Family is a precious group. Family is more a group of people intimately interconnected as opposed to just a household which is more general and referring more to just a group of people living in the same house, but not necessarily connected to and with eachother in the close interdependent ways which a family is.
A family could be considered a safe haven a refuse from a big, sometimes not to great world. A family does support, love and provide for one another. A family can be comprised in many different ways. Like two heterosexual opposite sex partners with kids or with two same sex partners with or without kids etc. A family can be made up of two grandparents raising the kids etc etc. And, all these forms of family are VALID.
The only type of family which truly needs to change are families that are really dysfunctional, unhappy, abusive etc. The making of a good family happens when all the members of the family are happy and thriving and make or take the time to understand, love appreciate support and provide for one another well. The making of a good family has nothing to do with the color of one's skin, or sexual orientation.
Broken families are not happening because of race or sexual orientation. Broken families are happening because of outdated laws rules systems and structures which seek to pigeonhole peoples into gender and racial related roles, ways, and professions. Most people are so pressured to have a certain type of family that the family ends up breaking apart under the pressure. All families are going to be different naturally. Look at people, there are so many different types of people, it would stand to reason that there would be just as many types of families. If everyone were exactly the same life would be boring and if every family were exactly the same life would be stale and boring too.
Morally speaking, I think that God put two people together to support eachother equally, to be helpmeets. This is why the relationship between Adam and Eve is signified physically by a rib. Adam and Eve are side by side. God didn't give Adam the head and Eve the feet or something like that. God gave Eve a side by side organ!
Jesus was very against commercialism and the oppression and exploitation of women. Jesus gave people a new framework for relating through the grace of God, not by the laws of old man had been following in such a mechanical, technically correct, verbatim way, that many missed the whole message of God, God's love, and God's spirit. God's spirit is of love, forgiveness, grace, overcoming, sharing, caring etc. God's spirit isn't about pointing fingers and forcing people into stereotyped roles. Jesus says that the rituals and ceremonies of old are neither here nor there but that what's important is to come to know the spirit of God by grace. Jesus states that the most important thing to know and do is love God with everything you are and love your neighbor as yourself. God says that the Bible is it's own interpreter and that God is no respecter of man. Jesus says that when two or more are gathered together for God, there will he be, there is love. I think that this is the idea of man and woman coming together, to reflect to eachother God's love. I think that couples and families need to work together to live and express God's love. Why don't people spend more time living this? We aren't robots who are programmed to do only farsical gender specific work. We're multi faceted, dynamic creatures of God.
I think many are conditioned from birth to follow gender specific ways, which some say may work for some, but not for them. Well, I don't think gender specific conditioning really works for anyone. If people were taught rather, to be able to do all things for both gender, we wouldn't have so many problems. Why don't men and women, both like pink, dolls, domestic things, and professional careers mutually and equally? Why not? Why cut ourselves short-men or women. I know that if I had as much or more earning power right now as my husband that he'd treat me as an equal, respect and speak with me more as an intelligent equal. Right now he extends respect my way but there's still the underlying reality that I'm not making as much money and probably wouldn't make as much as him at a job I took right now. If society at large and my family taught me to make as much or more money as a man and have an established professional career which gave me the opportunity to make more money, before I married, then this problem between us would disappear. If my husband had been taught to raise the kids and clean the house, and cook before getting married then he would do more of this work and I wouldn't have to do as much, then this problem would disappear. If men and women were conditioned and taught equally in our society men and women would just naturally get things done more efficiently and effectively, and happily, I think. Because, it would just be a given that both men and women worked together to accomplish all mutual goals domestic and not, instead of partitioning work out in limiting ways according to gender. I think that we'd have much happier families this way. I think that if we all used our energy positively productively and constructively in tandem, we'd all feel better, and have more time for eachother and our kids. American Society is lacking for families in the way that it hasn't created flex time work schedules, hasn't created sufficient paid leaves for family members for family reasons, and hasn't created sufficient childcare options for families. These issues have been addressed better in Europe apparantantly, according to our text. If we had better childcare, then parents would have more time for themselves especially time for themselves away from their infants who need so much constant care and attention from their parents. I love my infant. I love caring for him, spending tons of time with him. He's a joy, very rewarding. He's got a great personality. I actually think I like spending time with him more than any other person on the planet. I just know that sometimes it's healthy to take a break and spend time alone with my husband. But we don't just have the time to do things with our mates though, we have to make the time. We're all so busy with children, school, work etc. And, many of us don't have any or many close friends or family nearby for support and socializing. See, I guess it is a problem that our society isn't more community oriented rather than just individual private little separate family groups. Families need their privacy, but really do need the support and socializing with the community. Whatever's someone's religious orientation, sexual orientation, racial orientation, all these diverse groups can be good, loving, family, community oriented people dedicated to raising themselves and their children in happy, healthy, intelligent ways. This is what our society needs to have happy families. I wish the system of our society was structured more humanely and equally for all. We all have the responsibility to be alert to the truth and work towards speaking up in good ways about changes that need to be made, and make positive changes that need to be made.
Thanks, Shaunasi