Family Matters

Dear Reader,

In 1932 Aldous Huxley published his fifth novel, Brave New World, in which he describes a World State where the ultimate aim is stability and happiness. To achieve this end the population is bred and conditioned into five main castes – Alpha to Epsilon – dependent upon the level of intelligence and strength required for the labour they will perform.  They are bred for a purpose and controlled with a happiness inducing drug called ‘soma.’  In the World State sex is completely detached from pro-creation or emotion, it is a purely physical act and promiscuity is encouraged as a means of social control; the nuclear family does not exist. Seventy per cent of women are sterilised before birth, as part of the conditioning process every child goes through in the ‘hatchery’ where children are conceived and grown from harvested eggs and sperm.  Individualism is suppressed in character or thought, connection to others, in anyway beyond the shallowest of friendships or work relationships, is socially unacceptable. There is no concept of ‘father’ or ‘mother,’ ‘brother’ or ‘sister.’  There is no  concept of struggle or achievement, of self-determination. Humanity has been de-humanised in the pursuit of happiness.  Into this world is thrown John Savage, a boy born and raised in a reservation where old world customs are still allowed to continue.  After brief celebrity status he is repulsed by the new society and repelled by the woman he loves but who is unable to give up her other lovers, retiring to live an ascetic life he ends up hanging himself.

Compare this to the stated beliefs regarding family and sexuality of the radical racial activist group Black Lives Matter (BLM) who have gained such prominence recently:

‘We are guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression…We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead…We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women…We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work…We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure… We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).’ (https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/ )

It is clear that the revolution that BLM, as all proponents of queer theory1, work towards encompasses the destruction of the traditional western family structure of man, woman and children, to be replaced with a corporate approach to child-raising. The natural, emotional ties between parent and child are deliberately weakened. Committed and exclusive adult relationships are reduced to open and impermanent alliances.   A gender-fluid understanding of human nature is promoted whereby gender is divorced from biological sex and becomes self-chosen and changeable in nature. Sex is divorced from its pro-creative purpose, sterile homosexuality normalised and sexual expression in all forms imaginable is legitimised.  Not only is the family deconstructed but so is the human person, with all things now being self-determined, no element of the psychological, spiritual or physical self being pre-determined.  Transgenderism is a logical  outcome of this as the person affected seeks to overcome by will his or her own genetically rooted physical nature.  Contraception, including abortion as contraception, is the must-have requirement of the new order to ensure that the otherwise inevitable consequences of sex – pregnancy and children – can be avoided or overridden.

Comparing the two approaches one can discern similarities, the destruction of the nuclear family, the dis-association of sex from reproduction, the oppression of one particular sex (by forced sterilisation of females in Brave New World, by the demonisation of heterosexual male ‘patriarchs’ by BLM.)  Though the extent of the BLM revolution is even more far-reaching than that of Huxley’s Brave New World both recognise that the family unit is a powerful and foundational structure in current society that needs to be overthrown for their visions to be actualised.  In both new societies what it means to be human is radically changed, in Brave New World this is implemented through external intervention by conditioning that starts at the foetal stage of child development and continues through birth into the early years.  In the BLM world-view the change is implemented by a total liberation of the self from any form of exterior or interior control, whether that be social, legal or biological.  Though these two ways of changing human nature are very different they both require similar things – a vast  re-imagining of what it means to be human and large scale technological intervention in the natural process of human pro-creation and development.  In that sense they are the re-creation of humanity, an artificial humanity, to fulfil a political or ideological vision of the ideal world; human nature, biology and the family structure are seen as problems to be overcome.  Would either of those visions, if implemented, bring greater happiness or contentment to the world?  

Contrast the visions of Brave New World or BLM with the social structure which they are trying to replace, the traditional western Judaeo-Christian family.  Here the foundational principles of that family are encapsulated in extracts from the introduction to the service for the Solemnization of Matrimony, taken from the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England:

‘DEARLY beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this Congregation, to join together this man and this woman in holy Matrimony; which is an honourable estate…and therefore is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, to satisfy men's carnal lusts and appetites, like brute beasts that have no understanding; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God; duly considering the causes for which Matrimony was ordained.
First, It was ordained for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to the praise of his holy Name.
Secondly, It was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons as have not the gift of continency might marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's body.
Thirdly, It was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity. Into which holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined. Therefore if any man can shew any just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.’

Here is a radically different approach to human life and sexuality.  First and foremost, the pro-creation and nurture of children is to be at the heart of the relationship between the man and the woman. Secondly, the sexual act is to be kept exclusively within the bonds of that marriage.  Thirdly it is a relationship that is for the mutual benefit of the couple and fourthly, it is a relationship that is initiated in public and for the public good, placing the new marriage relationship in context within wider society.  In all these things it builds up and does not tear down, working with the grain of human nature and biology, not against it.  The man and woman pledging themselves to this kind of relationship are not entering into a partnership, with all the connotations of contractual rights, obligations and potential get out clauses a contract entails, they are entering into a lifelong, covenanted union. The two are becoming one and in the process creating something different and greater than themselves.  They are committing themselves, to creating and raising the next generation and to working for the benefit of the other – recognising that the benefit of the other rebounds to the benefit of their own self. They are committing themselves in public and for the good of the society in which they live ‘for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, ‘til death do us part,’ committing themselves to be a stable and permanent part of society. Far from the diminution of self required in Brave New World or the expression of self above all things in ‘queer’ relationships, Christian marriage seeks to build up both parties as individuals, as a united couple and in complex relationships with children as a corporate family unit.  It is an institution for the enriching of human relationships and life.

The contrast between the Judaeo-Christian family, which is reflected in many ways in the traditional concept of family across many cultures and religions, and that of BLM type ‘queer’ relationships is stark.  The steady drift away from the traditional family as a foundational and essential social pillar, by the easing of divorce laws, the promotion of marriage as an easily dissolvable contractual relationship, the widening of marriage to include homosexual pairings for example, weakens social structure and harms individuals, especially the children.  It is essential for the good of our society that the drift towards ever more exotic expressions of ‘marriage’, such as polyamorous relationships, is halted and that the life-long one man, one woman child creating and raising model of family is encouraged and restored.

1 Queer theory holds that sexes, gender and sexualities are not stable and given but unstable fluid, fragmented and liable to change.

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