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The Challenge to Preserve the Christian Family
Part 1: Does the Christian Family Have a Future?
by Norman and Ann Bales
All About Families


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A number of thoughtful observers are a little more than pessimistic about the future of the Christian family.

James Dobson has written, "The future of the family in Western society is still very much in doubt." And he's not alone. George Macer at the University of Southern California medical school said, "The decline of modern marriage has reached a point where a happily married couple seems to be an oddity." I don't know how he knows, but Charles Swindoll estimated that 20 million married couples live in desperate unhappiness and unfulfillment."

If these folks are anywhere close to being right, society as we know it is in great trouble. The family is the oldest institution in society and the strength of the family has always determined the stability of society. Some have predicted the elimination of the family in the future. Others think the family of the future will be greatly modified from what we have known in the past. US News and World Report speculated on what the shape of society would be like in the year 2033. Here's the picture they painted. "Divorce will be more common. Remarriages will create a bewilderment of stepparents, stepsiblings and step kin. There will be fewer children and more of them will have single parents. More adults will live alone or in non-family households. Intra family friction will increase and generation gaps will be more painful as life becomes less home-centered. Government will take over more traditional family responsibilities." That was their projection in 1983 - 18 years ago. It seems to me that the trends they anticipated back then have accelerated.

We're not pessimists, but we don't believe society can absorb those kinds of changes in family life over a long period of time and still be a vibrant, healthy, functioning society. Former president, Ronald Reagan said, "Families are the guardians of our values and our hope for the futures. They are stars of the great American comeback." J. I. Packer said that. Family life is ". . . a prime test of both our humanity and our godliness." We believe that both Mr. Reagan and Jim Packer were right on target.

In that kind of environment, we are being offered a tremendous and exciting challenge - the challenge to preserve the Christian family. In this series we want to concentrate on four aspects of the challenge:

• What the Christian family is.
  
• What the Christian family means to society
  
• What we can do to preserve the Christian family?
  
• What can we do to help those who have been hurt?

We believe the Christian family is worth preserving. It's not an easy job, but it is doable. In the coming weeks, we want to share some of our thoughts about how to get that task done.

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