Japan isn’t known for its level of English proficiency, but there’s a 3-word phrase that will elicit a knowing smile from almost any Japanese person wherever you go in the country. The phrase is, “Boys, be ambitious,” and it came from the farewell address that William Smith Clark made after an 8-month stint as head of the Sapporo Agricultural College in 1877. Today, there are statues of Clark bearing the phrase and a painting in the state capitol building in Sapporo with a full text of his speech. Clark was a devout Christian but is the phrase by which he’s remembered Christian? Should a Christian be ambitious? Or was this just an export of American capitalism? I think the answer is yes and no, depending on how we define the term. Let me explain.
In 2006, for the first time since national census records were first reported in 1871, unmarried adults in Canada outnumbered the number of married adults. Ironically, this was just one year after Canada passed the law, legalizing same-sex marriage. More people than ever could legally marry, but fewer people than ever did. Obviously, it was a sign of a cultural shift. And over the last decade, the trend has only continued. More people delay marriage for education and careers. Increasing work demands make it more difficult to find time to meet people. The rise in divorce means that more people who were married now no longer are. And more and more people who have been hurt by divorce have a cynicism about the value or relevance of marriage. Given these new dynamics, I’m grateful that thoughtful Christians are doing research and addressing these trends with biblical solutions. This spring, Crossway Publishing released the results of a 7000-person survey on singleness and dating as part of a book release for Marshall Segal’s, “Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness & Dating,” and the results are worth considering.
