It is thus ironic, though not really surprising, that American Christianity, especially Protestantism, has reversed the traditional valuations of Christianity. Coupled with the obscene emphasis on patriotism and nationalism, the emphasis on family in American Christianity approaches idolatry. ‘Family values’ are practically the only values , along with perhaps nationalism, that seem universally recognized as ‘Christian values’ in American popular culture, including most churches.

One of this chapter’s goals is to highlight how wrong modern Christians are when they claim that their own ideology, and idolatry, of the family is simply ‘the biblical’ or ‘the traditional’ position. If they were true to the historical meaning of the texts and the tradition, they would have to admit that their high valuation of marriage and family runs counter to the teachings of Jesus, authors of the Gospel, Paul, other biblical writers, as well as most of the church ‘fathers,’ popes, and saints. Furthermore, their own promotion of marriage and their adoration of the family run counter to the longer tradition of Christianity and represent a rather radical and recent innovation in Christian doctrine and ethics. It is simply misleading, perhaps hypocritical, to say that modern family values are simply “the biblical” or “the Christian” view. In fact, there are more resources in Scripture and tradition to critique marriage and the family than to support it.