Defend the Family

            The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the need to defend the family. “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” warns the world that “the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” The proclamation teaches that we were created as male and female and that we each have a role to play in this life. It tells us that men and women, husbands and wives, must work together as “equal partners” in order to complete our missions here.    

   

            Adam S. Miller at LDS Living states that “defending the family means rooting out our world’s misogyny.” He continues with an explanation for his statement.

Defending the family means defending women from both the subtle and violent forms of degradation, abuse, and marginalization that riddle our world. It means taking seriously – perhaps for the first time in the history of the world – the solemn declaration that God intends men and women to be equal partners.

In my view, this will be the defining moral issue of our generation.

We cannot continue to abide the world’s casual and routine will to exploit, harass and silence women. We must recover the full force of God’s promise that, in Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female” because, in Christ, everyone is “an heir according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29). And, as a result, everyone, like Christ, must learn to think, speak, and act for themselves so that they can inherit all that God has.

            Since the family is the core unit of society, it is wise to protect and preserve the family. Because woman is the heart of the home, it is wise to acknowledge that woman is a full partner with man and should walk beside him as an equal. Societies that defend the family are critical to maintaining freedom.