Dueling Familes

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When I thought of a family feud, my mind immediately went to the old hillbillies fighting it out, pot shot after pot shot across the valley. That type of feud was immortalized on TV with the likes of the Andy Griffith Show. Now, the duel has opposite world views gearing up for a fight to the finish.

What is happening is this. Since the 1950's the family has been continuously re-defined by society. It now  seems to have devolved from a husband and wife with children into any group of people living under one roof. That definition is being accepted by what seems to be a large and growing plurality of people. As a matter of fact, 51% of people actually believe pets are family as well (does that include my Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches?) Accordingly, Brian Powell, a sociology professor at Indiana University, and his team tackled Americans' evolving definition of family. It was a landmark study surveying over 2300 households over a time period of 7 years. There seems to be a swing towards a complete liberalization as to what a family is. Powell shares this thought:

What we find is that people are moving away from a traditional definition of family and they're moving towards a modern definition of family. That includes a much greater array of living arrangements. They're including a much broader group of people, broader combination of people as families.

He continues:

by indentifying three clusters of Americans: "exclusionists" who hold onto a more narrow definition of family; "moderates" who are willing to count same-sex couples as family if children are involved; and "inclusionists" who have a very broad definition of family.

Here then is the rub...if we can liberalize our views of what the family without repercussions to our society, our nation, our communities, or our families, what does it do to the church? You see, the family is one of the major ways that the New Testament describes our forever family, our church family. So,if our physical families can be described in many varying permutations, then what does do to our view of the family of God?  The bottom line is the views of families cannot co-exist and will duel until one is triumphant.

Here's my point, for thousands of years before a word of the New Testament was written, when the word was used to describe how the family of God was to look and act and be, it was understood exactly what that meant. As we have re-defined the family, our happiness quotient has plummeted. Here's some number for you to think about. According to U.S mortality rates suicides among teens have skyrocketed 100% since the 1950's. Violence is at an all time high, increasing by 154% according to Donna Shalala, Health and Human Services Director until 1999. We now have unforeseen numbers of teens cutting, burning, and mutilating themselves to the tune of 1 in 200 girls in the US doing so.

Is that what you would call happy? Are these the results of a happy family? Or is this because we have moved our society and nations farther and farther away from the foundations of a family that was designed by God? God designed us to work a certain way. Every law/rule He gives us is not to spoil our fun, but to provide for us and protect us. It is high time we understand and respond to the obliteration of the modern family.

Wanting a godly family now more than ever,
Pastor Trey Rhodes