Family Ties

18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

A man went to see his doctor in an acute state of anxiety. Doc, he began, you gotta help me. I¡¦m dying! Everywhere I touch it hurts. I touch my head, it hurts; I touch my leg, it hurts; I touch my stomach it hurts; it all hurts. You gotta help me, Doc, I¡¦m dying.

After a complete examination the doctor said, Harry, I have good news and bad news. The good news is, you¡¦re NOT dying. But, Doc, everywhere I touch¡K. Relax, Harry, you¡¦re not dying, you have a broken finger.

In our world today marriage has been pronounced Dead on Arrival by a society with a broken finger. God has not (contrary to popular opinion in media and moronic atheism) abrogated the running of the universe to number-crunching poll watchers.

I would like you to listen to some excerpts from a 1993 newsletter I received from Dr. James Dobson¡¦s Focus on the Family, the theme of which centered around articles presented by Time magazine about the future:

¡Kit¡¦s interesting to see what Time¡¦s editors and their selected ¡¥experts¡¦ think will happen in the years ahead. They spelled it out this past fall, in a special edition entitled ¡¥Beyond the Year 2000: What to Expect in the New Millennium.¡¦

The magazine consisted of 93 pages of dreary predictions and analyses of the future. Many of their conclusions dealt with the institution of the family, which Time believes is destined for the junk heap. For example, the section dealing with marriage and parenthood bore this headline: ¡¥The Nuclear Family Goes Boom!¡¦ The article went downhill from there. This, says Time, is what we can expect in the 21st century:

1. The family as we have known it will soon die. It is nothing more than an interesting anomaly ¡V a mere blip in human history. We thought of it as ¡¥normal,¡¦ but we were wrong. The very term ¡¥nuclear family¡¦ will give off a musty smell in the days ahead.

2. Replacing it will be multiple marriages, or what will be known as ¡¥serial monogamy.¡¦ Divorce will be so common as to be considered normal. Some marriages will have ¡¥sunset clauses¡¦ to automatically terminate at a given age. Couples reaching their 50th anniversaries will be as rare as today¡¦s piano or cello virtuosos ¡V gifted masters of their craft.

3. Many women will live with other women, much like the ¡¥Golden Girls¡¦ are depicted on the television sitcom.

4. Children will live with a bewildering array of relatives ¡V mothers, fathers, multiple stepmothers and stepfathers, stepbrothers and stepsisters, grandparents and former grandparents, etc.

5. The taboo against incest will weaken. The fractured family will consist of relatives, non-relatives and former relatives, breaking down the obsolete prohibition against intimacies at home¡K

¡K8. Pediatricians will teach children about the use of condoms at the time of their vaccinations against disease.

9. Theology, the study of God and the Bible, will soon die. Schoolchildren of tomorrow will have no knowledge of spiritual matters, nor even any interest in this topic.

10. The triumph of feminist religion will cause many Christians and Jews to shun references to God in personal terms (no more Lord or Heavenly Father). This in turn (will) strengthen the groups that worship a mysterious nature-force to seek to deify the self.

11. Forced abortion, such as China imposes on its women, will be necessary in nations with exploding populations. Representative Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., spelled out the ideal: The most important goal for the 21st century is family planning for everyone.