Christian Sociology and Family

QUESTION: Christian Sociology – Marriage and the Family

ANSWER:

The family is ordained by God (Genesis 2:23–25) and is a fundamental social institution. The Bible strictly defines the family and its role in society. James Dobson and Gary Bauer say that a family exists when “husband and wife are lawfully married, are committed to each other for life, and [the family] adheres to the traditional values on which the family is based.”¹

George Gilder and many other Christian sociologists believe that the condition of marriage and family in any given society describes the condition of the entire society. If the family is troubled, then society is troubled. Encouraging and building up the God-ordained institution of marriage and family is, therefore, advantageous to society.²

Christian Sociology – Attack on the Traditional Family
Unfortunately, society today does more to discourage marriage and family than to build it up. The many forces working against marriage and family are primarily a result of the Secular Humanist-inspired sexual revolution. For example, children in public schools are taught that homosexuality is a normal lifestyle; students are given condoms and encouraged to use them instead of practicing abstinence until marriage; teenage girls are taught about abortion and how to obtain one without their parents’ consent or knowledge. Dobson and Bauer label these practices “a crash course in relativism, in immorality, and in anti-Christian philosophy.”³

Attacks on the traditional family come largely from proponents of relativistic, materialistic worldviews. Humanists, Marxists, and many Postmodernists deny the existence of the soul, thereby devaluing the importance of the family. The Christian worldview recognizes marriage and family as the institution that nurtures the whole person. In this view, the family provides an environment that encourages mental, spiritual, social, and physical growth.

Notes:

Rendered with permission from the book,Understanding the Times: The Collision of Today’s Competing Worldviews(Rev. 2^nd ed), David Noebel, Summit Press, 2006. Compliments of John Stonestreet, David Noebel, and the Christian Worldview Ministry at Summit Ministries. All rights reserved in the original.

¹ James Dobson and Gary Bauer, Children at Risk (Dallas, TX: Word, 1990), 112.
² Summary excerpt from http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/cinderellaman.html
³ Ibid., 55. For an in-depth look at what is transpiring in such classroom instruction we recommend Dobson and Bauer’s Children at Risk; Phyllis Schlafly, Child Abuse in the Classroom (Alton, IL: Marquette Press, 1985); Judith A. Reisman and Edward W Eichel, Kinsey, Sex and Fraud (Lafayette, LA: Huntington House, 1990); B.K. Eakman, Cloning of the American Mind: Eradicating Morality Through Education (Lafayette, LA: Huntington House, 1998); Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1987); and Thomas Sowell, Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1993).