The New Eve - Lewis Robert [82]
5. There is a growing disregard for family responsibilities.
One of the signal traits of the trustee and domestic models is that everyone in the family has a clear set of responsibilities to fulfill. They don't seriously question them. They won't always enjoy the assignments that fall to them, but they fulfill their obligations because they know a lot is riding on their shoulders.
In the atomistic model this sense of responsibility is slowly replaced by a demand for liberation. Family members want to share in the prosperities of family life but not the duties. You've seen examples of this on TV. A mom asks her son to make up his bed, and all he can manage to do is yell back, “Hire someone to do that, Mom!”
6. There is an increasing desire for and acceptance of adultery, as well as a greater tolerance for sexual expressions of all kinds.
Finally, the atomization of society means unleashing a sexuality that is entirely unbounded. Growing sexual immorality and deepening sexual perversions seem to go hand in hand with the unraveling of family life. In many cases these sexual excesses are a twisted attempt to recapture the love missed in childhood.
The atomistic society feels entitled to open the door to sexual expressions of every kind. Extreme forms of immorality are not only justified but also celebrated. This drift into decadence isn't new. History has seen it many times before. But for us, it signals the arrival of the atomistic age.
What Does It All Mean?
In his classic book Lord of the Flies, William Golding portrayed a group of British prep-school boys stranded on an uncharted island. Cut off from adult supervision, the boys realize it is up to them to organize a makeshift society. “We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages,” says one of the boys early in the misadventure.4
But base savagery is the very thing the boys quickly adopt. Far from duplicating the manner-minded English society of their parents, the boys create a new order based on raw power and savagery. They bicker, belittle, fight, and even kill each other for control.
From mannered to mad in no time flat. How is that possible? The answer is this: the well-ordered home is the centerpiece of a civilized society. Without the parent-to-child transference of wisdom, restraint, and moral fiber, humans tend toward barbarism. It's a part of our fallen condition. We're always one generation away from savagery, but we don't believe it until reality kicks down the door. Good homes are the only antidote. That's why your marriage is so important. It carries the future of our country. It also carries the future of God's kingdom work here on Earth.
The Biblical Family
It's important to recognize that despite Zimmerman's helpful research on family models, none of his models adequately describes what Scripture sets forth as “the biblical family.” (For a more detailed discussion of the biblical family, I suggest you read my book, Rocking the Roles: Building a Win-Win Marriage, published by NavPress.)
Compared to the biblical model, the trustee family is heavy-handed, overly patriarchal, and for everyone besides the head male, too confining. The domestic-family model, on the other hand, comes closer to the biblical outline in its application. But the domestic family is not the biblical model either. It, too, falls short in many ways, especially when it comes to offering wives the full equality of status and opportunity the Bible says women deserve in marriage (1 Pet. 3:7) and pressing husbands to shoulder a more balanced