Protect Families

                Families, communities, and nations are strengthened when all individuals strive to protect their individual families and The Family as the core unit of society. Living prophets and apostles warned the world in 1995 about the disintegration of the family and what the results will be if the family fails.

                “We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets and modern prophets” (The Family – A Proclamation to the World). 

                One of those ancient prophets was Malachi, who warned parents to turn their hearts to their children and children to turn their hearts to their parents, lest the whole earth be cursed (see Malachi 4:6).

                The above paragraph from the proclamation on the family notes three key warnings: (1) violation of covenants, (2) abuse of spouse or offspring, and (3) failure to fulfill family responsibilities. Why are these three areas so critical? They are most important because they strike directly at the family.

                Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stated, “Let me say again that the family is the main target of evil’s attack and must therefore be the main point of our protection and defense. As I said once before, when you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense to Satan…. When evil wants to strike out and disrupt the essence of God’s work, it attacks the family. It does so by attempting to disregard the law of chastity, to confuse gender, to desensitize violence, to make crude and blasphemous language the norm, and to make immoral and deviant behavior seem like the rule rather than the exception” (“Let Our Voices Be Heard,” Ensign, November 2003). 

                Do you believe that disintegration of the family will bring about calamities? One example of the problems caused by the destruction of the family is the black community where men are merely sperm donors who leave the women to rear the children. Of course, there are many black men who are true fathers to their own children and even mentor other children, but there are far too many children born outside the bonds of marriage.

                We need look no further than Chicago, Illinois, the murder capital of the United States, for what happens in society when the family disintegrates. Blacks are killing blacks in Chicago on at a high and possibly increasing rate. Young men are growing up there without the guidance of their fathers and seek that influence in wrong places. One very important way to stop the murders of children and youth is to bring fathers back into the family.

                The black community is not the only place where children are born out of wedlock and fathers are not involved with their children. This is a problem everywhere. Children need the influence of both father and mother in their daily lives in order to become well-balanced, law-abiding citizens. One way we can strengthen families, communities, and nations is by supporting and promoting policies that “maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society” (proclamation on the family).