History Leads Us to NBFamilies

NBFamilies is necessary and significant because the current culture (culture is define as “a learned set of beliefs and expectations) is becoming increasingly anti-family.

Several important historical issues in the last 75 years that have redefined the importance of family.

• In 1750 the Industrial Revolution had a profound effect on the social and cultural conditions of the times. Prior to the Industrial Revolution children of every age had tended to work in their homes alongside other family members for multiple generations. [J. Demos. Past, Present, and Personal: the Family and the Life Course in American History (New York: Oxford University, 1986) 97.] The primary focus of a family’s time and labor moved from farms to factories. Family members, especially fathers, began working in isolation from one another.
• In 1875 the Supreme Court laid the legal foundation for compulsory education laws which extended to the high school level. Justices sanctioned the use of tax dollars to maintain free secondary school for all citizens. [W. Reese. The Origins of the American High School (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University, 1999) 
It was during the 18th century at Jonathan Edwards admonished his congregation.

  “Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual.”

• In 1929 the Great Depression caused governmental agencies to impose truancy laws to enforce existing school attendance statutes. Adolescents were clustered together in public schools, separated from adults, to increase the number of jobs available to adults. 
[G. Palladino. Teenagers: and American History (New York: Basic, 1996) 12-15.]
• In the 20th century, the content of public education has grown increasingly secular. Curriculum content has been gutted of any God centered history. In 1962 the Supreme Court ruled that public schools, as an entity supported by government tax money, cannot constitutionally lead students in any sort of prayer. Students are allowed to pray and read religious texts, so long as they do not disrupt other students.

By the close of the 20th century, the typical American parent spent fewer than 15 minutes each week in significant dialogue with his or her child.
The percentage of parents highly or moderately involved in their children’s lives declined from 75% in elementary school to 50% among middle school students. 75% of teenagers report that they have never experienced a meaningful conversation with their fathers. [DeVries. Family-Based Youth Ministry, 34].
Journalist Patricia Hearst observed that families are in trouble, “Not necessarily because our children are rebelling, or a voiding, or evading us. Families are in trouble because kid’s parents aren’t engaged with their kids. American society has left its children behind." [Hersch. A Tribe Apart, 19.].
The fragmentation of the family unit is unknowingly perpetuated by well-meaning pac-man, churches competing for the vanishing numbers of young families. Rather than healing the ruptured connection between generations, significant numbers of churches unintentionally welcomed, and perhaps even widened, the chasm between parents and children.

THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AT NEW BEGINNINGS CHURCH!

Dr. Phil Sallee, Pastor
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