Freedom-Fighters Forum

By William J. Dell – October 1992

There is presently a continuing and on-going discussion concerning what is meant by Traditional Family Values. As part of the effort to define just what these values are, this Patriarch offers the following article. Any article of this type has to be based on some premise. The writer realizes there may be some who would reject the original premise regardless of its truth. This rejection in no way decreases the verity of the article, it only diminishes the reader; for, truth is eternal.

This article was written based on the following premises:

1. That the family, consisting of a father, a mother, and their posterity, is the basic unit of society.

2. Without this basic unit, other social units; such as, communities and nations, could never be established and/or perpetuated.

This Patriarch believes that traditional family values are rooted deep within the religious ethic of each family’s parents. I also believe that this ethic, although not the same, is similar for any of the world major sects. All of these various religious ethics teach in some form the following general lessons:

1. Make yourself a better you.

2. Treat others as you would be treated.

3. Be a truth teller.

The Judeo-Christian Ethic with which most of us were reared in this great nation adds one other general tenet. This tenet is that after you have achieved this for yourself, do the same for your brother, sister, and neighbor.

We in this land, which is choice above all other lands, are considered to be a Christian nation. This is because the families of our ancestors fled their homelands in Europe that they might be able to practice the Judeo-Christian Ethic as they understood it. From 1620 to 1789, a period of 169 years, this nation grew and thrived and became great because these families believed, lived and taught to their posterity the Judeo-Christian Ethic. These families banned together and fought a revolution and established a new nation based upon this ethic. A nation that is based upon constitutional law which is rooted deep in the tenets of this ethic. The Founding Fathers bore testimony time and time again that they felt God’s hand in the writing of our Divinely inspired constitution. From 1789 until 1960, a period of 171 years, the guardians of our Constitution, the Supreme Court, protected our sacred heritage, the spirit of the Constitution, and the intent of the Founding Fathers that the Judeo-Christian Ethic should be the foundation of this great land.

During this 340 year period of our history, most Americans and their families kept God and the Judeo-Christian Ethic in their hearts and lives. These families which came together to form our great nation LIVED WHAT THEY BELIEVED. And because God was in the hearts and minds of most Americans, God remembered our land and blessed it. This Patriarch believes that what they LIVED AND BELIEVED, the Judeo-Christian Ethic, comprises our Traditional Family Values. So what were and are these values?

I believe that some of our Traditional Family Values were and are enumerated to each young couple as they marry and pair off to begin their own social unit. Consider the traditional marriage ceremony. It is done in the presence of “God and man” suggesting and reminding the couple that they “should have no other God before me”. They are further instructed to “forsake all other” and that they are now “one” with each other and “those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder”. All this is stated in the vows taken by the prospective parents of the new family at the Altars of God, regardless of the sect. Additionally, they promise to love, honor, and serve each other for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and health for as long as they both shall live. Now these are not NEW principles to a couple getting married. They have seen these principles through the example of their parents and grandparents and others couples around them. They have been taught to them by precept and example by loving parents in their respective communities. This is just an enumeration of these principles that they too might emulate them anew in their family and teach them by example to their posterity.

Usually, our young couple’s love will be expressed in the birth of a child. These young parents then embark on the journey of instilling their Traditional Family Values, the values of the Judeo-Christian Ethic, to this child which they have received as a trust from God. They recognize that they have a responsibility to “train up a child in the way he should go” or to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” because this is what they were taught by precept and example. Because of the Judeo-Christian Ethic, I believe that most parents strive with all their heart to instill in their posterity honesty, integrity, discipline, sacrifice, commitment, respect, the obligations of fatherhood, the rewards of motherhood, responsibility, accountability, and tolerance for those with other views. I believe that most parents teach and would have their children practice sexual abstinence before marriage and fidelity within their marriage. I believe that most of the families in this great nation have faith in God and reverence for Him. I believe that many of them worship together, as families, on the Sabbath. I believe that parents still know what is best for their children in most instances and circumstances. I believe that in the majority of families in our great country children are taught to live within their means and balance the budget. I believe that they are taught the rewards of hard work. These are the Traditional Family Values of the American family. These are values that cannot be faulted by any truth loving individual or group because they are ETERNAL VALUES.

If this is all true, and it is, you may ask, “Why are we as a nation in such turmoil?” To answer this we must review the last 30 years. In the 1960′s a social revolution began to take place in this great land which continues today. A small segment of our nation, including a portion of an entire generation of children, rejected the traditional family values of the Judeo-Christian Ethic that had served so well for the previous 340 years. These individuals and families with their children became involved in a counter-culture. They dropped out of school, rejected religion, rejected the wisdom and experience of their elders, and protested anything having to do with “the establishment”. They became selfish and self-centered and developed an attitude of ‘what’s in it for me’. They believed that they could have freedom without responsibility or accountability. There were segments of the populace who felt that because of intolerance and the repression of their ancestors that the nation owed them the “American Dream” without them having to work for it. Consequently today, although we are still a Christian nation, many Americans and their families fail to remember God and acknowledge His hand in all things.

On the continuum of tolerance, we have repression on one extreme and promotion on the other extreme. The position of tolerance is in the middle. Within this middle area an individual, family, community, or nation, may reject or accept that which is espoused without repressing or promoting the views of others. This nation was built upon the principle of tolerance for the views of other.

Today however many special interest groups believe that tolerance means that the main stream of our nation must embrace their views and accept them as equals without equivocation even though their views destroy our Traditional Family Values and the very foundation of our nation. A foundation that has served us well for over 300 years. Their attitude was well expressed by the rap artist, Sister Souljah, when she said, “I am African first. I am black first. I want what’s good for me and my people first. And if my survival means your total destruction, then so be it.” If one substitutes “gay”, “environmentalist”, etc, etc, for African and black in the previous quote, you have the attitude of just about any special interest group in this country. This intolerant attitude will destroy us as a nation.

It is the position of the Patriarchal Advocate and this writer that Families come together to form nations; nations are not divided into families. As such our nation is a macrocosm of its families and their values. It would follow then, that if lasting change and improvement is to be made in our nation attention must be paid to the family and its values. One does not build quality into a house using inferior materials; and one does not build quality into a home and nation with inferior families lacking in morality and our Traditional Family Values.