26th
Principle
The core unit which determines the
strength of any society is the family;
therefore, the government should
foster and protect its integrity.
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The family-centered culture which developed in America
was not the austere pattern developed in England or the
profligate pattern which characterized France. Alexis de
Tocqueville compared the American family with that of
Europe in the following words:
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"There is certainly no country in the world where
the tie of marriage is more respected than in America, or
where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily
appreciated. In Europe almost all the disturbances of
society arise from the irregularities of domestic life. To
despise the natural bonds and legitimate pleasure of
home is to contract a taste for excesses, a restlessness
of heart, and fluctuating desires. Agitated by the
tumultuous passions that frequently disturb his
dwelling, the European is galled by the obedience which
the legislative powers of the state exact. But when the
American retires from the turmoil of public life to the
bosom of his family, he finds in it the image of order and
of peace. There his pleasures are simple and natural, his
joys are innocent and calm; and as he finds that an
orderly life is the surest path to happiness, he
accustoms himself easily to moderate his opinions as
well as his tastes. While the European endeavors to
forget his domestic troubles by agitating society, the
American derives from his own home that love of order
which he afterwards carries with him into public
affairs." (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America,
1:315.)
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Equality of Men and Women Under God's Law
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The American Founders felt that the legal, moral, and
social relationships between husband and wife were clearly
established by Bible law under what Dr. H. Carlton Marlow
has described as "differential" equality. (H. Carlton Marlow
and Harrison M. Davis, The American Search for Woman, Clio
Books, Santa Barbara, California, 1976, chapter 5.)
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The husband and wife each have their specific rights
appropriate to their role in life, and otherwise share all rights
in common. The role of the man is "to protect and provide."
The woman's role is to strengthen the family solidarity in the
home and provide a wholesome environment for her husband
and children. For the purpose of order, the man was given
the decision-making responsibilities for the family; and
therefore when he voted in political elections, he not only
cast a ballot for himself, but also for his wife and children.
In theory, God's law made man first in governing his family,
but as between himself and his wife he was merely first
among equals. The Apostle Paul pointed out in his epistle to
the Corinthians:
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Neither is the man without the woman, neither the
woman without the man, in the Lord. (1 Corinthians
11:11.)
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"Father" and "Mother" Treated Equally in Scripture
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John Locke wrote his Second Essay Concerning Civil
Government just as the colonies were becoming established,
and his thinking was reflected in the family life-style of the
American colonies more than in England itself. He stressed
the equal responsibility of mother and father in rearing the
children. He stated that the term "paternal authority"
"... seems so to place the power of parents over their
children wholly in the father, as if the mother had no
share in it; whereas if we consult reason or revelation,
we shall find she has an equal title, which may give one
reason to ask whether this might not be more properly
called parental power? For whatever obligation Nature
and the right of generation lays on children, it must
certainly bind them equally to both the concurrent
causes of it. And accordingly we see the positive law of
God everywhere joins them together without distinction,
when it commands the obedience of children: 'Honor thy
father and thy mother' (Exodus 20:12); 'Whosoever
curseth his father or his mother' (Leviticus 20:9); 'Ye
shall fear every man his mother and his father'
(Leviticus 19:3); 'Children, obey your parents'
(Ephesians 6:1), etc., is the style of the Old and New
Testament." (John Locke, Second Essay Concerning Civil
Government, p. 36, par. 52.)
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What a Mature Adult Should Know
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Locke then went on to point out that once a person has
grown to adulthood and learned from experience and
maturity the proper use of his reason, he should be capable
of applying the revealed laws of God to his daily life:
"When he has acquired that state [of maturity], he
is presumed to know how far that law is to be his guide,
and how far he may make use of his freedom, and so
comes to have it; till then, somebody else must guide
him, who is presumed to know how far the law allows a
liberty. If such a state of reason, such an age of
discretion made him free, the same shall make his son
free too. Is a man under the law of England? What made
him free of that law -- that is, to have the liberty to
dispose of his actions and possessions, according to his
own will, within the permission of that law? A capacity
of knowing that law, which is supposed, by that law, at
the age of twenty one, and in some cases sooner. If this
made the father free, it shall make the son free too. Till
then, we see the law allows the son to have no will, but
he is to be guided by the will of his father or guardian,
who is to understand for him.... But after that [age of
maturity is obtained] the father and son are equally free,
as much as tutor and pupil after nonage, equally
subjects of the same law together, without any dominion
left in the father over the life, liberty, or estate of his
son." (Ibid., p. 37, par. 59.)
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Responsibility of Children to Parents
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Locke said that the reciprocal responsibility of children
to honor and obey their parents is equally specific:
"As He [God] hath laid on them [the parents] an
obligation to nourish, preserve, and bring up their
offspring, so He has laid on the children a perpetual
obligation of honoring their parents, which, containing
in it an inward esteem and reverence to be shown by all
outward expressions, ties up the child from anything
that may ever injure or affront, disturb or endanger the
happiness or life of those from whom he received his
[life], and engages him in all actions of defense, relief,
assistance, and comfort of those by whose means he
entered into being and has been made capable of any
enjoyments of life. From this obligation no state, no
freedom, can absolve children." (Ibid., p. 39, par. 66;
emphasis added.)
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It will be appreciated that the strength and stability of
the family is of such vital importance to the culture that any
action by the government to debilitate or cause dislocation in
the normal trilateral structure of the family becomes, not
merely a threat to the family involved, but a menace to the
very foundations of society itself.
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