Jerry Novotny, OMI – The nuclear family is considered the ” traditional ” family. The nuclear family consists of a mother, father, and their biological children. A single parent is a parent who cares for one or more children without the assistance of the other biological parent. Step families are becoming more familiar in many parts of the world today. This type is formed on the remarriage of a divorced or widowed person and that includes a child or children. Blending Families and Joint Families are also entering the scene. Let’s analyze the term “Family” and how it relates to the growth of children and World Peace. Does Humanity Have a Future? What role do children have?
“Our children are our future and we must be concerned as a nation about how we ensure their healthy development. There is no replacement for the fundamental institution called the “family.” – Diann Dawson
I strongly believe that World Peace starts in the individual child as a way of life and can be molded only in the family. In the family children are tested. Childrn learn especially that their relationships to each other endure beyond differences and conflicts. In the family children form their values, character and approach to relationships; consequently, it would seem that the family is a good place to start building peace. Communities would benefit from supporting families that nurture and raise children who are physically and mentally healthy, socially responsible individuals. These same individuals would carry their values into the world scene.
Pope St. John Paul II is a prophetic saint who is actively alive in today’s world. Way back on December 30, 2016, Pope St. John Paul II said: “The future of humanity passes by way of the family” (Familiaris Consortio, n86).
A few questions we might ask ourselves is: (1) What is the fundamental building block of a healthy society? And (2) what is the foundation on which a strong family is built? Jesus Christ. So how do we build a flourishing culture in the world? The answer: by building faithful families. Strong Christ-centered families are essential to the future of humanity.
As Christians, we know that God designed the family as the fundamental unit of society. From the beginning of Genesis, we are told that is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and the two become one body. This my friends is the divine blueprint for the family and has been the foundation of civilization since the creation of the world.
Pope St. John Paul II beautiful stated in Familiars Contortio the importance of the family when he wrote, that family finds in the plan of God not only its identity, but also its mission – what it can and should do. Christ-centered families are essential for the future.
For example, such families nurture and pass down our faith and values. Such families are the most influential teachers of faith and morality for their children. Many of the problems we have in our society today is due to the breakdown and not understanding the importance of family.
But let’s be realistic. Daily headlines paint sobering world events:
*Wars and military conflicts
*Human rights violation.
*Artificial Intelligence (AI)
*Climate and Environment.
*LGBTQ+ rights
*Combating Drugs and Crime.
*Countering Terrorism.
At the same time, today’s families also face many closer-to-home challenges. Rising divorce rates, the decline of religious participation, record number of children living in single parent homes, show a damaging impact on society. Strong families are needed to provide stability.
Research consistently shows that children from two-parent households have better education, better employment and avoid poverty and crime. When families break down, communities suffer. In a world that increasingly rejects our Christian values, our homes must be fortresses of faith where we can instill timeless truths and resist negative influences. A relationship with God is the foundation for peace.
As John Paul II said, the family has the mission to guard, reveal, and communicate love, and this love rooted in Christ can transform our homes and our society and the entire world.
Let’s look at all the civilizations and societies throughout the history of our world. Do not look through any particular religious lens. What do they have in common despite completely different theologies, different histories, different economies, different languages, different educations, etc? We can say that something resembling the family exists in every one of these cultures.
There are variations but the general idea is that the family starts with a marriage between a man and a woman. This has a special connection to the bearing and raising of children. This is interesting because if you think about how diverse global cultures can be, that all these culture would independently converge on the same institution.
This tells us that this marriage institution is something that represents an underlying element of human nature. A fertile man and woman can and do reproduce the entire human race. So it makes sense that sort of independent cultures would converge together on this one thing that’s absolutely essential. The family.
In society there are many threats facing the breakdown of the family. Probably the most significant threat is gender ideology. Gender theology basically claims that biological sex, the reality of male and female, does not really describe the human experience accurately. Rather, we should think of ourselves as having a thing called a gender identity, which is defined as an internal sense of gender. It is disconnected from the body.
And so rather than having sex as a real thing, we have this disembodied gender-self floating around disconnected from our bodies. This is imposed on us by so-called educated people and referred to as sex assigned at birth. It is just that radical.
Now how is this an attack on the family? It’s an attack on the reality of the sexual understanding of male and female. The sexual revolution started with the dissolution of the organic unity of marriage, childbirth and sex. In other words, we are going to have sex without marriage, we are going to have marriage without children. We are going to just disconnect these things.
This started in the 1960s when the pill made it possible for people to have recreational sex without the risk of having children. We were told that would reduce unwanted pregnancies. Reality tells us differently.
And what did we get in 1973? We got the altar of abortion. Add a no-fault divorce to the equation and we have destroyed the organic unity. Then in 2015, we have the United States Supreme Court same-sex decision. In reality, they were saying that marriage is not intrinsically about having children. It is not about male and female. It is about something else. Could it be using the other person for self-gratification? A recreational pastime?
We have briefly passed through the stages of destroying the organic unity of sex, marriage, and childbirth: (1) pill (contraceptive stage), (2) abortion, (3) same-sex marriage, and (4) sterilizing children (gender affirming care). This is were we are now. That’s how terrifying it is. It happened very quickly. Sadly, most people were not paying attention and now suddenly they ask, how did we get here? What social conditions led us to this diabolical situation?
When biological sex is attacked, so is our capacity to reproduce. So a child that is subjected to sexual trait modification procedures, it begins with a social transitioning. For example, the pronouns and changing bathroom propaganda; then follows puberty blockers, followed by cross sex hormones, followed by sex trait modification surgery and finally the end of the trip is sterilization.
So if you think that the sexual revolution is about glorifying and elevating sex, you are mistaken. It’s actually about completely destroying our capacity to reproduce. It destroys children’s self-understanding. They are created in the image of God, fully spiritual and fully physical embodied beings. Their bodies are a crucial part of their identity as human beings. Separating children from their bodies is a diabolical attack on their self-understanding. Their are some kindergarten teachers in the United States telling children they might be born in wrong bodies and consequently, they need drugs and surgery to fix their body to conform to their gender identity.
In conclusion, we are currently in the middle of a degradation of the family unit in our society. We see as families fall apart, that individuals do not get the teachings they need to be responsible adults. I believe it is of utmost importance as the basis to teach and role model love, respect, helping others, good character, healthy relationships, communication, accountability, work ethic and more.
Many of the problems we have in society and the today is due to the breakdown and not understanding the importance of family. Families are the foundation stones societies are built on. Not individuals or couples. Families are primarily concerned with proper relationships between the members to insure stability, growth and survival into the future. Society is based on similar relationships and goals on a much larger scale – World Peace.
.
PS. You can find the basic building blocks for creating worldwide Strong Christ-centered Families in this amazing document: http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio.html
.
