholar at BYU’s Wheatley Institute and a former assistant professor in the School of Family Life. With a PhD in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota and a prolific career, her work has appeared in outlets like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. She currently teaches “The Eternal Family” at BYU and is an outstanding defender of the family, a powerful advocate of the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is known by students as an intelligent and insightful educator.
Professor Erickson began her lecture on relationships by acknowledging the plummeting marriage rate nationwide, as well as the rising average age of marriage. She examined how this is affecting Gen-Z’s experiences in dating, including here at BYU, and how it is leading to a rise in loneliness. The amount of time students are statistically likely to spend outside of a committed relationship is getting longer, leading to problems for both young men and young women.
Arguing that a key disruptor of today’s relationships is the continued societal decoupling of sex from marriage, Professor Erickson repeated the words of the prolific Christian writer Carl Trueman: “Sexual freedom has turned people into things.” This shift has derailed how young people develop the emotional capacity and trust essential for intimacy, which is leaving both men and women adrift. However, contemporary research suggests it’s much more complex. Men seem to be withdrawing from education, careers, and the family, and, overall, are putting less and less effort into their own success. Women seem to be reporting the most barriers to marriage, are more divided along political lines, and are withdrawing from religious activity more than men. Overall, Gen-Z faces significant declines in happiness, physical health, meaning, character, social relationships, and financial stability compared to past generations, and adolescent pessimism is rising as a general rule.
Yet, Professor Erickson’s message was far from despairing. She reinforced the transformative power of marriage and parenthood, citing research showing that a good marriage boosts happiness by 545%. Married women, she noted, accumulate ten times the assets of their unmarried peers over a lifetime, alongside benefits like improved health and longevity. Children, while increasing stress, also bring profound meaning—a duality Professor Erickson affirmed as central to the purpose of humanity.
Then, connecting her argument with scripture, Professor Erickson invoked the Hebrew term “kadosh,” meaning sacred and set apart, to describe God’s design for men and women. She portrayed the union of Adam and Eve as a divine model, where differences between genders complement rather than compete, forming “one flesh” in an eternal family. The effects of this union can even be measured in children, where, for example, motherhood is linked to children’s IQ, while fathers are linked to college graduation and a child’s capacity for empathy later in life.
Professor Erickson concluded that covenants and ordinances are God’s answer to today’s relational crises, noting that religious marriages offer unique strengths, such as higher sexual satisfaction, fewer financial woes, and a perception of kindness in spouses. Her lecture, which expertly bridged contemporary research with the teachings of living prophets, urged students to embrace their covenants and keep an eternal perspective. Students left the overflowing hall with the understanding that their relationships aren’t just social, they are sacred, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is designed to make them work.
Written by: Kimball Call
Senior Contributor at the Cougar Chronicle
The Cougar Chronicle is an independent student-run newspaper and is not affiliated with Brigham Young University or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
