The Eclipse Of The Family

Consistent with what Professor S. Y. Volfson predicted in 1929 in his work, “The Sociology of Marriage and the Family,” the family that existed in the context of Christendom, as given parameters by the Scripture of the Christian faith, has, because of the onslaught of anti-Christ Worldviews, completely lost its character and shape.

1.) Whereas in Christendom the Christian family had an economic/productive function in anti-Christ thinking such as International Capitalism and various stripes of Marxism the family is no longer a productive unit. With the loss of this economic function the family loses the sense of its interdependence and so loses its centrality. Now with the economic function of family stripped from the family other loyalties introduce themselves that could not have been as primary before the decline of the family as economic unit. In Marxist system that former family loyalty is shifted to the State in which we live and move and have our being. In Finance capitalist systems that former family loyalty is shifted to the marketplace which now replaces the family.

2.) Whereas in Christendom the Christian family was a integrated whole that operated as a joint household in terms of fellowship (as seen in shared communal meals, shared burdens, shared responsibilities) now the family is barely a bed and boarding outfit. Homes function now more as human Cattle Stalls for the State. Meals are seldom communal. Interests of the various family members are diverse and not integrated in the least. Parents are more chauffeurs for their children’s next extracurricular activity then they are fonts of wisdom for the children to learn from. The Christendom scenario of families together preparing the meals and then sharing the meals has been replaced by “catch as catch can” for each individual in the house. The sense of the communal thus has also shifted from members of the family finding their identity if the families corporate identity to members of the family finding their identity in some artificially constructed peer group to which they now belong. Each member of the family thus is integrated each into different “alien to the family” wholes.

3.) Whereas in Christendom the Christian family was primarily responsible for the rearing and educating of children which would eventually naturally arrive. However, now in our Brave New World, unaffected by the categories of the Christian faith, those who are now responsible for the rearing of Children are, with increasing commonality, State agencies. In the anti-Christ familial world children are just little cogs to eventually fit into the Statist machine. As such children must be set upon the lathe of the State in order to be shaped to fit the machine culture that they as cogs are going to fit into. Because this is so children are increasingly turned over at younger and younger ages to be reared by comparative strangers and aliens to the family. Children are often reared in state nurseries and kindergartens, state sanctioned daycare centers, or some other State approved facility. Because this is so, the loyalty of both children and parents is no longer to one another but to the State who provides for them.

4.) Whereas in Christendom the Christian family was designed to be inter-generational so that it not only cared for the young but also for the aged, now, with the destruction of the Christian family, the aged are farmed out to centers licensed and monitored by the State just as the children. Thus the sense of continuity between the generations is eclipsed and each family and each member of each family stands as an atomistic individual easily picked off by the machinations of the Zombie State. Both the care of the children and the care of the aged are cut off from the family as limbs might be cut off of a once mighty tree.

So, in all this the family is purged of its social content with the intent that it might wither away in favor of the State. Indeed, in light of all this it is not difficult to see a day coming when the family will be completely un-necessary as a distinct unit as the motto returns “everything within the state, nothing outside the state.” Already, with the State creation of artificial family social constructs (consider the recent example of California law wherein more than two people can be considered parents of a child) the reality of the Christian family continues to whither away.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane