Why defending marriage and family is so important

Why defending marriage and family is so important

Important to SOCIETY:

The answer is simple, and yet complex. Marriage is a universal institution that brings the two halves of humanity together to provide the ideal environment for the raising of any children born of their union. Indeed, were it not for the interests of children – which can only be created through the sexual union of a man and a woman – society would have no interest in privileging and protecting marriage. And we need to encourage and promote marriage between men and women, because the world’s universal lived experience and reams of social science evidence has established it’s what is best for children, women, men, and the whole of society.

Societies and cultures, as they evolved their ‘social contracts’, realized they needed to reject other types of intimate relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments, even co-habitation.

However in these times, any dedication to defending marriage however gets mocked and attacked by liberal elites, interest groups, elected officials, and their allies in the media and elsewhere. This discourages many from continuing to promote or defend the natural family.

But even if those elites have succeeded in persuading activist judges to redefine marriage in the law, we must continue to defend the unique nature of the marital relationship, insisting that it be restored in law and recognized in culture.

Thankfully, after decades of bashing marriage and demanding that it be shredded, a curious trend may be emerging among a few liberals who recognize that a successful society depends on a thriving marriage and family culture. They haven’t gone so far as to suggest that their push for “marriage equality” – that is to say redefining marriage in law to strip it of its essential nature – was unfortunate and mistaken. But at least some liberals are now talking openly that it’s time to join with social conservatives in embracing marriage.

This trend is evidenced by an article published recently in the intellectual journal, Public Discourse by liberal author Joshua Sohn. He notes that pro-marriage social conservatives bring to the debate reams of data showing that marriage has positive effects on personal and familial health.  Sohn writes, “The case for marriage is strong, the risks of falling marriage rates are large, and this alone may justify serious marriage-promotion efforts.”

Sohn still appears to have difficulty arguing that promoting marriage is a critical public good in its own right. Rather, he sees it as part of a useful compromise between liberals and conservatives where liberals give ground on some important social issues – specifically promoting marriage and preventing pornography – while conservatives give ground on an issue of huge importance to liberals, namely climate change.

It is consoling to see some liberals coming to recognize marriage as the foundational institution of society, one critical to human flourishing. The push to redefine marriage has been entirely political. But nothing about marriage is political, nor is it ideological. The benefits of a thriving marriage culture are indisputable. When you abandon marriage, you sacrifice the benefits the institution provides. This is always the case when indisputable facts confront political ideology.

For example, when elite society embraces a criminal “reform” ideology that stops enforcing laws and ceases to prosecute lawbreakers, and instead lets criminals out of jail, the consequences of their ideology soon become crystal clear – crime rises and innocent people suffer.

Now that their marriage ideology has been tried, it’s patently clear that society has been the loser. We must continue to fight for the restoration of true marriage – the union of one man and one woman – in every country’s laws, and defend and protect this unique marital relationship in our culture.

Important to the CHURCH - The Home as a Missionary Outpost

The pandemic has presented both an opportunity and a challenge for evangelization within marriage and family life at the parish level. During the past two years many church parishes were closed and homes became the abode where families prayed and sacrificed together. Families spent more time together and sacrificed more than ever before. Can any of this impact our love and understanding of the “church of the home” or the “Domestic Church”?

This may be a good time for a hopeful investment in the future of our Catholic Church. We have seen the immense impact that a family can have as a leaven, when members grow to understand that their home is a “missionary outpost” of the local church, an “outstation” of the local parish. The beauty of a parish fully alive with families is breath-taking.

We are in “The Year of the Family” and our Holy Father has asked us to reflect on the joy and the witness of the family. How do we prepare our families for their glorious vocation to accompany one another on their journey to the Father’s house?

We need to support all parents in their vocation to raise their children to be saints, and we need relational evangelization in marriage preparation and formation. What is needed is a new model: one of accompaniment and mentoring. A model whereby one couple will walk with another couple, centred in the Eucharist, in order to bear witness to marital love, proclaim the joy of the Gospel in word and deed, and begin to experience life-giving community.

Pope Francis continues to stress the importance of ministering to your community and reflecting upon what you have to offer even if it is not perfect. So often, as individuals and as a Church, we think that only the perfectly polished have anything to offer. But the mission is not reserved for the few or for the extraordinary. Nor does it mean that families somehow have to stop being themselves or seek after some impossible perfection in order to witness to the Gospel. The Christian family is called to deepen, reflect upon, and witness to the love and life that are already basic to being a family. Marriage and family are the most tangible ways of experiencing God’s love in the world.

So many good families are sitting on the sidelines, but we are all called to be missionaries and witnesses of God’s love!

Adapted from www.iFamnews.com   and   www.WitnesstoLove.org