…
we are gathered here today to witness the decay of the American society.
Really
L. Kyle? Why are you always so
negative?
Hey
I call ‘em like I see ‘em (unlike the replacement refs in the NFL this
year). I had the opportunity to
witness a marriage ceremony recently which prompted my negative brooding; not
because the wedding was bad, because it really was a nice wedding and not
because marriage is bad, because marriage is a noble institution. No, what prompted my negative brooding
about marriage is the lack of commitment with which people enter into marriage,
which is directly linked to the demise of the American family, which is linked
to the decline of the great nation.
Demise
of the family L. Kyle? There’s no such thing.
Sure
there is. Some people don’t see it because they have been duped into believing
that family is intact, just in a different form. So just to be sure that we are all on the same page here,
for the purposes of this blog post, family will be defined as the traditional
nuclear family (dad, mom, and children).
The
pastor performing the ceremony stated a couple of times that the couple was
entering into a covenant with each other.
The word covenant means roughly the same thing as a contract, but has
more religious connotations (or is at least more religious sounding). Marriage takes commitment, it takes
work; it takes perseverance.
Families are, or at least should be, born out of this noble institution
and the family is the basic building block of our society.
When
constructing a building the most important aspect of the building is its
foundation. Without a sure
foundation the building is susceptible to the elements, to shifting ground and
will eventually topple over. As an
example, did you know the foundation which supports the Empire State Building
is 55 feet deep. The bigger the
building, the deeper and more rigid the foundation needs to be to support its
weight.
A
nation is a collection of people and the basic unit of a nation, the
foundation, is the family. The
purpose of the family is to reproduce citizens. The future of any nation is dependent on the quality of
future citizens. If the quality of
citizens is poor then the quality of the foundation which supports a nation
becomes compromised. Much like a
building with a compromised foundation will eventually collapse, nations with
compromised foundations will collapse.
America,
despite its immense resources, is in danger of collapse because we are no
longer producing quality citizens.
Do not mistake a person’s worth for their quality of citizenship. All human life should be valued from
the baby in the womb to the elderly.
There are unfortunately some people who are lousy citizens, which is to
say that they are not contributing to the greater goals of society. They are in
essence not putting back what they are taking from the rest of society.
That
is where family is so important and why the collapse of the family spells the
end of this nation. My job as a
parent is to make sure that when my children leave my home I have equipped them
with the proper tools to get and hold a job, pay taxes, have a family and
ultimately make other productive citizens.
Recently
presidential candidate Mitt Romney made the comment that 47% of Americans are
on some form of government assistance.
He has been skewered for his comment, but according to a February 2012
article on CNN.Money it is true that nearly half of America is on some sort of
government assistance, the bulk of that is Medicaid. That means that nearly half of this nation is not
self-sustaining, and if they are not self-sustaining they are not really
producing and contributing to the nation.
If
it is the family’s job to produce productive, aka self-sustaining citizens,
then the family is failing at is job if nearly half of America is not
self-sufficient. The family is
failing at its job because the idea of family has failed in this country. Ward and June Cleaver look draconian in
our modern world. The idea of dad,
mom and children has been attacked and discredited to the point that the Leave
it to Beaver world is now the punch line in joke.
The
idea of the nuclear family has been replaced with ABC’s Modern Family and NBC’s
The New Normal. Both shows
celebrate different forms of family. Both of these programs celebrate the fact
that a family can raise children despite not being the traditional nuclear
family. This notion in Hollywood is not new. Some might remember with the
television character Murphy Brown became pregnant and raised her child by
herself. Very controversial for
the times. Can single mothers
produce productive members of society?
Absolutely!
However,
I could write pages and present research to back up my position that the
breakdown of the family has negative effects on children. I could show you the data that children
from broken homes, blended families and single parent homes are at a greater
risk of becoming juvenile delinquents, drug addicts, and teen parents (if you
want the research leave a comment I will get it for you). But at the end of the
day most people cannot deny that a stable family with a father and mother
living in the same house produces more well-adjusted children than other family
situations.
So
if it is undeniable that stable families produce more productive citizens why
are we not fighting to defend the
nuclear family structure? Quite
simply it is because our society’s acceptance of casual sexual
relationships. We no longer hold,
or maybe we never did, the virtue of chastity or respect the fact that the
sexual relationship was, nay is, intended for marriage. We celebrate on
television, in the movies and in music the idea of casual sex, sex merely for
pleasure and sex for self satisfaction only. Recent studies have shown that 90%
of Americans have engaged in premarital sex.
So
what L. Kyle, everyone’s doing it and besides what people do in private is
their business not yours!
But
I ask what is wrong with sex only inside a marriage relationship? If two people wait to get married to
have sex, stay married “until death do us part”, what then is the
ramification? No adultery, no
sexually transmitted diseases, fewer unintended pregnancies. Gosh you’re right that does sound terrible.
In
the book of Hosea God warns His prophet about what will befall the nation of
Israel “For they have sown the wind, and they shall
reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7a).
This means that what they have sown they will reap in abundance. The apostle Paul expounded on this
principle and wrote in the book of Galatians “Do not be deceived, God is not
mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal 6:7).
You
do not have to be a Christian or believe in God to understand the principle
that if you plant an apple tree you will reap apples. What works in nature also works in society. If we sow the seeds of casual sexual
relationships we will reap in abundance the product of those seeds. The produce of casual sex is not just
disease, unwanted babies and broken hearts. A line can be drawn directly from our acceptance of casual
sex to decayed families and a line can be drawn from decayed families to
eventual downfall of this great nation.
Yes
I am being so bold as to say that the acceptance of casual sex will be directly
linked to the downfall of America. God did not command us not to commit
adultery simply because He is a killjoy.
God created the sexual relationship and we have innate sexual desires
and appetites, but God gave us boundaries in which to fulfill those desires. And those boundaries are there for a
reason, our protection. Without
boundaries we are like kids in the Willy Wonka factory without any
supervision. We are bound to get
into trouble.
Maybe
some don’t know, but children are a byproduct of sex. It appears that there are a whole slew of people this nation
that either missed that day in biology class or weren’t paying attention. Maybe we could have Bill Nye explain it
to them. Sex is directly related
to pregnancy. Sure there are other
ways of getting pregnant, but sex is still the number one cause. That is why God intended to have sex
inside the marriage relationship only. Because if a man and women happened to
get pregnant during sexual intercourse then there is already a family unit in
place to raise the child. And when
the family is intact raising a child they become more productive members of
society, better quality citizens.
Better quality of citizens is tied to a better nation.
But
we’re so smart aren’t we. We think
“God, you have no idea what you’re doing, we should be free to have sex all the
time with whomever we want. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Well,
I guess we will get to find out.
Leftovers,
enjoy
L. Kyle
