With the campaign season nearly upon us, we are hearing a lot of talk about family values. But it seems to me that people are growing weary of the discussion, especially when they wonder if the people talking about family values are actually living family values in their own lives.
Cal Thomas talks about that in a recent column. He says, "The powerlessness of politics to reach into the heart was trumpeted by news that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is divorcing his second wife. Reports say he has been having an affair with a congressional aide young enough to be his daughter. Gingrich and several other members of Congress won a Republican majority in 1994 by touting family values."
Cal goes on to ask, "How can people who want credit for honoring the Contract With America be taken seriously when they violate a contract with their wives? If they won't impose family values on themselves, why should the rest of the nation accept them trickling down from Washington?"
The answer, of course, is that they won't accept those values. I guess it's the old cliche that "your walk must match your talk." And if families are going to grow strong, I believe we need more than just family-friendly policies from Washington.
Jeremy Ribkin writes in the recent Policy Review about "The Culture War That Isn't." He says, "Expecting popular culture to do the work of churches or Bible studies is on par with expecting to find spiritual inspiration from the Gallup poll."
Governmental policies expressing family values is good, but we need more. We need biblical models for those family values and we need to preach the gospel so that individual lives are changed and thus families are changed.
I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.