What Is the Best Type of Marriage for Rearing Children?

            Families, communities, and nations are strengthened with marriages with a male and a female. The traditional, or nuclear, families provide the ideal circumstance for rearing children. This is shown by both religious teachings and social science statistics.

            The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” in September 1995. The fifteen men who signed the documents are sustained by more than 16 million people as prophets, seers, and revelators. In other words, they speak for God. Here are some of the words of that document. 

We … solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children….

The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife….

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children… [and] will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity….

We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

            Family scientists view the traditional, or nuclear, family to be the ideal type of family to rear children. They use various theories to look at families to determine how they can help families. Using the Structural Functionalism Theory, they compare society to the body. Just as the body needs all the organs – brain, heart, liver, kidneys, etc. – working together to be healthy, the family needs all members to be working properly. The family is the basic unit of society and must be in balance to be healthy.

            The Structural Functionalism Theory assumes that the function of families is to procreate and socialize children or prepare them to be useful to their society. This theory tells us that husbands and wives play certain roles in the family. Statistics show that males – in general – have greater capacity to provide the necessary ingredients for physical survival, and that women – in general – have greater capacity to meet the emotional needs for the family.

            We can look at providing the needs of the family through a lens of providing nutrition for the body. The male provides meat and fruit, and the female provides vegetables and starches. If there are two males, there is double the amount of meat and fruit but no vegetables or starches. If there are two females, there is double the amount of vegetables and starches, but no meat and fruit. Only the traditional marriage of one man and one woman provides the necessary “nutrition” for the family.

            The problems in society come from the breakdown of marriage and the family. It started in the 1960s with Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty when his administration enlarged the welfare program and penalized women who married (single mothers received more money than if there was a husband) and the free-love society. It continued with the no-fault divorce, and it continued with the redefinition of marriage with the unconstitutionally based Obergefell v. Hodges decision by U.S. Supreme Court.

            The good news is that the traditional family is coming back, which means that more children are being reared in a home with a father and a mother. Americans of all ages can strengthen families by understanding that the ideal condition for the rearing of children is in a traditional marriage. Once families are strengthened with traditional marriage, they can strengthen their communities      and nations.