Summary
THE FAMILY is the fundamental unit of society. The family – the union of man and woman and their children – is a natural social, economic, and political unit that allows for the protection and rearing of children today and across generations. The natural family is ordained of God and exists prior to the state; therefore, it does not need government to create it.
Children reared in the home by a father and a mother benefit from the complementarity that exists between male and female parents and from a host of other benefits less prevalent in “alternative” family structures.
No institution can provide a more solid foundation for society than the family – not the individual, the church, the corporation, or the state. These other institutions should support the family, which should be the core of society:
Strong families make everything around them better. They enhance our social, cultural, economic, political, and spiritual lives. Strong families make strong communities, states, and nations.
The Brethren have warned that “the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” They have admonished “responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society” (Family Proclamation). We should do all we can to further this great cause.
Quotes from the Brethren
First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles—
We…solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children …
We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife …
The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity …
We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.
We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society. (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Nov. 1995)
Ezra Taft Benson–
The precepts of men would have you believe that by limiting the population of the world, we can have peace and plenty. That is the doctrine of the devil. Small numbers do not insure peace; only righteousness does …
And so far as limiting the population in order to provide plenty is concerned, the Lord answered that falsehood in the Doctrine and Covenants when he said: “For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves.” (D&C 104:17.) A major reason why there is famine in some parts of the world is because evil men have used the vehicle of government to abridge the freedom that men need to produce abundantly. True to form, many of the people who desire to frustrate, through worldwide birth control, God’s purposes of giving mortal tabernacles to his spirit children are the very same people who support the kinds of government that perpetuate famine. They advocate an evil to cure the results of the wickedness they support. (Ezra Taft Benson, “God, Family, Country,” p. 257-8)
Spencer W. Kimball–
We of all people, brothers and sisters, should not be taken in by the specious arguments that the family unit is somehow tied to a particular phase of development a mortal society is going through. We are free to resist those moves which downplay the significance of the family and which play up the significance of selfish individualism. We know the family to be eternal. We know that when things go wrong in the family, things go wrong in every other institution in society. (Spencer W. Kimball, “Families Can Be Eternal,” Nov. 1980)
Quotes from the Founders
John Adams–
The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. . . . How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?” (John Adams, Diary, June 2, 1778)
James Wilson–
The most important consequence of marriage is, that the husband and the wife become in law only one person… Upon this principle of union, almost all the other legal consequences of marriage depend. This principle, sublime and refined, deserves to be viewed and examined on every side. (Wilson, James, Of the Natural Rights of Individuals, 1792)
Thomas Jefferson–
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have past at home in the bosom of my family. (Thomas Jefferson letter to Francis Willis Jr., April 18, 1790)
Speeches and Other Resources
- Church Newsroom, “The Divine Institution of Marriage,” Aug. 2008
- Dallin H. Oaks, “Divorce,” May 2007
- M. Russell Ballard, “What Matters Most Is What Lasts Longest,” 2005
- M. Russell Ballard, “Let Our Voices Be Heard,” Nov. 2003
- Henry B. Eyring, “The Family,” Feb. 1998
- First Presidency & Council of the Twelve, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” 1995
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