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To: Antoninus
I would argue that many of these families were missing one vital component--an active religious life.

Wishful thinking. Religion does not automagically fix all problems no matter how active and devout the religious life. Such assertions are vacuous platitudes that actively ignore reality.

I am the son of a small-town preacher in flyover country. Was an active religious life part of my family experience? Yup. Was my family dysfunctional? Yup. The religious aspect was almost entirely orthogonal to why the nuclear family was dysfunctional, and all the Christianity in the world wouldn't have fixed it (and didn't).

81 posted on 09/15/2005 11:53:51 AM PDT by tortoise (All these moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.)
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To: tortoise
I am the son of a small-town preacher in flyover country. Was an active religious life part of my family experience? Yup. Was my family dysfunctional? Yup. The religious aspect was almost entirely orthogonal to why the nuclear family was dysfunctional, and all the Christianity in the world wouldn't have fixed it (and didn't).

No one said that any set up, even a nuclear family with a strong religious component was 100% bullet-proof against dysfunctionality. As a matter of fact, what you cite above is one of the main reasons why my Faith (Catholic) doesn't allow its priests to marry. It constitutes a division of loyalty between the pastor's flock and his biological family. So I would argue that the religious component in your family actually may have caused rifts that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

There is a reason why Catholic families have a heritage of being rock-solid. They're based on Truth, not platitudes. Those who follow the Truths of the Catholic faith are likely (not certain, but much more likely than not) to have joyous, successful, loving families. I thank God that mine has been so blessed thus far.
83 posted on 09/15/2005 12:02:26 PM PDT by Antoninus (The greatest gifts parents can give their children are siblings.)
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