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Chairman’s Desk - Holding Firm Our Foundation
November/December 2000 Family Voice
The holiday season is once again upon us! This wonderful time allows us to give thanks for God’s blessings and to celebrate His ultimate gift to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Families are certainly one of God’s richest blessings. My guess is, whether you live near or far from your loved ones, or spend any time with them, your family will be close to your heart this season. Our families make up a critical part of who we are as individuals and as a society.
God Created FamiliesGod created families as one man and one woman united in marriage for life, with children either by birth or adoption. Throughout Scripture, God speaks to us in terms of family: We are His children; He is our Father; we are part of His family. God created the family to be the basis of society. Yet in the past four decades, our society has consistently and purposefully attempted to change the meaning of family. Traditional marriage has suffered tremendously from the effects of “no-fault” divorce, cohabitation, and, more recently, from the persistent attempt to legalize “same-sex marriage.”
Likewise, divorce and remarriage have created more blended families. More single parents have the big job of caring for their children alone. And, as more homes have both parents in the work force, day-care centers, neighbors and extended family members have become surrogate parents. Even state and federal governments have increasingly devalued parenthood, as they take more authority in issues like education, taxes, abortion and even child discipline.
My good friend Jim Dobson recently wrote: “If traditional marriage and parenthood continue to lose ground year by year, marriage and parenthood as we have known them will die. ... Societies can be no more stable than the social foundation on which they sit. That foundation is the traditional family. ...” He is right—and our society is teetering on a crumbling foundation. Each year the family crumbles a little more as other groups and agendas change the meanings of family, marriage and parenthood.
Feminist FallacyIn the 1960s and 1970s, feminism became popular. Millions of women followed feminist Gloria Steinem who said, “You become a semi-nonperson when you get married.” She and other feminists preached that women did not “need” men. Women could be whomever they wanted, whenever they wanted, they said. When no-fault divorce became law, divorces skyrocketed. Interestingly, Miss Steinem recently became a “Mrs.” She justified this change by saying, “I hope this proves what feminists have always said: Feminism is about the ability to choose what’s right at each time in our lives.” I think her about-face recognizes God designed men and women to marry and create families, not live from one self-serving relationship to another.
Homosexual activists likewise have persistently attempted to change the meaning of family. Hawaii, Vermont and California most recently have hotly debated whether homosexuals should have the so-called “right” to marry. Friends, we will continue to see this dangerous issue battled across the country. As Chuck Colson wrote: “By deconstructing the family and saying that any two adults can constitute a family, we have trivialized the very institution of marriage and destroyed the basis of society.”
Ground SupportIf we allow anyone to change the fundamental meaning of family, we will be allowing the destruction of this country’s foundation. Each change, no matter how minor it may seem, will carry enormous implications for every family and our society at large.
This holiday season, let me encourage you to pray first for your own family. You may be hurting from broken relationships and turmoil within your family. Pray that God will bring restoration and healing. Then join us in praying that God will bring restoration to the family in America. As we soon truly begin the new millennium, prepare to fight with us to preserve the true meaning of family. Much work remains to be done, but many blessings will come from it!
More from November/December 2000 Family Voice
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