Strong families are the cornerstone of strong communities that build a stronger nation. Unfortunately, our families are in peril.
Widespread divorce rates, the erosion of traditional marriage, radical ideologies, attacks on faith and government interference in our daily lives are breaking down the family and the country we love.
As I discussed with former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson on a recent episode of “Newt’s World,” America does not have to be like this. In his new book, “The Perilous Fight,” Carson offers inspiration and the answers needed to restore the family unit as America’s key foundation. Like many, Carson said he fears we are losing the country we love. He encouraged readers to return to the biblical and familial values on which our country was founded.
During our conversation, Carson said three simple steps make the greatest difference in a young person’s chances of escaping or avoiding poverty. It was shockingly simple. These steps included finishing high school, getting a full-time job and waiting until marriage to have children. Citing a Brookings Institution survey, Carson said if each of these steps is followed, the likelihood of living in poverty drops to 2% or less.
This statistic should not surprise any Americans. Earlier in our nation’s history, there was a time when education, marriage and hard work were valued. As Carson said, “Those are the kind of values that frequently are passed on through the family. However, when you have the dissolution of the traditional nuclear family, you are not getting those kinds of values passed on.”
It was once well known that having children out of wedlock was a poor decision for parents and children. The lack of stable mother and father figures has severely negative consequences on children’s lives. Carson shared that, “Children who come from broken homes are 2.3 times as likely to be homeless — think about that — and twice as likely to get in trouble with the police or end up in jail, twice as likely to experience educational underachievement, to experience alcoholism, drug abuse, or teen pregnancy.”
Alarmingly, Carson said he believes that our enemies seek to destroy America from within. Those who want to fundamentally change our country and replace it with a radically different one have been scratching away at our traditional family-focused foundation for decades.
The goals of 1960s communism included gaining control of the schools and teachers unions for indoctrination. They also involved controlling college newspapers to indoctrinate and encourage rioting among college students — and normalizing aberrant sexuality. In many parts of America, these goals have succeeded — and degraded our morality and national identity.
In a recent poll, America’s New Majority Project found that 84% of Americans believe that parents have the right to know what is happening in the classroom. Yet, the teachers unions are bitterly opposed. The teachers unions spend about $5 billion a year on politics to get state legislatures to restrict parental oversight in schools.
As a result of radicalism in the classroom, many parents have turned to homeschooling. Homeschooling has doubled since 2020, and many families wait years to get their children into private or religious schools. As Carson said, “That tells you that the American people know what’s happening.” The pandemic opened a window into the world of classroom indoctrination. Parents are rejecting this false education and seeking alternatives.
We must reestablish America’s core biblical and familial values before the whole system collapses. This effort starts at home. The future of our nation hinges on the health of our families and communities.