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From: BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview
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Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 7:05 AM
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Subject: BreakPoint Daily: Families are Unfair?
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BreakPoint
August 21, 2015
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Families are Unfair?
A Devil’s Definition of Equality
John Stonestreet
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COMMENTARIES
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Be Like Ryan (Broyles)
By John Stonestreet
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Jesus' Hometown
By Eric Metaxas
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Western Churches and the Wrong Side of History
By Eric Metaxas
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The God Who Works in History
By John Stonestreet
Every once in a while, an academic suggests something upside down, wrong-side
up. Like this one: good families are unfair. Here's today’s “you can’t make
this up” story.
“Equality” is one of the watchwords of our time. It's invoked in nearly every
political, ethical, and increasingly, social discussion. And lately, it's gone
completely off the rails.
Once upon a time, “equality” was the rallying cry of patriots and
abolitionists—the good and true belief that “all men are created equal” in the
sight of God, are equal in dignity and deserve equal rights before the law. But
today, “equality” means something very different: It means sameness.
And two philosophers recently profiled by Australia's ABC
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network have taken this already runaway definition of “equality” to a whole
new level of ridiculous.
Professors Adam Swift of the University of Warwick and Harry Brighouse of the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, think they’ve found the root source of
inequality in society: the family.
Now social scientists have long known that loving families with two parents
confer an enormous advantage on children. Evidence shows
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these kids are more likely to attend college, less likely to suffer or
perpetrate abuse, less likely to do drugs or cross the law, and have a higher
likelihood of passing on these advantages to their own children. You would
think this would make us want good families in our society. But Swift and
Brighouse don't think that's fair.
Now I'd agree with them if what they meant was that all kids ought to enjoy
these benefits. But their strategy is upside down: “If the family is this
source of unfairness in society,” says Swift, “then it looks plausible to think
that if we abolished the family there would be a more level playing field.”
As humorist Dave Barry might say, “I'm not making this up.”
Now happily, Swift and Brighouse recognize that abolishing the family
altogether would be going overboard. So their alternative is to hobble intact
families—especially those with means—by prohibiting private school,
inheritance, summer camp, and other “purely economic means” of conferring
advantage on children.
Oh, and since bedtime stories also give kids a leg-up in life, they think you
should “occasionally” feel bad about reading to your kids, too.
While most sane people would look at healthy families and think, “every kid
should live like this,” these philosophers say, “no kid should live like this.”
As one commentator remarked, their suggestions sound like Kurt Vonnegut's
satirical dystopia, “Harrison Bergeron
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.” In the imagined year 2081, society's ruling value is equality, administered
by an all-powerful “Handicapper General,” who goes around handicapping anyone
who's physically or mentally outstanding. And the goal, of course, is sameness.
But what really comes to mind for me is C. S. Lewis' famous epilogue to “The
Screwtape Letters,” entitled, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast
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.” In it, the retired tempter tells graduates of a demonic college to teach
humans that good habits—the kind that improve society (kind of like the family
does)—are “undemocratic.” Instead of nurturing and encouraging virtues like
morality and academic excellence, he says, humans should be trained to resent
and destroy them.
The goal, says Screwtape, is the “elimination of every kind of human
excellence—moral, cultural, social, or intellectual.”
You'd expect this thinking from an undersecretary of Hell, but not from tenured
scholars! Our response to the God-orchestrated advantages that loving, intact
families give their kids should be to rebuild a family-centered culture, and
that’s what the church has done throughout history: proposed the good of family
to the world, helped restore lives broken by broken homes, and encouraged
families to open their homes to orphans and others in need.
While I pray lawmakers never take the terrible ideas of these academics
seriously, I pray that Christians do take seriously their mission to, as Chuck
Colson once described, “turn the world rightside-up.” And upside-down
definitions of “equality” would be a great place to start.
(This commentary originally aired May 20, 2015).
FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION
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More on This Topic
Gather more information on today's Daily BreakPoint by visiting
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Visit BreakPoint.org
Next Steps:
Families are Unfair?: A Devil’s Definition of Equality
Families are the most important building blocks for society. "As the family
goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live." (Pope
John Paul II). For resources to help strengthen families, check out the links
below.
Resources:
Is having a loving family an unfair advantage?
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Joe Gelonesi | abc.net.au | May 1, 2015 Websites
Parenting (multiple topics)
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Focus on the Family
Top 10 Articles on Parenting
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Family Life Today
Family Talk
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website Available at the online bookstore
Building Strong Families
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Dennis Rainey | Crossway Books | June 2002
Love
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& Respect in the Family: The Transforming Power of Love and Respect Between
Parent and Child
Emerson Eggerichs | Thomas Nelson Publishers | November 2013
As for Me and My House: Crafting Your Marriage to Last
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Walter Wangerin, Jr. | Thomas Nelson Publishers | June 2001
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A Colson Center Program
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