Guest Opinion: The Real Question - What Lies at the Center of Our Society?

In a government centered society, the government will eventually devour everything in its ever increasing reach - destroying itself and the larger society in the process.So, do we want to be the center of America's society to be the family or the government?

HARRISBURG, PA. (Catholic Online) - American society has traditionally been centered around the family, defined as those related by blood, marriage, or adoption. This definition has been both flexible enough to allow for two-parent, single-parent, blended, and extended families, and stable enough to survive the challenges of life. Family members are bonded by love and respect and commitment.  Those bonds are considered unbreakable, so members can experience unconditional love and acceptance.  Those bonds cross generational and ethnic lines, span time and distance, and do not recognize economic classes.  They allow for individual movement and growth while providing family members with a constant home base to which they can return for refuge, assistance, advice, and encouragement. When a crisis occurs, family members pull together to face it.  Each member supplies his or her individual gift, whether that is wisdom, time, or financial support, in a shared effort to deal with the situation.  Members do not measure the amount of help each provides, and do not stop their efforts at an arbitrary cut off point - they remain focused and committed until the situation has been resolved. Families prepare their members for independence.  Children grow up knowing that they will leave their parents' homes to begin the cycle of life and love once again. Families acknowledge a higher power.  They understand the worth and value of each member, from the youngest to the oldest; and they recognize that they are the custodians, not the Creator, of life.  Most families pray together, asking the Creator for His blessing and assistance, and thanking Him for answering those prayers. If society were viewed as an old-fashioned wagon wheel, with a central hub and spokes out to the rim, families would be a bright center to the wheel.  They generate life - both biological and economic, which flows from them into the larger society.  Family members produce and consume goods and services.  They accumulate wealth, which they pass on to future generations, ensuring continued economic life. Families feed the societies where their centrality is recognized and supported - to the benefit of both the family and the society. But in the new social order being promoted in America today, family is being replaced by government as the central unit of society. Under this structure, family is defined as any group of people who come together in a supportive environment, however temporary that group may be.  The traditional family ties of blood, marriage or adoption would either be discarded or diluted to allow for any group of individuals to self-define as a family. In this structure, individuals would be connected to the government.  Government ties people to it through conditions of dependence and regulation and ignorance.  People do not bond to the government, so they must be tied to it.  These conditions create that tie. Government programs and policies separate the members of a family from each other.  Then the state can put barriers between them, creating isolation and forcing each individual to work directly with the state.  Government is not compassionate, so individuals must deal with the might of the state when problems arise, even if "might" is not the most appropriate response to the problem. Government does not acknowledge a higher power.  In a society where government is the central entity, the state seeks to prevent citizens from recognizing a divine Creator.  Hence, in every major confrontation between believers and non-believers, the "theology" of the non-believers prevails. In the wagon wheel analogy, government is a dark center.  It produces no life.  It creates no goods or services.  It generates no wealth.  Instead, it pulls life and wealth from the larger society down the spokes of the wheel with an insatiable appetite. In a government centered society, the government will eventually devour everything in its ever increasing reach - destroying itself and the larger society in the process. So, do we want the center of America's society to be the family or the government?  America's future will be determined by our answer to that one, central question.

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As a teacher, Peg Luksik has taught from pre-school to college levels.  She is the founder of several charities, served as an advisor to President Reagan's Commission on the Family, and has run for political office. She has been nationally recognized for her work on behalf of life and family.  Peg and Jim, her husband of 32 years, are the proud parents of 6 children.   

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