WHAT IS FAMILY?
The “Family” has been under a devastating, multi-pronged attack for many decades by the secularism-based prevailing culture. “Family” used to be understood as the social unit based on the union of a male and a female, married to each other, and the offspring they beget or adopt (even if death of one of the partners, or divorce, subsequently, takes place).
BLUEPRINT FOR THE ATTACK ON MARRIAGE
Then the prevailing culture stepped in and launched a concerted attack on the institution of marriage and on its relevance in modern society. The culture, invented in Hollywood and slowly foisted upon an unsuspecting world, was used with devastating effect. And the blueprint for this freeing up of humanity from traditional restraints and allowing them previously unknown, undiluted sexual freedom and “happiness”, was provided by Alfred Kinsey “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male – 1948 and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female – 1953”, purporting to show that there were no such things as “normality” or” abnormality” in sexual behavior.
What was touted as serious scientific research was later revealed to be fraudulent research in Kinsey, Sex and Fraud, the Indoctrination of a People – Judith A. Reisman and Edward W. Eichel “1990 – Lochinvar – Huntingdon House, USA”. Among other things, it was shown that about a quarter of his male sample were prisoners, including hundreds of male prostitutes. And that data from abusive and unlawful experiments conducted by paedophiles on children, some as young as two months old, was used. By then, however, the damage had already been done.
RE-INVENTED EUGENICS MOVEMENT.
Eugenicists, like Marie Stopes in England and Margaret Sanger in America, had been endeavouring to stop “inferior” strains of human beings from breeding and damaging the racial stock, through birth control. However when the truth about the Nazi programme to breed a master race emerged, the eugenics movement went underground and re-invented itself as the Family Planning Movement. The eugenicists, Margaret Sanger (who had coined the phrase “Birth Control” to create a race of Thoroughbreds) founded the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and then in 1952, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), with headquarters in London.
So as Kinsey’s reports were being accepted, the attack on marriage and marital fidelity was bolstered by this re-invented Eugenics Movement with the euphemistic name of International Planned Parenthood Federation, the policies of which, are carried out in each country by IPPF’s member bodies. For example, as far as sexual permissiveness is concerned, an IPPF report published in 1984 The Human Right to Family Planning stated that children from age 10 should have full access to fertility regulation, information and services with guaranteed privacy and confidentiality – i.e. without the consent of the parents. Earlier, in 1972, the British Family Planning Association (a founder-member of IPPF) had published a highly permissive book for adolescents entitled Learning to Live with Sex, which ended with a list of contraception, abortion and homo-sexual agencies with the message, “All these places will treat your problems sympathetically and not tell your parents unless you want them to know.”
THE SEX INFORMATION AND EDUCATION COUNCIL OF THE UNITED STATES (SIECUS)
This body, closely linked to the population control movement, had its first director, Dr. Mary Calderone, re-iterate some objectives, which included:
merging or reversing the sexes or sex roles (interchangeability of male and female roles),
liberating children from their families.
abolishing the family as we know it.
[THE SIECUS Circle – A Humanist Revolution – Claire Chambers -1997]
RESULTS OF THE ATTACK
The attack on marriage and marital fidelity was so powerful that in many countries marriage was effectively removed from the equation. So much so that when some teachers in the UK were asked whether they were teaching sex education from the point of view of married family life (as laid down in the UK Gov’t Circular 11/87), they said it was no longer possible for them to do so, because a large number of children came from parents who live together but are not married, and it would therefore be insulting to the parents of such children to invoke “married family life” in the classroom.
So the “family” came to be understood as the social unit based on the union of a male and a female together with their offspring (i.e. marriage removed from the equation).
FATHER FIGURE LAMPOONED OR IGNORED
While social engineering was proceeding through the attack on marriage and marital fidelity, the “father” in the family was being lampooned and/or ignored. Is it only coincidence that for decades we were treated to cartoons like Dagwood, Jiggs, Andy Cap etc. portraying bungling buffoons as the father/husband figures? And one consumer group in the US found that in prime time entertainment TV the majority of the programmes had no father figure and in the remaining minority, a majority had an ineffective father figure. Attack on the family from another angle!
YET ANOTHER ATTACK
Simultaneously there was a crusade to motivate mothers against breastfeeding their babies. “Manufactured baby food is better”, “Breastfeeding will cramp your lifestyle”, “Your figure will be damaged through breastfeeding” etc. So, en masse, mothers turned to artificial baby “milk”, (giving up the Divinely provided nutrition for babies, always at the right temperature, always in the right concentration etc – mother’s milk). This compromised the physical health of even those babies who were fed as per instructions. And in the poor countries, where large numbers of mothers could not afford the amount of baby “milk” needed, they diluted it below recommended levels resulting in malnutrition. Even worse, since clean drinking water in not available in much of God’s earth, babies were being fed polluted water. By the time international agencies woke up the damage had already been done. So now, only a minority of mothers nurse their babies on demand.
Apart from compromising the physical health of the young, the move away from breastfeeding caused serious, deleterious effects on the mental, emotional and social health and stability of children. It has been found that non-breastfed children had greater difficulty in bonding with others, in establishing positive relationships with others, in respecting authority, etc. This had the effect of, among other things, unraveling the social fabric of the family.
THE ATTACK CONTINUES
The prevailing culture continued with its attack relentlessly – now attacking “union of a male and a female”. Homosexuality began to be vigorously promoted as acceptable alternative lifestyles and portrayed openly by the entertainment media. So now there is no longer any need to have a union of a male and a female – there can be a union of two males or two females.
WHERE DO WE STAND TODAY?
After decades of attack, the “family” has deteriorated into a social group based on the union of two persons (a male and a female, or two females, or two males) together with their biological or adopted children. Or it is a social group of one adult (male or female) and biological or adopted children where that adult chooses to live without a partner (and not as a result of death of the partner or divorce).
This disjointed, dysfunctional family, in a prevailing culture, that propagates that the individual makes his own values and that she/he is doomed to extinction, if not today, then tomorrow (as death is the total annihilation of life) cannot, and does not, provide the individual with the badly-needed emotional and mental stability and with the strong inter-personal relationships that bonding in the “family” of yester-year used to provide. The individual, left to fend for himself/herself may very well gravitate towards criminal gangs and anti-social groups, where he/she is accepted and accorded some measure of respect.
SUGGESTED SOLUTION
Naturally, the obvious path for us to adopt is the striving to re-enthrone the “family” that is the social unit based on the union of a male and a female married to each other together with their biological or adopted children, in a culture that upholds and inculcates objective moral values and which teaches that every human being will be accountable for every single act of his or hers, on the Day of Judgment. A concerted collective effort is essential to challenge our music and other forms of entertainment and our prevailing lifestyle, which all teach otherwise. Are we bold enough to begin and continue such an effort?
THE QUR’AN ON THE FAMILY
The Final Revelation from the One True God to mankind is the Qur’an, which He, the Almighty, has preserved against any change or tampering by enthusiasts, translators and would-be interpolators. In God’s Guidance, enshrined in this Final Revelation, the “family” is the building block of the community/society, as it provides the first and basic social environment for the individual. The socio-moral discipline he/she acquires within the family would play a vital role in respect of his/her socio-moral behavior relating to the community, the country and humanity at large.
In constructing a strong community, we need to strengthen and re-inforce the building blocks – the families. Any weakness in the family would, sooner or later, transfer itself to the community.
THE QUR’ANIC GUIDANCE FOR BUILDING STRONG FAMILIES
This includes :
- Strengthening the foundation of the family – marriage, the goal of which is the attainment of peace, solace, tranquility of the spouses in each other’s company.
- Uncompromising emphasis on marital fidelity i.e. chastity of both husband and wife.
- Moulding the husband-wife relationship in accordance with God’s Guidance.
- Establishing and developing parent-child and child-parent relationships in harmony with God’s Guidance.
- Unswerving devotion and submission to the One True God on the part of all members of the family.
May the Infinitely-Merciful, Ever-Bountiful, Absolutely-Loving Creator bless us with the capability to strive as we aught to strive. Ameen!