CURRENTLY IN CULTURE: Family values

Marlee Andres

As a writer, I feel a small death every time I realize that, more and more, our language is not rich with significance, depth and meaning--but wrung dreary and tedious with habit.

I am certain that writer Rich Mullins was striving for significance and meaning when he wrote "Our God Is An Awesome God", but when a friend recently bought an "awesome" new program for her computer and my neighbour's son is self-described as "awesome" at roller-hockey, I find the word somehow lacklustre. The same word which Mullins used because of its brilliance and vibrancy is, in our daily speech, tarnished and dull.

"Family values" is another phrase that has lost its lustre. It has been co-opted by Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Reformers, Conservatives, New Democrats, pro-choice advocates, pro-life advocates, pro-gay groups, ex-gay groups. Everyone, it seems, wants their piece of the "family values" pie. The problem is that not everyone can be right.

Values are the principles around which we make moral choices. They function like a compass, providing direction in the churning seas of decision-making. Family values are the principles around which we make choices about what it means to be a family, how we will act in families and what we will do to protect families.

We would do well to remember that in Eden, when God had completed His creative work and pronounced the finished product "very good", there were no priests, no judges, no kings, no prophets, no apostles and even no church. God's "very good" was pronounced on a family. It is to God that we must turn for family values, and it is those values that God gives us that we are morally obligated to defend.

Some family values are celibacy outside marriage; monogamy in marriage; love and mutuality between spouses that reflects the relationship of Christ and the church; children who honour and respect their parents; and parents who nurture, protect and challenge their children in godly ways.

I can remember from childhood that from time to time my mother would take the good silver piece by piece and polish it until the tarnish lifted and each piece shone like a mirror. I wonder how many of us have done the same with our family values. Have we taken them down off the shelf of political platforms and social statements and polished them until we once again see the God-given commands shining in them?

Marlee Andres is a member of Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C.

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