By Elder Dallin H. Oaks
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Following my address I hope to meet each of you personally. I also note that some of my associates in the leadership of the Church will be hosting a dinner for conference participants in Salt Lake City Saturday evening, January 16^th. I hope, your schedules will permit you to enjoy the hospitality of that dinner so that we will have further opportunities to know each other and our similar goals and work for the family.

Introduction

The Prophet Isaiah, whose words are honored by most in this gathering, spoke a prophetic warning about watchmen who are "blind" and "ignorant, "dumb dogs [that] cannot bark," "sleeping, lying down, [and] loving to slumber" (Isaiah 56:10). The Prophet likened them to "shepherds that cannot understand ... [who] look to their own way, every one for his gain" (v. 11). When this happens, he declared, "the righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart" (Isaiah 5 7: 1).

I am grateful that some watchmen on the tower have alerted us to enemies and conditions that threaten to undermine the family, which is the foundation of societies and nations in every part of the world. Ironically, some of these enemies are working through the United Nations and using its stature and authority on the world stage to pursue anti-family efforts that must be of concern to all of us.

Before this conference is over, I trust there will be ample demonstration of these assertions of alarm, and a clear consensus on the reality that international law has the capacity to directly impact the family. Informed by these facts, we must be sure that we, who should also be watchmen on the tower, are not like the blind or slumbering watchmen the Prophet Isaiah condemned.

Some Basic Principles

A passage from the Old Testament, revered by most in this gathering, stresses God's concern for children, and the responsibility of parents to teach them:

Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

The word family is used 296 times in the English Language King James version of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a record of a succession of families. The Abrahamic covenant, between the Lord and Father Abraham, was a covenant whose blessings were secured through the government and functioning of the family of Abraham and those descended from him. There is a profound eternal truth in the statement in the Book of Genesis, that "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Genesis 2:18). In truth, a family consisting of father, mother, and children, is not a manmade creation, but a divine institution.

I am indebted to a Brigham Young University publication, Religions of the World (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1997), by Professors Palmer, Keller, Choi, and Toronto, for educating me to the fact that most of the great religions of the world are family-centered in their theology and their thinking. This is obviously true of all of the religions that trace their ancestry through Father Abraham. To Christians, Jews, and Muslims, the family is the sacred hearth around which the truths of life and religion are taught and practiced (id., at pp. 174, 180-82, 231-33, 236). The same can be said of some of the other great religions and philosophies of the world, notably Confucianism and Zoroastrianism (id., at pages 102, 105-6, 154-55, 159).

Our Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sponsors Brigham Young University, is known as a family-centered Church. Our theology centers on the family. It begins with Heavenly Parents. Our highest aspiration is to attain that status ourselves. We affirm that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan of our Heavenly Father for the benefit of His spirit children. That plan is made possible by the sacrifice of our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ. As earthly parents we participate in the gospel plan by providing physical bodies for the spirit children of our Heavenly Parents. We solemnly affirm that the fullness of eternal salvation is a family affair and that families are central to the Creator's plan for His children. We may truly say that the gospel plan originated in the council of an eternal family, it is implemented through our earthly families, and it has its destiny in our eternal families. The mission of our Church can be expressed in terms of the mission of the family.

In September 1995, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the two presiding councils of our Church, issued "A Proclamation to the World," solemnly declaring "that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children." In view of the purpose of this gathering and the nature of this keynote, I believe it will be appropriate for me to read some of the key paragraphs of that Proclamation.

After its introductory paragraph which, I have just quoted, our Proclamation, "The Family," continues as follows:

All human beings-male and female-are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God's eternal plan.

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. "Children are an heritage of the Lord" (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives-mothers and fathers-will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ....

We warn that ... the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

The Proclamation concludes by calling upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere "to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."

Any questions about why we wanted to sponsor this conference are surely answered by the content of that Proclamation.

Disturbing Trends

The noted British legal historian, Sir Henry Maine, observed that modern society has been characterized by a shift from status, such as kinship, to contract. In the modern world, Maine observed, the unit with which civil laws are concerned is more and more an individual contracting party and less and less the family entity. This shift from kinship to contract has been accompanied by the emergence of individualism as the fundamental principle of western thought.

A central theme in the emergence of individualism is the weakening of laws and expectations concerned with responsibilities, which characterize family relations, and increased reliance upon rights, which characterize individualism. (See Dallin H. Oaks, "Rights and Responsibilities," 36 Mercer Law Review 427-42 [1985].)

For example, consider the matter of children's rights. I believe all of us would affirm that children have rights, and they need to be protected. The problem occurs when the type of protection recognized by the law has the effect of superceding parents or families and substituting the state or some of its authorized workers as the responsible custodian or advocate for children. Children's rights can become a wedge to split a family. None would deny that this is necessary where the family has already been split by parental abandonment or gross physical abuse, but even those concepts become dangerous when clever legal definitions allow state representatives to replace parents because those representatives disagree with what the parents are teaching their children. (On children's rights, see generally, Bruce C. Hafen, "Puberty, Privacy, and Protection: The Risk of Children's 'Rights'," American Bar Association Journal, Vol. 63, p. 13 83 [Oct. 1977], and sources cited.)

As a further illustration, over fifteen years ago, while I was serving as a justice of the Utah Supreme Court, we had a case challenging a provision under the Utah Children's Rights Act. This law allowed a judge to take away a parent's rights to a child if the judge found that termination of parental rights was "in the child's best interest." Our Court found this Utah law unconstitutional because it went beyond termination for unfitness, abandonment or substantial neglect, which would be permissible, and allowed the state or its agents to substitute their ideas of a child's best interest for those of the parents. Our opinion, which I authored for the Court, ran in the face of the modern movement toward individualism by declaring:

The integrity of the family and the parents' inherent right and authority to rear their own children have been recognized as fundamental axioms of Anglo-American culture, presupposed by all our social, political, and legal institutions. [Here we quoted these sentences from three earlier opinions in the courts of other states:] [1] To protect the [individual] in his constitutionally guaranteed right to form and preserve the family is one of the basic principles for which organized government is established. [2] The family is the basis of our society. [3] The family entity is the core element upon which modern civilization is founded.

We concluded:

This parental right transcends all property and economic rights. It is rooted not in state or federal statutory or constitutional law, to which it is logically and chronologically prior, but in nature and human instinct. (In re J.P., 648 P. 2d 1364 [Utah Supreme Court, 1982].

Threats to the Family

As Church leaders we have observed many worldwide trends and conditions that threaten the traditional family and have a disturbing effect upon our own members. I list six of these, not necessarily in order of importance.

1. As a result of increases in divorce and separation, the traditional two-parent family is decreasing as the setting within which most children are raised.

2. Increasing numbers of women are working outside of the home and devoting less attention to their responsibilities as mothers.

3. As more and more people travel great distances and enjoy flexibility in where they reside, extended families are scattered and the nurturing and disciplining roles of grandparents, aunts and uncles are felt by a smaller proportion of children.

4. The network of mothers who kept an eye on one another's children in a tight knit community is likewise weakening.

5. The competitive demands of a variety of community and school activities weaken family activities and togetherness.

6. Current attempts to redefine the family by treaty or law to include everyone who has keys to the same house threaten to dilute the legal concept of family beyond the point where it merits special protection.

Someone has observed that the strengthening of employment rights in the United States of America at the same time we have adopted liberal divorce laws makes it easier for a man to get rid of an unwanted spouse than to get rid of an unwanted employee. That is what happens when contractual rights become more important to a society than family responsibilities.

The popular terms "women's liberation" and "men's liberation" suggest other problems. This kind of "liberation" often purports to free men and women from family responsibilities. Whatever may happen in the short run, no one can ever achieve true liberation or freedom by deserting or neglecting family responsibilities, which are eternal.

What Our Church Has Done

As The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has seen what we consider to be alarming threats to the families of the world and to moral standards, we have taken many steps to strengthen the families of our members. The Church curriculum used to teach our members has been restructured and correlated with the home. We have re-emphasized a weekly family gathering we call Family Home Evening Our worldwide efforts to gather genealogical information have been renamed "Family History" to be more clear about their purpose. We have strengthened our efforts to collect all family records and make them available to everyone. We have issued the "Proclamation on the Family" quoted earlier. The family and how to strengthen it have become prevailing themes in our meetings, conferences, and councils.

In all of this we follow the teachings of modern prophets. For example, over a half century ago President Joseph F. Smith declared: "[To] do well those things which God ordained to be the common lot of all man-kind, is the truest greatness. To be a successful father or a successful mother is greater than to be a successful general or a successful statesman." Success in an occupation-even a lofty one-is only temporary, President Smith concluded, whereas success as a parent is "universal and eternal greatness." (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p. 285 [5' Ed., 1939].)

I pray that God will inspire us as we seek wisdom on how to strengthen the families of the world, and bless us as we go forward together in this vital work. Thank you.

Families Worldwide
75 East Fort Union Blvd.
Salt Lake City, UT 84047
USA

Fax us: USA 801/562-6008,
or Call us: USA 801/562-6185

Send comments and suggestions to Webmaster