Family: Thinking Outside the "Nuclear" Box

Although my previous blog suggested a redirection of future blogs to marriage and family from random subjects that grabbed me, it will not be an either/or situation. Marriage is affected by cultural changes—often the burden of my previous blogs. As today’s blog shows, the “big picture” affects you and your family, perhaps more than you realize. Let me know your thoughts.

Some-one told me recently of a young colleague who married and went on honeymoon for two weeks. On her return, she was asked how the vacation went, to which she replied the marriage was over and they were getting divorced.

I was twenty-nine, married ten years, when our young family immigrated to Canada. Until that time I knew of only two divorces. A lot has happened in nearly fifty years since. Now, of course, England is plagued with the same deterioration of marriage as most western nations.

At the outset, I want my view that undergirds the deliberations of this blog clearly understood. Much of what happens in this world, both on an international and personal level is a reflection of the spiritual battle instigated by Satan.

Those who dismiss the spiritual element in world affairs have an enormous problem accounting for evil residing in humanity. They vainly hold to the idea that humans are basically good, and changes, perhaps initially unpleasant, will eventually lead to humanity perfecting itself.

Paradoxically, that philosophy results in support for a declining value of life. It commenced with the sixties attack on the morals guarding sex and reproduction. It demanded sex “liberated” to greater freedom: recreation without procreation, or simply, sex without children.

Abortion was a natural outcome, lowering the value of human life, which in turn opened the door to euthanasia, assisted suicide, and “mercy” killing. This battle and its eventual wider demands, now being waged in the “civilised” west, must have Hitler laughing in his grave.

What has this to do with marriage? Simply that breaking up the family is an assault on the children. Fracturing the nuclear family leads to the decreasing safety of children within marriage. That abets and parallels the fracturing of society and the decreasing security for the vulnerable.

It is no coincidence that the decline in regard for God parallels the lowering of the value of human life, a breakdown in morality, and the assault on the family. Without the Creator’s compass to direct life, maintaining a just society rests on the opinions of fallen humanity.

This is why the Gospel is a redeeming influence on society at large, for, it seems to me, the long term stability of a nation rests on the care it provides to the weakest. And that is reflected in God’s love for us.