'Family Manifesto' Offered as Tool in Ongoing Culture War
by Bill Fancher
March 18, 2005
(AgapePress) - A document aimed at providing a unifying manifesto for the pro-family movement has been unveiled in Washington, DC. The document defines the family, its importance, and its values.It is called "The Natural Family: A Manifesto" and was put together by the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society in Rockville, Illinois, and the Utah-based Sutherland Institute. At a press conference this week, co-author Dr. Alan Carlson reported that the document is designed to remind society of the importance of the family unit for one reason: "Healthy family life and healthy societies advance and decline together," he stated.
The "natural family," Carlson said, is viewed as "the union of a man and a woman through marriage for the purposes of sharing love and joy, propagating children, providing their moral education, building a vital home economy, offering security in times of trouble, and binding the generations."
Paul Mero, the other author of the document, said the pro-family movement needs the Manifesto. "The fact is that the side of the natural family is losing the culture war, and we have been for nearly 40 years," the Sutherland Institute president said. Anyone who doubts that statement, he added, "need only reflect on the battles we fight presently."
Mero described several of those battles. "Men and women care little about marriage and even less about having children. Sending a child to daycare is no more of a concern than sending a child out to the store to buy a loaf of bread. Divorce has become a 'healing balm.' And old folks, our aged parents, have become worthless burdens, encumbering our busy and convenient lives."
Mero said he hopes the Manifesto will become a unifying tool that pro-family supporters can use it the struggle to bolster and rebuild the family. According to Carlson, the document offers an agenda to do exactly that.
"We will build a new culture of marriage where others would define marriage out of existence," he said. "We will welcome and celebrate more babies and larger families where others would continue a war on human fertility."
In addition, Carlson said, where others would further divide parents from their children, the pro-family community will find ways to bring mothers, fathers, and children back home. "And we will create true home economies where others would subject families to the full control of big government and vast corporations," he concluded.
"The Natural Family: A Manifesto" is available for downloading (registration required) from the Howard Center website.
Bill Fancher, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
