“Platonic co-parenting” has officially gone mainstream — and it exemplifies how the world has twisted God’s plan for marriage, family, and children. Apps like Modamily, LetsBeParents, and CoParents now connect thousands of adults who want to raise children together and “co-parent” — without love, marriage, or lasting commitment.

User Rave Reid shares how she understands platonic co-parenting: “A co-parent doesn’t need to be my romantic partner… I really feel like it let me separate two huge decisions: Who do I want to date and who do I want to parent with?”

Thankfully, experts are sounding the alarm that separating romance and commitment from parenting fractures the stability that children need. Katy Faust, founder of Them Before Us, explains: “… if you look at it from the child’s perspective, all you see is risk, instability, and loss.”

Platonic co-parenting is strikingly similar to polyamory, or multi-adult romantic relationships. Both arrangements exponentially multiply the potential for confusion, jealousy, neglect, and childhood trauma. Faust notes, “The same risks will be present for platonic co-parenting arrangements as three people living together raising a child. Studies on polyamorous unions tell us that will not result in ‘more love for the child,’ but more risk.” Children thrive on the security of seeing their mother and father committed to each other in a covenant bond the Bible describes as essential — and foundational to society.

The most helpless and unprotected of children are especially at risk thanks to modern reproductive technologies. Procedures like IVF promise hope but deliver new moral downfalls and eternal repercussions in direct opposition with biblical standards. In Florida, Tiffany Score and Steven Mills experienced one such nightmare scenario. After going through the IVF process, they got pregnant. Nine months later, they gave birth to a child — a little girl completely unrelated to either of them. Testing confirmed the child had “no genetic relationship” to either Score or Mills.

How did this happen? A different couple’s frozen embryo was implanted into Score. Now, the couple fears that “another person may have been implanted with their embryo and could be pregnant with or raising their child.”

Dr. David Prentice, bioethicist and president of the Science Alliance for Life and Technology (SALT), called out the horrific nature of IVF: “[IVF is] really a business. It’s not so much a medical practice as a way to make a lot of embryos, a lot of human beings, and then try to get them to the point of birth, but for an exorbitant price.” He added, “In an industry where people are legally considered property, offenses against the dignity of the human person automatically take place.”

In 2015, the Obergefell ruling made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. It immediately made mothers and fathers “optional” in parenthood as a result. The “Greater Than” campaign, led by Katy Faust and supported by 47 conservative organizations, is working to reverse that perception and restore recognition of natural, biblical marriage.

“America’s children are being treated as less than…” Faust stated in an interview. “Less than political agendas. Less than the so-called ideals of ‘equality’ and ‘freedom.’ Their needs, their rights, their safety, their development — sometimes even their very existence — have been treated as secondary.”

Faust emphasized that children require both a mother and a father, not just two adults. It’s this sacred union that she and others like her are trying to raise to prominence. In explaining her mission, Faust stated, “The moment we made husbands and wives optional in marriage, mothers and fathers became optional in parenthood law. The problem is that, for children, their mother and father are never optional. It always leaves a lifelong wound. It always destabilizes their existence. It hampers their identity formation. It hinders their development.” In other words, a biblical family unit is not optional.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, agrees wholeheartedly: “We need to get back to the place where we are elevating and promoting the one family structure where children have their mother and father in the home… if we don’t choose the kids, there is a high societal price to pay.”

So what are we to do? What we’ve always been called to do — share the gospel, model covenantal marriage, and promote biblical parenting. These are all ways Bible-believing Christians can influence culture toward God’s design. While the world experiments with its own definitions, families grounded in God’s wisdom remain the strongest safeguard for children — and the clearest reflection of His glory.