[Vision2020] adventures in pro-family politics

[Bill London]

every once in a while, I have to comment on the quality of the prose shared
here on V2020.
Joan Opyr's previous post on her living arrangements and this post from
Keely on family values are great examples of the kind of bright and
well-written musings that keep me coming back for more....
thanks BL



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 10:07 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] adventures in pro-family politics


>
>
> Visionaires,
>
> Dale Courtney's blog has an interesting item on the Family Research
> Council's pronouncement that illegal immigration is now
> Number-4-with-a-Bullet on the official list of "pro-family" concerns,
right
> after abortion, judicial activisim, and "defense of marriage."
>
> Now I should confess to some bias here:  the FRC is an arm of Focus on the
> Family, whose publications are not allowed in our household, and generally
> is an example of "evangelicals missing the point entirely." Therefore, I'm
> inclined to disregard pretty much everything they say.  Gary Bauer, former
> FRC head, doesn't speak for me, and neither does the current gang.
Further,
> I'm disinclined to embrace the Idaho Values Alliance, and it seems
> extraordinarily unlikely that Dale and I will ever agree on much of
anything
> political.
>
> Still, it's hard not to comment.  First of all, I would give my right arm
to
> see an evangelical "pro-family" group devote itself to battling domestic
> violence, rape, child abuse, and subjugation of women, which are real
> threats to families but would lead to the inescapable conclusion that many
> "Christian" homes are dangerous for women and children.  Not much
likelihood
> of successful fundraising there, I guess, what with the unseemly behavior
of
> many evangelical patriarchialists.
>
> Second, immigrant communities, while not inherently Utopian, generally
prove
> to have lower rates of divorce, higher rates of multi-generational
families,
> greater quality care for children and elderly relatives, and are typically
> much more family-oriented in leisure time pursuits than are other
families.
> I can affirm anecdotally that by virtually any measure of "pro-family"
> activity, the immigrant community in which I worked exceeded that of my
> current neighbors, my former Anglo neighbors, and my own extended family,
> which has managed to do a lot to pollute the ideal of family in and around
> North Little Rock, Arkansas, for at least three generations.
>
> All in all, it's enough to make me wonder if "pro-family" has now become
so
> utterly devoid of meaning as to become as useful in describing political
> movements as "well-reasoned and profound" is in describing certain blogs.
>
> keely
>
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