The Oracle: Be Fruitful and…
Lynn Robinson
January 1, 1998
Given the increasing affluence of evangelical Protestants and Catholics, the time is ripe for a discussion of the ways in which the gospel of Mammon distracts us from the Gospel of Christ. An important area of concern is the nature and purpose of the family. Stanley Hauerwas (After Christendom), Rodney Clapp [Families at the Crossroads), and Andy Crouch (RQ 3.3) address the need for Christians in America to realize the potential of the home as a place of Christian witness to the world. Our homes and families should be open to life and the nurturing of life, primarily the lives of children and secondarily the lives of others. This must not further the sentimentality of some evangelical family literature, rightly critiqued by Hauerwas, Clapp, and Crouch. Instead of the sentimentality of romantic choice, Christians should perceive marriage and family life as a calling.
The tables for this issue's Oracle indicate signs of hope for those Protestants and Catholics interested in promoting what John Paul II has described as "A Culture of Life" in America. Table I suggests that Christians active in their congregations have a greater interest in larger families than most other Americans. Today, as economic and social pressures are driving both parents to work to amass more commodities (mistakenly called "goods") or to gain prestige from their jobs, the ideal number of children desired by Americans has declined dramatically. Yet these data display the interest of young Christians in creating homes that are open to the gift of life. Table 2 similarly demonstrates that younger Christians afford a great deal of importance to children. The biblical embrace of children seems to be reflected within these data.
Yet Table 3 provides sobering ...
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