"Family Breakdown as Serious as Global Warming"

Disclaimer: This is a general assessment of American life. I know there are exceptions.

Mr. Justice Colridge stated:

“Almost all society’s ills can be traced directly to the collapse of family life. We all know it. Examine the background of almost every child in the care system or the youth justice system and you will discover a broken family.

“Ditto the drug addict. Ditto the binge drinker. Ditto those children who are truanting or who cannot behave at school.”Scratch the surface of these cases and you invariably find a miserable family, overseen by a dysfunctional and fractured parental relationship – or none at all.”

Calling for action before it is too late, the judge will say family breakdown is as serious as global warming.”It is as big a threat to our society as terrorism, street crime or drugs, but far more insidious. It will be more destructive than any economic decline caused by international markets.”

Here’s what happened…we turned inward, neglecting a foundational responsibility of training up men and women who knew how to be husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. We didn’t say it out loud, but we stopped caring what happened to the next generation, and focused on our immediate enjoyment.

Funny…every profession involves training, teaching and studying. We make such a big deal about “Preparing our children to be successful”…we spend more money for college, insist they make good grades, make sure they get to play sports, be popular, wear the right clothes…and give little thought to the kind of people they will grow to be!

Have we lost our minds to think that the most important of all professions (marriage and family) will just be magically learned? What would you think of your doctor if he said, “Well, I’ve been off golfing for the last 8 years…I figure once I get you cut open I’ll know just what to do”?

Home was where boys learned to be husbands and fathers; girls, wives and mothers. The people there worked together, learned to love each other and serve each other, good times and bad, and that translated into their own homes.

Why do we scratch our heads at the divorce rate? At the youth culture spinning out of control? The drug use? The crime rate? The child abuse? There’s a whole generation walking around who don’t even know how to live!!!

Home used to be that training ground for turning out functional, responsible, intelligent, loving people. It was a simple truth that everyone recognized–HOME WAS FUNDAMENTAL.

But we said “phooey on the Home, phooey on my grave responsibility to bring up a strong generation…give me a bigger house, more entertainment, more stuff”.

Serious consequences followed. Bigger house means bigger payment.

Dad must work more.

Mom must leave home to work too–and she wanted to, once we told her there was nothing important there.

But now add child care expense to the bigger house payment.

And we need more vehicles–(they might as well be new…everyone else drives a new one.) Add car payments.

Must have nicer clothes. Cha–ching.

Gas–$$$

Convenience food–$$$

House keeper–$$$

But these expenses, the emotional stress of trying to pay all the bills, the exhaustion–this is not the worst part…


The family is hanging on for dear life, and some have already fallen to their deaths. We seek escape by spending our spare moments staring at the tv, or finding some other way to distract our minds. Husband and wife are estranged–children are estranged–and this young generation will grow up with little preparation for marriage and raising children. Some of them will grow up psychotic.

And they will repeat the cycle.

Why can’t we see the erosion of our culture and be willing to admit the real problems? How bad does it have to get before we are willing to stop the rat race and return to a common sense understanding of family?

I get so tired of hearing Christians tout, “Well, the family wasn’t even talked about much in Scripture…we place way too much emphasis on the family.” Even secular professionals know the family is everything to a healthy society! It’s insanity to assume otherwise.

What a tragic misunderstanding! The entire basis of Christianity rests on the model of the family. Even where there was no physical family Jesus spoke of brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. The Trinity is based upon the family model. The very picture of Christ and the church is given in familial terms.

Jesus said he who does not care for his family is worse than a heathen. (And we know He placed much less emphasis on physical provisions than spiritual ones…chew on that.) Discard the importance of the family and you’ll get…well, you’ll get what we’ve got. It’s not rocket science.

We don’t need more stuff, more vacations, more entertainment–we need each other.

Relationships. Time. Prayer. Conversations. Love.

Living life together.