It is not only homosexuals and Sesame Street who are trying to redefine the family out of existence, and along with it civilization itself. Ordinary moms and dads--even Christian ones--are doing the same thing. When moms and dads, husbands and wives, become merely "parents" and "spouses," indistinguishable bread-winners with careers and all the time constraints and pressures that go with careers, then children need to be raised by day-care workers and school teachers as well as by televisions and video games. If you change the family, you change the civilization. If you destroy the family, you will destroy civilization.
The role of the mother qua mother is indispensable. Children need her wise, minutely attentive, and loving attention to the thousands matters of protection, instruction, and discipline that come up in the course of every day from waking to sleeping. No one else can provide this. Many children survive childhood without it. But it is surviving, not thriving. Civilization depends on a critical mass of people thriving.
Anita Renfroe's "Mom Song," set to the tune of the William Tell Overture, captures some of what's involved in the mother's task.
The Mom Song from Northland Video on Vimeo.
Evangelical Christians need to develop a political philosophy that begins with the family and extends to the highest authorities.
(Go here to see the original with Renfroe herself performing and with a better ending. You can also see the words written out.)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The Indispensable Mom
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1 comment:
Greetings:
I have often wondered about the impact of the increase in women in the workforce since the last '70s and what unintended consequences would result.
I grew up in a working/lower middle class neighborhood and probably more than half the Baby Booming Mommas were able to be full-time parents. This obviously increased the amount and consistency of the child-rearing. One would think that this was beneficial in the societal sense also.
When I later studied economics, it occurred to me that this labor influx would also have a depressing effect on wage rates, something not usually considered beneficial in the societal sense.
So, what we end up with is marginal increases in "self-fulfillment" and "consumption capability" and a decrease in overall societal effectiveness.
My mother used to call this "selling your birthright for a pittance."
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