The War Against the Church: Attacks on the Family

It is difficult to deny, and I have encountered few who try to deny, that the family is the first school which we, as humans, attend. It is in the family that we recieve our first lessons in matters of human interaction. It is in the family that we learn those qualities most essential to forming social bonds. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the family "the original cell of social life" and stresses that "Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society." Let's take a look at the attacks on the family under those headings outlined by the Catechism, that is Authority, Stability and Relationships.

Authority



We see from the above citation from the Catechism that the Church realizes that authority is not a impediment to freedom, but is, on the contrary, the cornerstone of freedom.

It is in the home that our children first encounter authority in the person of their parents. Now, like it or not, we will spend our entire lives in submission to authority of some form. We have bosses at work, government in our interaction with others. Submission to authority is part and parcel of living in community.

But the culture in which we live seeks to undermine that authority. It seeks to impose its values on our children; it strives to drown out our values in cultural "noise" that shouts down those lessons we struggle to inculcate our children with. We see it in the teaching of so-called "diversity" and "tolerance" in our schools. We see it in the messages of the glorification of violence as a means of achieving goals portrayed in popular entertainment. We see it in the blatant sexualization of our youth by music and fashion.

It is the role of parents and not the state to be the primary educators of children. It the responsibility of the family and not the culture to be the primary formers of the minds of our youth.

Stability

Stability means consistency. It means consistency in the values we live, consistency in the thoughts we express, consistency in the influences we allow to exert influence upon us. We sacrifice so much of this consistency in the name of progress. We tire under the endless assaults of the culture. We succumb to the overwhelming flood of ideas that, although they run counter to what we believe, we submit to because it's easier.

But with stability comes security, the knowledge that there is a place where we can know we are safe. Where the things we believe are safe, where our values have meaning, where what we accomplish, or fail to accomplish will be viewed consistently. The family should be a place of shelter, a place of consistency, a place where we can shelter and seek rest and safety among those we love.

A Life of Relationships

In the modern world, especially in the vaunted western culture, the large family is viewed as an anomaly. Sexuality has been uncoupled from procreation and the propagation of the species. The West has become a self centered society where humans are judged by their wealth and their belongings. Materialism, in the sense of the accumulation of "stuff", has become the enemy of the family, encouraging, as it does the vast dedication of resources to accumulate things. It is financially more and more difficult to "keep up with the Joneses". Smaller families have more resources per person to spend on accumulation.

Already, though, we see the results of this amongst European society, where reproduction rates have fallen below the rate of replacement. In Europe, fewer taxpayers support more elderly via tottering social entitlement programs. Parents without children, children without siblings, find themselves approaching old age without family members to care for them, not just in a physical and financial sense, but in the sense of having companionship.

Community loses its meaning when one finds oneself alone. Loneliness breeds despair. It's hard to find joy when one's alone.

Sorry it took so long to post this. I also apologize if my thoughts seem incomplete, I was in a bit of a hurry to get something posted here. I hope you understand that these attacks are not just attacks against the Church. These attacks ate against the fundamental dignity of the human person. They are attacks on joy and hope. It is aggression against the love we are compelled to share with one another. We have determined that our own happiness demands that we eat our young. It doesn't have to be so. But there is a voice that can be heard shouting encouragement to her warriors in the midst of the battle, a voice encouraging us to maintain the struggle not just for her, but for the sake of all men. It is the voice of the embattled Church and her words of those of her beloved spouse, words which have rung down the centuries on the field of every struggle in which she has engaged in His name, "Be not afraid."

Til next time, all the best. Joe