Chapter 1

Attacking the Family

IT'S THURSDAY NIGHT. YOU GET HOME FROM WORK exhausted, you collapse on the couch, and you turn on NBC. What do you see? Most often, it is not something a five-year-old should be exposed to, much less a teen or preteen. I don't even know how any adult could call that good, clean entertainment. This scenario could replay with almost any form of mainstream entertainment. The movies, talk shows, cable TV, public TV, or movie channels.

Many say that the entertainment part of our country is a drag on our nation and a negative influence. I have had such thoughts and even wished the entire western seaboard would fall off into the Pacific Ocean. Adios, Hollywood! But, of course, it's much deeper than that. Perhaps it's better to say that the entertainment industry is more of a reflection of America than an influence on it.

This isn't to say that all Americans are begging and pleading for the immorality that "entertainment" puts out. Moreover, many across the real America, the heartland and rural areas, despise it. It's the people who actually appreciate the immorality of American entertainment that keep it alive. But culture isn't a bunch of neatly packed, isolated boxes; it's more like a bubbling pot with everything inside roiling and rubbing up against each other. As such, the filth spills over and has a negative effect on young people and the impressionable.

I'm sure teachers ask themselves daily why their students are so disrespectful, talk in class, yell profanities, refuse to do work, and in some cases, behave violently toward their own peers and even teachers. While to avoid laying blame on uninvolved parents would be irresponsible, "entertainment" certainly does play a noticeable part in our cultural downslide.

Then again, being the greatest influence on young people, the blame for the "immoralizing" of America could be laid convincingly at the feet of the parents.

But how convincingly? Many parents allow their children to watch this sort of stuff anytime they wish. The blame could be laid at the feet of the breakdown of the nuclear family. But then why has the family broken down?

There are many factors in the destruction of the American family, but the overarching reason is an ongoing, relentless attack against the values that undergird it.

And the attack comes from all sides. Besides the hideous entertainment industry's attack on traditional Judeo-Christian values, labor unions and special-interest organizations are playing a major role in this war as well. The National Education Association (NEA), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood, and others continue their onslaught against these values daily.

The Assault

The NEA has made its views on homosexuality very clear in the past years, as well as revealing other aspects of its antifamily agenda. Flying under the banner of protecting youth from discrimination, groups like the NEA are indoctrinating and recruiting young Americans into the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender cause.

Likewise, Planned Parenthood Federation of America plays a huge role in this war. After making sure every teen in America has a condom, Planned Parenthood works hard to cover up the unintended results, creating a society where killing helpless children is acceptable. This organization has been and continues to be a force in public education, but has unarguably advocated an open and easy access port to abortions, condoms, and other such things for American children. Whether intentional or not, they have become a force against the family with their role in public education.

The National Organization for Women has not only supported these things, but wants any woman to have the option for abortion at any time during her pregnancy and, as a result, is partly responsible for the breakdown of the nuclear family as well.
The ACLU, clear with its agenda to take anything and everything that has to do with God out of government and based on the fallacy of separation of church and state, has worked especially hard to take God out of schools and the lives of American youth. Our nation is dripping with heritage that shows God was once important to us. God is etched into the buildings and memorials of Washington, D.C. Look at the East Coast and see how morality, justice, and American values began there-but the coast has turned into the headquarters for attacking them. Slowly, some have tried to eradicate the reminders of God in public life. It's called religious cleansing. Many of these special-interest groups, burrowing in the schools of America, recruit, teach, and indoctrinate young Americans with ideas and thoughts that no rational person would desire.

We can argue till doomsday whether the attack on the family is intentional. Of course, these organizations play dumb when faced with such accusations, but the end result is clear. Actions are actions, no matter what the thought behind them, and so is the case for this. Many of the left-wing organizations mentioned above would like people to forget what a family looks like; they don't like the picture of a mom and dad and a couple of kids.

Entertainment and left-wing organizations are continually breaking down the American family.

Forming Opinions

In the world we live in, Ryan has baseball practice, Jessica has cheer practice, Mom has work, as does Dad. Obviously, many parents aren't able to watch their children all the time. Our family lives are splintered with each family member's different activities. Eating together as a family each night is almost obsolete. Sitting down to watch a movie together is extinct. Family activities are all but gone. This chaotic picture is what is now called life.

Yet, despite how it may seem, there actually used to be nuclear families. They spent their days together. They worked together; they ate together; they played together; they prayed together and went to church together. Families were strong; divorce was rare. Convictions of morality and faith had deep roots. Their way of life left little time for mischief; additionally, when discipline was needed, the consequences were stiff. Their extended family usually lived nearby or even in the same home, so they had substantial family support. Community was close-knit then; neighbors not only knew each other, but genuinely cared about each other. They had barn raisings, quilting bees, and barn dances.

We always hear this rhetoric from politicians about transforming their communities. Yet there are hardly such things as real communities in mainstream America.

A century ago, parents demanded a lot from their children. The young people were independent and had many responsibilities. Therefore, parents didn't watch them much more than many children are watched today. Bringing it back to the beginning of the chapter, what's missing in the life of 1820s Adam, as opposed to Thoroughly Modern Ryan's life, is the entertainment industry. In the 1800s rap music, video games, the Internet, movies, and all these influences were not even a speck in someone's imagination, much less invented. And that's a good thing.

Nevertheless, parents are not about to get off the hook. Along with the great moral decline of the American society, "absentee" parents are one of the big reasons. With the majority of both parents working, we find many times they seem to care more about their careers than their children. Affluence has become an enemy to many families. Instead of curled up on Mom's or Dad's lap listening to a story, little children are left in front of the television while parents are out making more money.

With involved parents, there would be no entertainment industry to speak of, much less being the way it is now.

As I talked with an acquaintance who lives abroad, I asked what is one of the things that comes to mind about America. She replied, saying that America is too liberal-not necessarily in the political sense, but in that we accept things so much more quickly and freely than other nations do, such as abortion, homosexuality, adultery, out-of-wedlock children, etc. Indeed, America does accept things quickly, rashly, and takes issues too lightly. With all the crime and corruption in the first term of the Clinton administration, he was still elected to a second term; even now that boggles the minds of many. Where have our principles gone?

Americans forget. Americans are lazy. Americans don't pay attention. It's the truth. In a sense, we are all in our little worlds where we can sit down to watch the television all day long and are not interrupted at all. Why? Because we can. The only change from that was September 11, but that was temporary. We aren't forgiving; we just forget. We rationalize evil so we don't have to deal with it. Things are hard to deal with-easier to just let them go, find diversions, or not pay attention.
Why get up from the couch, get dressed, and drive the car out to the local school to vote for the next president? Shoot! Friends is almost on. Who cares about voting, much less joining a political action group, attending a rally at the capitol, or reading the newspaper? The aloofness has a certain appeal to it (it caters to our innate selfishness), though it tends to be responsible for our national disasters.

Schools

Perhaps the greatest example of the effect of public schools in harming the family was at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the turn of the century, the majority of Americans were living in traditional, Christian homes and Charles Darwin's doctrine was introduced into the society, but it had very little influence and was dismissed by most.

At that time, John Dewey began his philosophy of "progressive learning"; as a signer of the Humanist Manifesto, he has been given credit for writing most of it. Included in this philosophy are attitudes that undermine the family and promote euthanasia as well as the right to abortion and divorce. Humanists, additionally, called for the undermining of parental authority.

Much of secular humanism is filled with nonsense. The Humanist Manifesto I begins:

Today man's larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such a vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate social goals and personal satisfactions may appear to many people as a complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is nonetheless obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility that rests upon this generation. We therefore affirm the following:
First: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.
Second: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.
Third: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.

The fourth affirmation runs as follows:

Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.

It goes on with more. Says the seventh affirmation, "Religion consists of those actions, purposes, and experiences which are humanly significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious. It includes labor, art, science, philosophy, love, friendship, recreation-all that is in its degree expressive of intelligently satisfying human living. The distinction between the sacred and the secular can no longer be maintained."

Again, the main writer is John Dewey, the supposed father of modern education. He shaped the teaching methods. At Columbia University, he began to teach the teachers.

As a founder of the American Association of University Professors, Dewey's philosophy began to infect the mainstream teaching of America-from elementary schools, to middle schools and high schools, to universities and colleges around the country.

In contrast to the beliefs up to twenty years before the turn of the nineteenth century, evolution began to be accepted and was later looked at as one of the greatest intellectual discoveries of the century. America turned away from God and began to seek more materialistic desires. It is no coincidence that humanists believe that there is no all-powerful God, but that we are all god over ourselves.

So, this teaching was taught, and those college students, learning from professors who completely bought into the teaching of Dewey, then went on to lead the country. Washington, D.C., and other seats of power were soon run by the "cultural elite" who knew no God but their own desires.

In an effort to reinforce the secular humanist teaching through a landmark case, the Supreme Court in 1940 found that the First Amendment required a separation of church and state. The groundwork was laid for all forms of religion and God to be removed from all public centers of learning and all areas of government.

Although it was after Dewey's time, those looking to change the culture of America took notice when the 83rd Congress's Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations said, "Theoretically, a society could be completely made over in something like 15 years, the time it takes to inculcate a new culture into a rising crop of youngsters."

Knowing the finding from the 1954 Special Committee, and fifteen years from the landmark Supreme Court decision, the rebellion against all forms of moral and traditional values began. Not long after that, the turbulence and sexual revolution of the 1960s began to unravel the fabric of the traditional family.

It is no surprise that the National Education Association has recognized the humanist teaching of John Dewey. NEA President Bob Chase has quoted Dewey many times in his published columns.

Adding to the already secular humanist teaching, many special-interest organizations wish to push their agenda to the young people of America in an effort to carry it out. If organizations, even as big as the National Organization for Women or Planned Parenthood, wished to lobby all fifty states in order to include certain curricula or social plans, the chances of accomplishing that are slim to none.

Enter the United States Department of Education. With the massive department all centralized to control the public schools of America, special-interest groups have an enormous ability to push their agenda to kids and teenagers.

Planned Parenthood, for instance, plans "health" days at millions of schools each year in which representatives teach homosexuality, birth control, and abortion to young people in junior high to high school, undermining the parental role in these things-frequently even running roughshod over parental teachings. Legislation in California supports programs that allow girls as young as twelve years old to have access to birth control, abortions, drug and alcohol and mental health counseling-all without any parental consent or oversight.

The education establishment becomes enemy first to parents by instilling in their children dogmas and doctrines not shared by the family, pitting one "truth" against another, and even goes so far as to seize the parental prerogative to oversee and guide their child's sexual and emotional well-being. Parents kiss good-bye their roles as teachers and counselors. Dewey's heirs have it all well in hand.

Movies and Television

As I examine the entertainment industry, I wonder why this is an issue. Why are pornography sites the most visited on the Web? Why is it deemed necessary to jam-pack movies with profanities? Why, in sitcoms, are out-of-wedlock pregnancies, divorces, casual sex, and adultery all used as sources of comedy?

Hollywood is relentless with its antimarriage, antifamily message. Hollywood's view of marriage: an old-fashioned, oppressive, and frequently dangerous environment. The marriage vows are not taken seriously; divorce is the norm. Couples live together as a natural preview to marriage. Evidently, traditional families and happily married couples are out, and dysfunctional families are the popular setting.

A report by the National Fatherhood Initiative on the television dad reveals he is usually married to the mother of his children, but after that the negativism starts. The study was conducted by examining every non-sports entertainment program that aired during prime time on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, UPN, and the WB during March and April 2000.

It reports that 25 percent of fathers on TV "are portrayed negatively." It goes on to say that when compared to the moms on the show, dads are eight times more likely to be portrayed in a negative fashion. In addition, it states that "if television wants to portray a bad parent, television almost always picks on the father."

This is particularly important in examining the war against the nuclear, American family. The head of the family is the man, who economically supports and manages the family with his wife's emotional and parental support. That's the way the traditional family has run in America, but that way is increasingly under a thundering assault.

When the figurehead of the family is denigrated in such a way, it is cause to take notice.

Politics and Entertainment

Politics and entertainment, unfortunately, go hand in hand as well. Many Americans' political beliefs are so shallow, they formulate them based on what they hear on television and in the movies.

The ironic thing about entertainment is: it is just that-entertainment. It's not real. You turn on the tube and see these "comedy" shows that have actors playing nearly every imaginable role under the sun, with witty comments followed by cussing, with a retort, and a supposedly "funny" reply. It's filled with wit, sarcasm, arrogance, and even more witty comments. If I had to live with a sitcom family, I'd go crazy. Talk about tearing down confidence and self-esteem. My mom just called me a "lamebrain, overweight geek." What do I do? Call her an "overbearing nag"? It's a world of scripts that takes entire staffs of writers to fill with "jokes."

Because politics can be made fun of so easily, it's thrown into the mix without much of an agenda. However, because the Left Coast, Hollywood crowd is filled with liberal pinkos, bias unarguably rises to the surface.

In some cases, there is an obvious political bias there for an agenda. Other times it's simply some joke. And often it could go either way. Whatever happens, the end result is that far too many people formulate their opinions on what they hear from their friends, on the radio, and on television.

Nevertheless, because entertainment is so "vital" and captivating to so many in our society, it takes priority. Who cares about the next county commission meeting or local elections when you can go to the movies and watch South Park?

Additionally, the public gives celebrities so much power. Many Americans actually listened to the ridiculous Alec Baldwin when he compared the 2000-2001 election with the September 11 terrorist attacks. Even Rosie O'Donnell finds it ridiculous, saying, "America gives too much credence to celebrities, to what they think and what they say."

Looking at weeknight television programs, it's obvious that the antifamily situations are put in place, with out-of-wedlock pregnancies, abortions, homosexuality, and general immorality. Many say that it is not a deliberate agenda against the traditional family, but rather a market for that kind of entertainment.

Dispelling that argument, the Christian Film and Television Commission's Annual Report to Hollywood found that the more sex and nudity in a movie, the less money it rakes in. The report stated:

Movies in 2000 with no sexual content averaged $33.8 million at the box office, more than twice as much as movies with excessive or strong sexual content. Movies in 1999 with excessive sexual content earned only $14.3 million on average, while movies with no sexual content in 1999 averaged $37.9 million.

Additionally, movies with traditional and Christian values do much better at the box office in contrast to movies without. Some of the greatest movies to hit the wide screen have been good-versus-evil stories such as The Lord of the Rings movies, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and American movies such as The Patriot and Men of Honor.

Despite the fact that sex doesn't sell, movies have rampant immoral values put through under the name of "entertainment." Try going to the theaters to see a movie without sex, nudity, foul language, or other crude elements-hard, isn't it? With a war coming out of Hollywood, the immoral values in movies are rampant-with almost a deliberate agenda. Critics say that it's not a real deliberate agenda against the traditional family or values, but a huge market for that type of entertainment, yet the box-office dollars say no.

It's difficult these days to go to the movie theater to find a movie worth seeing. Not just that, but finding a movie I as a fourteen-year-old can see is challenging; sometimes the only things playing are rated R.

A study published in the journal Effective Clinical Practice found children in fifth grade through eighth grade who were permitted to watch R-rated movies were three times more likely to smoke cigarettes and consume alcohol than those children who were not permitted to watch R-rated movies. The results did not take into account how strict the parents were concerning other things, but one of the strongest findings of the study was the correlation between watching R-rated movies and the percentage of children consuming alcohol.

Certainly, this does not prove that watching R-rated movies causes children to drink alcohol, but it does imply that viewing "adult" material where adults act irresponsibly may cause children to act the same way. This does not mean that it will directly change the way kids think, but it gives them good reason to act differently. After viewing a movie with an excess of profanity, it gets stuck in my mind but does not necessarily change the way I act.

An Associated Press survey in 1989 indicated an overwhelming majority of Americans want less violence in movies-a whopping 82 percent. Seventy-two percent said they wanted less sexual content, and another 80 percent desired less foul language in the movies. Can attitudes have changed that much in a decade? If they have, one could easily argue it is only a sign that the constant antifamily erosion has taken its toll on American values.

If you ever pay attention to the recent movies, you also see, many times, homosexuality portrayed in a positive light. The essence of homosexuality is in deep contradiction with traditional family values-the values that gave birth to America. Judeo-Christian values are foundational to American thought and life. Those Judeo-Christian values are what drove the Founders to create a world where all men were allowed to worship God freely without the fear of grave consequences.

Through the faiths of Christianity and Judaism, the values created a society where, as a rule, the family had one mother and one father-the most stable family structure-and sex was only approvingly practiced within the bounds of marriage. This was the ideal way of life during the founding of America, but it is deteriorating.

When you continually hear a certain statement over and over again, the natural reaction is to believe it, and if you say something continually, in your mind it becomes truth or, at least, becomes comfortable. With the constant stream of antifamily entertainment, how easy is it to begin denigrating and disliking what was so foundational to our nation? Too easy.

Magazines and Print Media

Magazines geared to teens are popular and becoming more popular than ever. Although many magazines are technically geared toward those in their late teens to early twenties, the advertising and readership base contradicts this. Many teens in junior high and senior high-from twelve to eighteen-are reading the magazines that promote homosexuality, sex, dating, and many other things that wouldn't be approved of by involved parents.

Going past the half-dressed guys and girls, there are many things children are reading that their parents are not aware of.

In Seventeen, for instance, they have so-called experts telling you or your children that "having sex has become the equivalent of getting a driver's license. It's a rite of passage."

Going further, in the magazine Teen People, movie and TV stars are interviewed. In one issue, actor Alyson Hannigan is interviewed; she starts out telling readers to deal with their problems instead of using drugs. However, the interview quickly deteriorates, telling teens that sixteen is an acceptable age to have sex, saying, "You can drive a car. You know what's going on." Although she plays a lesbian on television and starred in the movie American Pie, she is considered a role model for many young teens.

Many say the statements and opinions in these magazines are harmless, and just because a person sees something that says sex is okay doesn't mean he will go out and have sex. However, they are missing the point. When a teen reads opinions and quotes from favorite actors who state, "Sex before marriage is okay," "Homosexuality is not a bad thing," he or she certainly won't have sex because she reads that, but it can influence an acceptance in the teen's mind. If one hears the same thing repeatedly, he or she is more likely to come to believe it as truth. Therefore, when the time comes, they will convince themselves with this evidence that sex before marriage is "okay," that homosexuality is "okay," that profanity is "okay."

It's an attempt to rationalize actions. You hear things here and there that you can use to justify something you know is wrong.

Turning the Tide

While the life of a teen in the twenty-first century is incomparable to the life of a teen two hundred years before, it is understood that young Americans are going through a change.

People who have a core set of beliefs instilled by their parents or mentors will keep those beliefs for the remainder of their lives and immediately dispel the negative opinions from the movies, television, or magazines, preventing them from being, for lack of a better word, brainwashed by hearing the worldly opinions repeatedly.

Unfortunately, many parents or guardians are not involved with their child. Therein lies the biggest problem.

It goes without saying that if a parent is involved, that adult loves his or her child. But by the lack of parental involvement, what are we to conclude? The lack of parental involvement puts children in a place where they learn more about life from strangers and people who often don't share their parents' ideas about what they should be learning. It also tends to put kids under the watchful eye of the one-eyed baby-sitter, the television. Unfortunately for many young people who are my friends and peers, many parents do not care. I can see that every day by just talking to them.

These children are at a disadvantage compared to their peers who are in the safety and security of two loving parents. Children living in single-parent homes are more likely to live in poverty, be less successful in school, and be undisciplined and disrespectful. If the mother has a live-in boyfriend, child abuse is an even greater possibility than for their counterparts in loving two-parent families.

These problems do not have a quick fix, but the solution is easy to see. As with many of the problems facing America, you can simply go back to the founding of this nation to see what must be done. The overall plan of America was brilliant, but the key to its success is responsibility. Responsibility in justice, responsibility in the family, and responsibility in everything you do.

Yes, the American experiment is failing because Americans are irresponsible. It's the most apparent aspect of our culture. As I said before, we are lazy. Guys like to lie on the couch all day watching football. It's an escape from reality. The truth hurts, and it's demanding. So, just forget about it and run away. Lying on the couch playing video games sounds more relaxing than weighing the evils of entertainment, doesn't it? That's what has led us down this road.

The solution to the problem is simple: become responsible. To borrow a phrase from the liberal politicians, don't do it for yourself, but do it for the children. No, a government program won't fix it.

Up until the industrial revolution, Americans were isolated. You had your family-inherited house, with the garden and the livestock, and the small town several miles away. There was no communication. Sounds like a pretty rough time in comparison to the twenty-first century. However, that isolation is what made America what America is. It allowed families to keep their values without temptation from outsiders. It was this way during colonial times. They didn't want to become politically involved, but they did because it was needed.

They were so firm on their principles, they risked torture and death to create a better environment for their children and generations after them. That's what we here in the twenty-first century need to do. Although no one will be facing torture or death, outside influences will always be a factor. Against the various threats, family values must be guarded. It was never the government's role to shape opinions. It was the family's.

All evidence suggests a growing trend of a return to the traditional landscape of the family. With more and more moms staying home, the growing base of homeschooling, and families moving to rural areas, it leaves us with hope.

Yes, it's possible to return to the real America. No, it will not be easy. It will take a while, but there is great reason to have hope.

The family will continue to deteriorate until mothers and fathers love each other more than themselves. Doing this gives your children a sense of security. Start doing what is best for your children. Let kids know who's the boss. They need discipline: start when they are small, be involved, talk with your children, really know them, what their strengths and weaknesses are, teach them to love, teach them to be respectful, teach them cause and effect, help them find a place to fit in, whether it be sports, music, dance, or what they enjoy doing, listen to them.

This is what you can do: put character as a higher priority than convenience. After that, instill such values in future generations. This may sound like a hopeless way to make change, but results show otherwise.

Homeschooling is relatively new but has grown over very few years. It's the same concept that trends can change in a short period of time. Parents teach their children these values and the required education they need. In turn, the children homeschool their children, and so on and so forth. Although most homeschool lines are only in their second generation, they have turned out to be extremely successful and are growing in popularity.

Responsibility is the key to success.

Excerpted from Seen and Heard: America's Youngest Political Pundit Tackles the Lies and Truths of Politics and Culture by Kyle Williams
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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Seen and Heard : America's Youngest Political Pundit Tackles the Lies and Truths of Politics and Culture

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