You’ve likely heard about or watched Matt Walsh’s film What is a Woman? In light of the dramatic shift in the cultural wind on sexuality, gender norms, and men breaking records in women’s sports, it is an important question to ask. Yet there’s another question that has come about amidst our cultural chaos that is less talked about: What is a family? This question was the topic of interest in a recent conversation I had with a friend from church—who also happens to be a state representative—Rep. Walter Hudson (R-Albertville).
From our conversation, it is clear that nothing is more important in Rep. Hudson’s life than faith and family. He recently celebrated his 18th wedding anniversary, which he highlighted on Facebook: “My wife Carrie and I have had a rocky journey. But we've kept it together, and the reward for such endurance is an irreplaceable legacy of living memory and solidarity. Nothing can replace that. Nothing.”
Given his passion for family and unique position, I thought it would be valuable to sit down with him and get his perspective on the impact our progressive state and culture are having on our families.
The overarching theme of our conversation was his diagnosis that progressives are seeking to redefine what family means. Just like with gender and other formerly well-understood words in the English vocabulary, there is an ongoing effort to change how you view and think about family and the implications associated with it by removing its divine origins—that God established it as the original institution of humanity. In Rep. Hudson’s words, the term “family,” meaning a married father and mother engaged in rearing children, has now been appropriated to “describe the community of Sodom.”
It's a bold statement, but I encourage you to think about it. What have we witnessed over the last few years? He pointed out that often LGBTQ events will be labeled as “family-friendly”—from drag shows to pride parades to transgender meet and greets—but they are anything but. This past June, a pride event featuring a “pornographic drag performer” in Hopkins, Minnesota, was advertised as “family-friendly,” and later in July, a Chaska children’s boutique hosted a drag queen story hour marketed for young children. Similar events have happened throughout the last half decade in Minnesota and the nation, and the frequency of these events is only increasing.
In fact, the whole progressive agenda in Minnesota has been labeled a “family” movement by Governor Tim Walz. In January, Walz outlined his One Minnesota Budget as a way to make Minnesota “the best state for kids” and tweeted messages along the same vein in May and June. Most recently in July, his wording shifted to include “family” in a tweet where he said, “We’re working to make Minnesota the best state to raise a family—no matter where you live. This is what good government can and should do.” This appears to be a worthy goal, but progressives’ redefinition of family and accompanying values—which includes any combination of parents, full affirmation of a child’s false identity, and childhood exposure to sexualized content—is completely different from Rep. Hudson’s, yours, and mine.
Yet this rebranding of the family is not entirely new. “We first saw it in the debate over gay marriage,” according to John Helmberger, Minnesota Family Council’s CEO: “LGBTQ activists countered our argument that kids need a mom and a dad with the lie that any combination of loving ‘parents’ is equally good. But they certainly are taking the redefinition to new heights now.”
The God-given roles of men and women and divinely established family unit were good (Genesis 1), but our secular culture believed they needed to be reinvented. Why? Mr. Helmberger put it this way:
When people exchange the truth of God for a lie, they are compelled to redefine institutions that God created, but without God, because they need what the institution was created to provide. Though they reject the truth, that’s still how God created them. So they create counterfeits that can never meet the need for which God created the institution they reject.
This trend in modern America has resulted in a divided culture that has progressives—those wanting to leave the truths of Scripture behind—attempting to upend our societal bedrock on one hand; on the other, those who had no intent of joining this revolution (and didn’t ask for it) are wondering how we got here. This confusion culminates in the need to ask basic questions our society has never had to ask before, like “What is a woman?” or “What is a family?” When you attempt to remove dross from pure gold— remake something that doesn’t need to be remade—the only thing you can ever end up removing is gold, and that is exactly what’s being done. When our culture rejects God, instead of pursuing the ideal of raising a family and upholding traditional family values, there is no alternative but to tear the whole thing down and establish a human-instituted community unit.
We’ve often heard about the “march through the institutions” and tend to think it’s far from over. But the family is the final institution—there are no more to take over. Once the norm of the traditional family has fallen, Minnesota and the rest of America will have lost the fundamental building block of human society. Nothing else will be able to stand.
Well, there is one final institution that the Left can never conquer. That is Christ’s bride, the Church. The Church is a family, ruled by a divine Father. We have all been brought into that family through repentance, faith, and Baptism. Certainly, some churches have been conquered and colonized by the doctrines of men. But the invisible Church instituted by Christ can never bow the knee to worldly powers.
The left has already made huge leaps towards conquering the family, including the collapse of responsible and virtuous parenting. We often complain about drag queens at grotesque events, but what about the parents? How can they possibly think bringing children to sexualized events is appropriate? As Bill Walsh states in his recent article,
… in [parents’] quest for tolerance, they’ve lost track of something equally important to teach young people: the truth.”
The fact this is happening shows how far the family unit has eroded and how many people have exchanged the truth about gender, marriage, and family for lies. And, because we have become so desensitized to the rainbow tsunami washing over America, we haven’t realized how much of a crisis this is. Thankfully, my discussion with Rep. Hudson was not all doom and gloom. We both concluded that there is hope for Minnesota’s families, and Rep. Hudson laid out two different approaches to this. One way, and the most lasting way, would be to see revival of faith in our state. This is the long-term goal and the most effective because it tackles the core issue: the condition of man’s heart. This requires everyone, no matter where God has called us, to continue testifying before our friends, family, and coworkers about the truth of the gospel. And this is ultimately our core earthly purpose as Christians—to spread the Word to the world.
The second path requires a change in strategy. Christian conservatives, myself included, are often great at complaining and highlighting the harm of progressive policiess, but if that’s all we do, we fail to create a movement people want to join, even if we win politically. This is why we need to refocus our efforts on offering a positive alternative for Minnesota. Without getting into the weeds, we need to explain the nuances of the left’s terminology—how it’s deceptive, doesn’t mean what people think it does, and how progressive values eventually lead people down the road of self-destruction—but we cannot stop there. We must show our neighbors that God’s way is better, and how pursuing His values and vision for our lives will allow society to truly thrive. Showing why we value what we do—the truth and emotion behind it—will be far more effective than simply pointing out the vices of leftism.
Like men winning women’s competitions, progressive family “values” are counterfeits—they’re not the real deal, and any hope that they can be will eventually come crashing down. Redefining a wrong will never make it right, and God’s design for family leads to a happier and more fulfilling life because He created the family, and His rules are “house rules.” Family is not just a label that can be applied to a policy or lifestyle to make it more “Minnesota nice” or acceptable. So the true answer to “What is a family?” must begin and end with God’s Word – which speaks clearly and offers hope to everyone it touches.
Editor’s note: this article was written by Minnesota Family Council’s 40th Anniversary intern.
