Cahill Preface

I. Main Question in FAMILY: WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY?: 

I. Main Question in FAMILY: WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY?

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Lisa Sowle Cahill Background (relevant factors to purpose of the book) white, upper-middle-class academic has lived in New England for past 25 years Roman Catholic Bachelors from University of Santa Clara; Masters & PhD from University of Chicago currently a Theology professor at Boston College married 33 years; one daughter and four sons (3 sons adopted from Thailand) friendships w/ gay and lesbian people who’ve adopted “hard to place” children from other countries sister who divorced close to writing of the book and reentered the workforce while continuing to take care of six children (three adopted)

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2 schools of thought about families (we’re looking at religious responses to these) rising divorce and illegitimacy rates are symptoms of unfettered individualism, narcissism, moral laxity, and hedonism view newly pluralistic family forms as a liberation from patriarchal nuclear family nuclear family isn’t traditional but a product of the industrial revolution, capitalism, and the public-private split evangelical-conservative mainline-feminist

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evangelical-conservative mainline-feminist evangelical Protestants & conservative “pro-life” Roman Catholics focus on the middle-class family premarital sex and unwed mothers combined w/ infidelity and divorce in marriage destabilize the economic base of the nuclear family base is a male breadwinner providing indirect access to material and social goods for wife and children liberal Protestants and Catholics focus on families outside of or excluded from the social structures that protect patriarchal nuclear family 1) looking for new patterns of access through different family forms 2) have found access w/in standard middle-class forms constraining or oppressive

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evangelical-conservative mainline-feminist advocate strong family relations and bonds, urging sacrifice and altruism w/in the family fails to offer a socioeconomic critique of internal family relations, particularly male-female relations also no critique of social positioning of families, particularly why economic factors make it impossible for some families to thrive on the nuclear model seek to institutionalize “nontraditional” patterns of family life typically undertakes a more radical critique of gender, race, class, and sexual orientation in family forms and social functions typically has difficulty regaining its normative balance around some vision of what is a healthy family or a Christian family

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evangelical-conservative mainline-feminist “the Christian family” denotes the monogamous, reproductive pair who sacrifice for the welfare of their children “Christian” values of compassion, love, and inclusion prohibit the condemnation of other types of family & demand the acceptance of all families who have been the victims of social injustice

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the family understood as “an organized network of socioeconomic and reproductive interdependence and support grounded in biological kinship and marriage”(pg. x-xi) kinship is relation through reproductive lines marriage is consensual and contractual manner of uniting kin groups for purpose of reproduction and perpetuation of kinship structures

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won’t set definitive limits so as to hold up ideals such as male-female coparenting and sexual fidelity w/o berating and excluding other types of families ideals of Christian family should focus on fostering gospel-informed commitments and behavior rather than regularity of form only d e f i n e d Ex.

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Thesis “strong family, spousal, and parental relationships are important, but…these very ideals are undermined by condemnatory and punitive attitudes and policies toward nonconforming families” “Christian family isn’t the nuclear family focused inward on the welfare of its own members but the socially transformative family that seeks to make the Christian moral ideal of love of neighbor part of the common good”

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“Family responsibility and fidelity need to be combined with altruistic social action that makes it possible for all families to participate in the common good of society and for women and men to be equal participants in family and in social life, including economic life.” Our work for social justice is first and foremost a work of faith, a profoundly religious task. It is Jesus who calls us to this mission, not any political or ideological agenda. We are called to bring the healing hand of Christ to those in need; the courageous voice of the prophet to those in power; and the Gospel message of love, justice, and peace to an often suffering world. (U.S. Catholic Bishops, "A Century of Social Teaching")