The traditional nuclear family — a married couple (man and woman) with their children — is the foundational unit for a stable society. It provides emotional and economic support and fosters secure environments for child development. Stable families often correlate with lower rates of juvenile delinquency, better educational outcomes, and stronger mental health, as children benefit from consistent parental guidance and resources. Economically, nuclear families can pool resources, reducing reliance on public systems. Socially, they promote values like responsibility and cooperation, which translate into community cohesion.
Leftists, specifically the Democratic Socialists of America and Black Lives Matter, have argued that overemphasizing the nuclear family can marginalize diverse family structures such as single-parent households, same-sex “marriages,” and extended families that may also thrive with adequate (taxpayer?) support. Societies do evolve, and even though the nuclear family has been in place throughout nearly all recorded history, leftists contend that its status depends on adaptability to modern challenges like economic pressures and shifting gender roles. They claim that a healthy society will benefit by supporting varied family models that prioritize stability and care over rigid structures.
In other words, just because something has worked for over 4,000 years, that doesn’t mean it aligns with the way leftists currently choose to structure their lives. To that end, they’re openly advocating for the dissolution of the traditional family structure. I first noticed this back in 2020, when I came across a Black Lives Matter quote claiming, “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages.’” Their use of the term “villages” refers to the African proverb “it takes a village,” which allegedly works to uplift children by providing them support from their entire communities.
As most of us know, when it’s everybody’s responsibility, it’s nobody’s responsibility.
BLM has since removed that page from its website.
The Democratic Socialists of America held a panel discussion where they also called for the abolition of the nuclear family and traditional family structure. They wrote that the nuclear family is “an inherently repressive, racist, and hetero-sexist institution that functionally reinforces and reproduces capitalism.” There were other gems, such as
This one was especially juicy:
The collective? You mean like the Borg?
In California, San Fernando assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez authored a bill that aims to provide “compassionate solutions” for illegal alien families facing separation due to detention or deportation. It redefines guardianship, strips parental rights, and creates loopholes that could conceivably facilitate the kidnapping of children. Her bill intends to streamline guardianship by allowing a “nonrelated extended family member” to assume control over a child through a one-page affidavit. This “nonrelated family member” is anyone with a “mentoring relationship.” Huh? There will be no court review or oversight, no parental consent, no background or welfare checks, and no verification. The advocacy group “Our Duty-USA” calls it “a child trafficker’s and kidnapper’s dream bill.” The bill’s language applies to any child for any reason, regardless of immigration status and whether or not the child’s parents even know the “nonrelated family member.”
The assault on the family was predicted over 100 years ago. As a child, Sister Lucia dos Santos was one of the three children who witnessed the Marian apparitions at Fatima. Saint John Paul II had commissioned the establishment of an Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family with Cardinal Caffarra in charge. At the beginning of this work, the cardinal wrote a letter to Sister Lucia of Fatima as she had written about the role of the family in Satan’s war with God.
“The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family.” Don’t be afraid, she added, because whoever works for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. Then she concluded: “Nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head.”
Cardinal Caffarra added that
the family was the core, since it has to do with the supporting pillar of creation, the truth of the relationship between man and woman, between the generations. If the foundational pillar is damaged, the entire building collapses and we’re seeing this now, because we are right at this point and we know it.
Truer words were never spoken.
Image via Picryl.