An LDS Stand on Family

One essential reality that weaves its way through the course of this dialogue, this philosophy, that sometimes plays a marginal role and more frequently, takes center stage, is the simple topic of family. But speaking as a Mormon Existentialist, there is nothing simple about this topic, but it is a portal to a wealth of ideologies, a fabric of conceptions, some daunting, others unfathomable.

In the worldly state, we know that the basic principles of family are morphing at this moment. With an academia that preaches gender politics and a philosophy of deconstruction that supports it through carefully contrived logic, the family, as it was honored by the now aging baby-boom generation is a different thing. At that time, the idea of a masculine man and a feminine woman was OK. If a boy did not want to play with dolls, he was not breaking rules of gender politics, he just preferred racecars. There are essential opposites in life and a man is a man and a woman is a woman without being reduced to just gender difference.

How marvelous is the kind of difference, or diversity, when a man can be a strong role model for his son or daughter, have unimpeachable integrity, honor his wedding vows to his wife, work hard to support his family, defend his family at all costs, feed and cloth them and be a loving and caring example for his children. Is this a bad thing? And when a woman has extensive abilities to create and develop, to make and to fabricate, with a nature that is warm and always inviting, with a fire within her to pursue her passions vigorously, a heart that knows no depths for her children with innate ability to raise them with a moral code as strong as hers, and an emotional capacity deeply complex, is this wrong? And for these two, to unite, being drawn together by natural laws of attraction grounded by their difference, is this wrong?

This is very right. And it is right that they should have children and begin a family unit, begun here in this life, to grow and perpetuate through a progeny crossing the eternities. Like a cell in the body is the building block, the family, traditionally, in society, has for millennia been equivalent to this building block. What is to happen to a civilization when its building blocks start to crumble? It cannot be known, it has never happened. But it is happening and the temporal and spiritual fate of humanity is at stake. For those of the LDS faith who believe in the Plan of Salvation, it is understood how the family is the core of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is a gift to be grateful for, this knowledge, this wisdom of the wondrous blessings and eternal reality of family. To invest a lifetime with those loved to part forever after this brief span of life is an unbearable tragedy. But it does not have to be. As Latter-Day Saints, every moment, every tenderness, every thought, every kind word is an investment in the eternities.

It is imperative that the LDS community perpetuate the best examples of family to the world. It is imperative that every LDS member demonstrate forgiveness and unconditional love. It is imperative for every LDS member to show the deepness and rich quality of the bonds in LDS families. It is imperative for every LDS member to be exemplars of honesty and healthy and productive living. It is imperative that Latter-Day Saints propagate the sacred message that family is not “till death do us part” but “for time and all eternity.” “Time” is now, it is this moment, “eternity” has no time and is forever. This forever can be spent with those loved the most.

These messages must be shared, this example must be set, it is the duty of every Latter-Day Saint as marriage is on the cusp of a slippery slope and the family is in veritable peril. This must be challenged with might, mind and zeal.