Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The Cost Of Family Break Down

One of my ministry goals is to engage the culture with Biblical truth. Writing letters to the editor of the local newspaper is a way to inform, exhort, and rebuke the community audience.

My latest piece:

What is family breakdown costing American taxpayers? According to a recent study by The Institute for American Values and the Georgia Family Council, it is a minimum of $112 billion a year. The principle causes of these astronomical expenses are high divorce rates and an increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births. Today 36.9 percent of all children and 69.9 percent of black children are born out of wedlock.

America is not alone in its woes. Great Britain is also reeling from family fragmentation. Justice Sir Paul Coleridge, a senior Family Division judge in England, has pronounced “The collapse of the family unit is a threat to the nation as bad as terrorism, crime, drugs or global warming. The government must put the family at the top of its agenda, alongside the economy and the war on terror.”

Clearly we have an expensive problem that needs fixing, both at home and abroad. The solution, I believe, requires much more than government attention. Family breakdown is a moral problem. We need spiritual revival and reformation. An ancient prophet has said that God would one day “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6). May that day soon dawn.

One of the reasons Coram Deo Church has chosen to be family-integrated is to counter the ongoing trends of family-fragmentation. We believe strong families are a blessing to our community and to the nation.

Sincerely,

Pastor John Sleadd