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 PrintableVersion The essence of familyHome truthsTHE ESSENCE OF FAMILY Surely one of the biggest casualties of late 20th-century permissiveness, postmodernism and political correctness has been the family. Even a definition now eludes most people. Christian believers know that the family is important and may increasingly be called upon to defend the idea of what is now commonly derided as 'the traditional family'. This clear-thinking book will be an excellent help to us in engaging in that debate, which we most certainly should. Dr. Birkett starts with Scripture, lest we should be accused of clinging to 1950s pictures of the family on the back of the cornflakes packet. This is not about white picket fences and apple pie, she says. She shows how 'family' fits into the whole Bible story. 'One of the amazing things we find out about God in Jesus is that God is a family in himself. God is a Father. Jesus is his Son. And when we come back to God, he doesn't just receive us as friends, he adopts us into his family.' She notes that in Old Testament Israel there was no family without a father and that there was no incompatibility between respect for fatherhood and the essential equality of men and women. Children were thought of as a specific product of divine action. In the New Testament it becomes clear that family is the concept by which we understand an eternal reality. Because it serves this metaphorical purpose, the family itself is precious; because it is a metaphor, however, it is not an end in itself; there is a greater priority. See Luke 14.26, for example. The book then takes us through history, pouring cold water on the feminist myth that the family was an invention of the Victorians to keep women in their place. The chapter detailing and analysing the problems facing sociologists and policy makers in defining the family, while clinging to an ideological prejudice against biblical Christianity, would be hilarious if it had not such tragic and far-reaching implications. The second half of the book examines particular challenges to the family, namely: reproductive technology, the homosexual lobby and feminism. If what the Bible says about family is true, then we should not be surprised that a rejection of that way of life should bring troubles and difficulties and so it has proved. Dr. Birkett argues concisely and supports her case by reference to recent research (much of it from Australia) and contemporary examples. The reader will long for such ability with words when in discussion with non-Christians. This book will bear reading and re-reading. The conclusion summarises the problem: selfishness. 'We have accepted an ideology that to serve oneself is right and desirable. If you feel like giving up family for career then you should do it. If you feel sexually attracted to the same sex, then you should foster and realise those feelings. If you feel like having a child then you should have one. It's your right.' A world which wants the comfort and security of relationships while clinging tightly to such an ideology is a world beset by confusion, chaos and misery. God's ways are best, at all times and for all people. Ann Benton© Evangelicals Now - March 2005 |
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