CHRISTIAN FAMILY VALUES
ARE BEING ATTACKED[1]
Robert
L. Waggoner
Our
entire western civilization, which was built on Christian principles, is now in
moral decline. The social fabric of American society appears to be unraveling.
Christian homes are not immune to this process of social and moral
deterioration. While Christianity appears strong superficially, it is
nonetheless being undermined by insidious philosophical, social and political
forces.
According
to Herbert Schlossberg, (Idols for Destruction, Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 1983), many people think that “Western civilization has entered a
period of breakdown from which it may never recover” (1). A few of the many
quotations he gives are: ‘The end of the Roman Empire was a minor event
compared with what we behold. We are looking at the liquidation of what is
known as the modern world!’ ‘Since the time of Christ there has been no period
in which there has been the same feeling of . . . spiritual impoverishment.’
‘Civilization is collapsing before our eyes.’ ‘American society is at an
impasse similar to that of the Hellenic world at the time of Christ.’ ‘The
United States is undergoing a third time of trial, which may be even more
severe than those of the Revolution and the Civil War.’ He then observes that
in 1978 the Roper Poll, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor, reported
that for the first time since that poll was initiated in 1959, “the
respondents rated their expectations for the future lower than their assessment
of the present’ (2-3).
Another observer, Donald Wildmon, declared in the National Federation
For Decency Journal (Tupelo, MS, 0ctober, 1984) that “We are caught up in a
great battle, one which historians will write about in the future as one of the
most important in the history of mankind,
. . . There is a great war under way - a spiritual war - and the overwhelming
majority of Christians aren’t aware of it. We are losing, and we are losing by
default. ... the future of all generations to come after us depends on the
outcome of this conflict which we now ignore” (2).
We are living in times comparable to the decline and fall of the ancient
kingdoms of Israel and Judah. While all may appear prosperous on the surface,
as it did in the days of Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom of Israel, there
is real danger of national collapse. (Jack Lewis notes that “Jeroboam’s reign
was a time in which Israel extended its borders farther than at any period
following the days Solomon. It was a time of ease and prosperity, but at the
same time on the horizon was Assyria who would eventually swallow up Israel” [Minor
Prophets. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1966, 39]. That happened within
fifty years of Jeroboam’s death). When a nation sows immorality, as ours now
does, with its excessive fornications, abortions, and other indecencies, it
must reap the consequences (Galatians 6:10).
As there were prophets then calling people to
repentance, so too must we call people to repent of their sins and turn to God.
Although prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah were ultimately unsuccessful in
producing national repentance, they may well have lengthened the life of the
southern kingdom of Judah. And as the preaching of John Wesley and others is
said by historians to have averted a bloody revolution in England, so too
perhaps our preaching can help turn our world back to godliness. If our world
should repent, as Ninevah did at the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3; Matthew
12:41; Luke 11; 32), then perhaps God will spare us as he did Ninevah.
Our world is in trouble, and our homes are
falling apart. That our homes are falling apart is abundantly evident. A casual
listing of current social evils, of itself, reveals something about our home
problems, the magnitude of which would have been unthinkable even two
generations ago. Such a list would include not only excessive divorce, battered
wives and deserting husbands, but also abortion, missing children, child abuse,
sexual molestation, alcoholism and drug abuse, suicide epidemics among teens
and the elderly, lonely elderly people, extensive poverty of single parent
families, and on and on the list could go. Christian homes, while perhaps not
as gravely endangered, have nonetheless suffered to an extent often
indistinguishable from the rest of society.
It is no accident that these things are
happening in our homes. Christian homes are being destroyed because Christian
family values are being attacked! Most attacks against Christian family values
have not been consciously perceived as such because they have been labeled in
some affirmative fashion - such as “pro-choice,” “no-fault” divorce, “state’s
rights”, or some other positive sounding designation. Moreover, the source of
these influences may be perceived as originating with some individual or some
organization, whereas they generally come from ungodly philosophies.
To
repair and strengthen our Christian homes we must identify the source of these
attacks. We must understand our enemies’ values, and their weaponry. We must
then plan our strategy and tactics for a counter attack. When we have fortified
and strengthened Christian family values, we will find that we have also put
our nation on a better footing because the strength of a nation is no greater
than the cumulative strength of its homes.
Ungodly
philosophies are now attacking four distinct categories of Christian family
values. These are - first, the sanctity of human life; second, lifetime
commitment to marriage; third, family authority and responsibility, and fourth,
family heritage.
The most pressing and the most important
cultural issue now confronting Christians is the defense of human life. It is
now primarily being fought over the specific issue of abortion. This is not the
only major issue that Christians must fight, however. Christians need to launch
major campaigns to overthrow easy divorce laws in this land. Christians need to
reassert the primacy of family authority and responsibility. And Christians
also need to restore inheritance rights to individual family members.
These latter areas of attack against
Christian family values go largely unnoticed by Christians today, and hence
Christians are doing very little to combat these attacks, because the few
Christians who are highly concerned about these issues are concentrating their
efforts in the battle against abortion advocates. The attack against the
sanctity of human life comes primarily from the philosophy of humanism through
the immoral but now judicially legalized practice of abortion. Closely
associated with abortion are other human life issues such as euthanasia,
infanticide, suicide, and genocide.
Without
question, abortion is the greatest single moral issue Americans have ever
faced. It is much greater than was the issue of human slavery. The total number
of abortions in America is now well over twice the number of people killed in
Hitler’s holocaust of the Jews. Worldwide, the number of abortions exceeds
fifty-five million annually. It is now estimated that one-third of all
conceptions in America are aborted. Moreover, about thirty-five percent of
abortions in any given year are of those who have already had previous
abortions.
There are two standards by which human life
may be viewed. One is that every human life is sanctified by God. This standard
is based upon the fact that God exists, that human beings are made in God’s
image, and that everyone is accountable to God for his or her conduct.
Therefore, no one has a right to take the life of another human being (Genesis
9:6; Exodus 23:7; Deuteronomy 27:24; Proverbs 6:16-17; 1 Peter 4:15; 1 John
3:15). When a society lives by this standard, human life is preserved, human
beings are considered responsible for their conduct, and trained to care
unselfishly for other human beings. This is the standard of life that made
America a great country. This is the legal concept by which Americans lived
until recently.
The
other standard is sometimes thought to present a greater “quality of life.”
This standard is easier understood by use of an illustration. Suppose a
thirteen year old unmarried girl, whose father may have deserted his family,
finds herself expecting a baby. If she gives birth to the baby and keeps it,
she must provide for it. However, being unmarried, she has extremely little
economic support for herself and her baby. Moreover, being so young, she has
limited education, and therefore is very limited in employment potential. What
little income she might have could hardly be expected to provide for her
economic desires. On the other hand, she might reason, she can abort her unborn
baby, finish her education, then in time be able to obtain good employment and
have a better “quality” of life for herself and whatever children she may later
have.
The
“quality of life” concept has certain flaws, however. It is totally pragmatic.
The “quality” of life is measured only in terms of the economic and
materialistic standards for the mother who lives. It refuses to consider that
its so-called “quality” is only possible at the cost of death to the unborn.
This standard is totally selfish. It operates on the standard that “might makes
right.” This is a standard which permits a mother to refuse to be her baby’s
“keeper” (Genesis 4:9).
This
standard assumes that whatever works best for one person at the moment is the
right thing to do. It does not recognize that everyone is accountable to God
for his or her conduct because everyone has been programmed to act that way by
their social and cultural environments. Legalized abortion is based upon these
false premises.
A
society built upon this so-called “quality of life” philosophy is a selfish
society. In time, such selfishness will produce a society marked by the absence
of joy, peace, and love. In such a society there can be no real quality of
life.
The
practice of abortion devalues all human life. Left unchecked, it can only lead
to widespread infanticide. It will also lead to uncontainable euthanasia. The
same doctors who accept money from parents to abort babies will, in time,
accept money from adult children to destroy their deformed, retarded, or aged
parents. Abortion weakens the family, at all levels of society. It produces
selfish and uncaring attitudes that find their outlets in wife beating and
child abuse. Abortion prompts sexual permissiveness and experimentation. It
contributes to vice and pornography. It destroys personal integrity, creates
despair, and diminishes morality. It leads to suicide, sears the national
conscience, and left unchecked, will lead to national destruction.
The
Christian voice has not been sufficiently heard. The opposition has spread it’s
ungodly philosophies in the influential halls of government, education, and
industry while professed Christians are often busy here and there voicing their
doctrinal differences to each other. Christians now find themselves shocked by
moral and spiritual deterioration evidenced in current events. Most wonder what
happened to produce such drastic social changes in such a short time. Some, but
not many, understand the philosophical causes, and realize the ongoing
consequences if present trends are not reversed. A few are rising up to do
battle.
If,
and when, Christians win the battle against humanism regarding abortion, then
Christians must immediately concentrate their energies on stabilizing the
institution of marriage. After that, family authority and responsibility must
be restored. Finally, individual family members must be assured of their rights
to family inheritances.
Christians are now on the defense, and, for
the most part, are fighting defensively. This is short-sightedness on the part
of Christians, however. Its time that Christians take the offensive position in
this struggle for family values. The battle must be waged and won on all
fronts. Christian family values are inter-related. While the battle, at
different stages in the war, may rage over one area of Christian family values
more furiously than another, Christians must understand that all areas are
under attack, and must defeat their philosophical enemies in every area. This
can be accomplished only by Christians taking the offensive position in every
area of this spiritual war.
[1]© Copyright by Robert L. Waggoner, 1990. Revised, 2000. Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute this document for non-commercial educational purposes when unaltered provided that copyright and author’s name are given.