A Culture of Healthy Familes

As is often said, the family is the fundamental building block of society. Obviously, a whole is always made up of smaller parts, so the family dynamics of small communities create the culture of the society. Are all societies and cultures equally valid, and who is to determine this? The mindset the world has on this issue comes usually from a point of moral relativism. Interpreting society from this point of view eliminates the existence of an absolute truth, or moral standard of comparison. This means that no society can decide which other societies are either right nor wrong because morality is subjective to each individual and their personal experiences. Although this philosophy seems the most inclusive and supportive of societal diversity, it has a few major flaws. Changing what is right and wrong with each new whim of information that arrives would create a stressful and confusing standard of ethics. This is why there is such a wide variety of ideals in different societies in our world today. It is however, and thankfully, morally acceptable to pick and choose the best possible practices from several different cultures and combine them to fit correct ethical standards. We do this just as groups of people have been doing it for millennia before. Just as we copied the architecture and mathematics of the ancient Roman cultures, we’ve copied the governmental strategies of the Greeks. Another way we can learn from those ancient cultures is by learning from their mistakes, practices that caused political disharmony or social chaos have been discontinued in our modern world today, such as cannibalism, human sacrifice, or genocide. I would challenge a moral relativist to declare that these societal habits are just as ethically valid as any other.
Of course, these examples are all extremes for the sake of demonstration, but there are more subtle instances of ideals that have caused problems in even our modern society. Let’s take this issue back to families, since we’ve already determined it is the fundamental building block of society. What are some things that could potentially damage this system of families? Two examples I can think of are cohabitation and same gender marriage. Considerable research done on each of these relationships has shown they provide significant damage both to the children and to the health of the relationship itself. In fact, research has concluded that 33% of couples that entered into cohabitation together before marriage were later divorced (Fox). Children from gay families are almost five times as likely to have suicidal tendencies then children from traditional families, and children raised by lesbian parents are more than three times as likely to have been forced to participate in non-consensual sex (Regnerus). These statistics sound incredulous, but they are accurate and significant for the quality of US families today and should be perpetuated and shared for the good of the rising generation. Traditional parents who waited to live together until after marriage are the ideal family type, and this can be supported in our society by removing the stigma around sharing the facts that show this is true. Truly loving communities who sincerely desire the greater good for homes should not set aside science that perpetuates healthy families.  
Fox, Lauren. “The Science of Cohabitation: A Step Toward Marriage, Not a Rebellion.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 20 Mar. 2014, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/the-science-of-cohabitation-a-step-toward-marriage-not-a-rebellion/284512/.
Regnerus, Mark. “Children Outcomes.” FamilyStructureStudies.com - NFSS - Outcomes for Children, NFSS, www.familystructurestudies.com/outcomes/.

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