I’ve got some news for you. The nuclear family dates back even further than this.

If you had asked me a question this apparently brazen a few years ago, you would not have gotten much more than a laugh of disbelief at asking such a question. But as I’ve matured (and aged) I’m frequently finding myself willing to ask harder questions. This question came up over at Pyromaniacs (crazy name, pretty good blog).

His answer is very insightful. I think I tend more toward this guarded, but non-institutional view more and more. The model in Scripture seems to revolve more around life on life learning from elders to men in the congregation and less around things like “Masters of Divinity”.

Praise the Lord for a little sanity. It appears that the FLDS families have found at least a little protection from the Texas Supreme Court. Here is a report about the return of hundreds (and likely all) of the children that CPS illegally removed from their families. 

One hope-filled quote is:

The agreement was reached with the 38 mothers of the 124 children who filed the complaint that prompted the Texas Supreme Court to rule Thursday that the state overstepped its authority in taking more than 400 children.

But the deal would affect nearly all the children since they were removed under identical circumstances

We aren’t in a police state yet.

Yet another cry that big families are the source of the world’s deepest issues, like hunger. Wrapping his words in both an appearance of ecologically-friendly and faith-friendly terms, Prince Phillip of England has put the call out for rational believers to understand that if we all want to keep having food, we need fewer mouths.

Prince Philip emerges in a television interview this week as the model royal “eco-warrior” who believes overpopulation has contributed to the pressures on the world and that anyone who believes in God should go green.

The duke hints that curbing family sizes may be the best means of keeping the soaring cost of staple food products, such as bread and rice, in check.

link

If you are at all tempted to buy into this line of thinking, I would invite you to simply watch the trailer to a new documentary for a completely other point of view.

After reading a recent commentary by Dr. Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, I was reminded of the foolishness of the Cross-life. It is utter non-sense to the world that we are fixed upon the value of living in ways that seek to give God glory as opposed to merely living by efficient or pragmatic standards.

The editors of the LA Times express their incomprehension of the American desire to
see marital fidelity in our nation’s leaders. They hope that through this coming election cycle we might might see that “this would be a good year for Americans to practice the fine French art of divorcing judgments about sex from judgments about policy.”

Really? The article makes plain that the old-media elites, entrenched in their liberal bubble, believe that Americans are basically backwards because of our concern that a man’s (or woman’s) marital past has any bearing whatsoever on their character or moral uprightness.

The LA Times takes as its case study the French ability to elect Nicolas Sarkozy without much todo over his very recent divorce should be a model for America. In fact, the shock was not anything concerning his actual marital woes, but instead that these woes were given any note in the news at all seems to be the story. It seems that in France, they have matured beyond any concern between a person’s sexual/marital past and their political decisions.

The truth of the matter is that there could be no better way to understand a person’s character than to examine their marriage. Paul makes this clear to Timothy and to Titus. If a man is found unfit to manage his own house, how then could he be expected to lead others? This link between family life and fitness for leadership is something that appears just plain backwards to the modern mind, yet it is this very link that seems to be unwinding the fabric of our nation.

As we pull and pull to get the threads of old-fashioned morality out of the fabric of our nation, what we are all finding is that these were the threads that were holding us together. We are fraying the entire garment and soon we will find ourselves merely a pile of thread held together loosely at best.

I am reminded of a recent commercial that bemoaned the loss of the value of commitment. While they were hoping to sell us on their commitment to us, the customer, I was struck by how out of place that kind of commercial is in our nation. Commitments are things that good if convenient, but completely unnecessary by most accounts. We live in an extraordinarily uncommitted time.

May God raise up men & women, husbands & wives, fathers & mothers who see the value of commitment to God’s Word and His standards for living. If we find ourselves uncommitted, may it be that we are not committed to the ways of this world, but instead are fixed without reservation on living as those whose hope is in Christ alone.

So a recent debate in Scotland caught my attention. Neil McKeganey offered this as a proposal to help families with parents who have struggled with substance addiction: put CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras in their homes so that the government has video access to evidence.

While the general reaction to the proposal seems destined to doom it, the very idea that the government is the caretaker of the family is frightening. It doesn’t seem far off to suggest that as long as the government is going to have to watch our children, it might be just as easy to just turn them over to the state. That is, after all, what many do for 8 hours a day of public schooling.

As states watch the disintegration of families and marriages, they are beginning to realize that where marriages fail crime rises, education declines, and poverty increases. This statistical fact has prompted some states, including Texas, to propose offering “Marriage Education” as a part of state funded programs aimed at decreasing divorce.

Many in the world decry this as the job of churches and counselors. I guess I’m one of them. Though for a different reason. It is isn’t as much that I am perturbed by the state trying to help. I am saddened by the absence of Biblical teaching on marriage in our churches. It seems that sermons like “Five Steps to a Fantastic Marriage” are missing the mark. It seems that the mark they miss is that of plain and simple explanation of what the Bible says about the purpose and process of marriage and family.

Aside from the God’s mercy on us, and revival of commitment to simply preaching the Word, state programs offer little more than a placebo. We feel good for having it, but it does nothing.

Read more at the World Magazine Blog.

Dr. John Piper posted an article at his blog recently that mentioned a new book, Forbidden Fruit. The book focuses on the radical indifference between the lives of non-believing teens and the lives of so called believing teens.

Dr. Piper notes along with the author that the fruit of theology-lite youth ministries has borne forth thoroughly worldly teens. It can only be with real meat, that is deep and meaningful truth, that our teens will journey through this culture with endurance.

I wholeheartedly agree that the content taught to teenagers is absolutely critical. The church has had quite enough lowest common denominator thinking in its content. And yet, at the same time, I believe that the content is not the only gaping hole in the modern strategy for reaching teens. No, I believe that the communicator is equally  crucial to the development of the teenage heart.

If all churches do is get better curriculum, that is but one step. It is laudable, to be sure. However, the issue of who communicates that truth is equally vital. The Bible says that fathers are to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. It is painfully clear that absent this vital connection to a father, the truth frequently falls on deaf ears, even when it isn’t watered down.

The call must continue for fathers to speak truth to their children as they sit, stand, lie down, and rise.

Read Dr. Piper’s post here.

One region of Russia has found an innovative way to battle the drastic decline in birth rate: they’ll give you a paid vacation to go home and procreate. While it is clear, all things would be better without state involvement in child-bearing, it is also refreshing to see that at least someone somewhere is awake enough to see where our contraceptive culture has taken us.

Read more at The Washington Times.