Exploring the Social Imagination

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Even the Sociologist will tell you that Family is vital for Social Stablity

Family is important. I am sure everyone will agree. Yet, as I listen to my favorite Christian radio programs, and I talk to people hearing their issues, I am saddened to hear so many stories about broken families. I am not just referring to divorce, but broken in many places and especially broken in relations with extended family: grandparents, parent in-laws, brothers and sisters, cousins and aunts and uncles... how can this be? How can Christian (or other) individuals find themselves in this country homeless, struggling to make ends meet, or to not have the care of extended family readily available. How is the possible?
Are we as Americans so embedded in this culture of 'mine', that we cannot even share with loved ones, with family? We have been ingrained with the idea of private property, this is mine, my house, you are under my roof! Get out and get your own life... my answer to that "I thought I had my own life, my own family, my own support group." Yet, many Americans think that relying on family is a transgression in this culture of individuality and self determinism. This is a tragedy. The rebuttal I often get is usually, "I cannot live under the same roof with them, I need my space, I want my own things, I don't want what they want, nor do I like what they do, I am different, I am my own person. Speaking as a Christian... If you hear that, if you say that, you are not yet of the Kingdom of God. As children of God, we need to be together, we need to share our lives, our homes, our food, our clothing with our family. Speaking as perhaps a secular humanist would...If all families practiced togetherness, the world (the US) would be a better place. If we want a better life for ourselves and children, then we need to forgive each other, love each other and live together under one roof, practically and spiritually! This... the State cannot and should not provide. Just read my post on the State vs. the Village.

1 Ti 5:8 " If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. This quote from 1 Timothy is not meant to point fingers, to condemn or to criticize; but to get people 'Christians' to wake up and stop living as independent islands from each other and especially from family. The only entity to benefit from independent islands of individuals is the State, the overarching entity which is that sui generis as Durkheim referred.

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