Dear Pachiro:

Thank you for your comments about our web site. Isn't it a great country we live in where you and I can openly discuss our thoughts and opinions about any topic we desire? Have you considered the origins of such human rights? The writers of the Constitution acknowledged a source of human rights other than themselves or the government they were establishing. Have you ever wondered how it is that you were born in one of the 72 countries out of the 155 in the world that recognizes the unalienable human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

But with regards to family, can you imagine what it would be like if all the designers of airplanes suddenly decided to ignore the laws of physics in their designs? That doesn't sound like a choice they have if they want to be a successful engineer of airplanes. Likewise, if the player of a sport wants to be successful at the game then he must conform to certain rules of order - he must obey the rules established by someone else and he must acquire certain skills so as to be able to perform the duties of his position. Neither the rules nor the types of skills are his matter of choosing. Rather it is a rule of order so designed to accomplish a particular goal - subdue the opponent.

But as you may be able to see from the above examples, certain laws of order appear non-negotiable while others appear to be more flexible. An airplane designed outside of the laws of physics will crash before takeoff while the driver of a car may violate driving laws and go unnoticed and unpunished. But appearances are deceiving because it's not the negotiability of the rules that is at issue but the timing of consequences that follow the violations of order. The consequence of the engineer's violation is pretty quick whereas the consequence of the driver's violation may come only after repeated and habitual violations.

Thus it is with the order of the family. The family is designed to be ruled by the husband, partnered by the wife, and the children trained to conform to the laws of created order. The consequences for violating the laws of order may in some instances come quick or in other instances not be so apparent. But they are not negotiable. You may rail against them, deny them, ignore them, or just plain turn against them but, like the man who wants to believe he can fly, when he jumps he will hit the bottom - everybody knows that to be true.

And speaking of truth, you wrote, " Times have changed and obviously the opinions on this web page are still stuck in the past." While times do change, some things transcend time and, therefore, never change. The laws of created order come to mind as well as truth and the unalienable rights endowed on humans by their Creator.

But being transcendent doesn't mean we don't have a choice to make about how to live. We can choose to disregard the laws of created order. In the case of jumping off a building means hitting the bottom. In the case of truth and unalienable rights, it means bondage and death. Communism is a great example. The choice is yours to make - bondage and death or liberty and life. I vote for liberty and life.

Fortifying The Family

Home Patrick L. Hurd Weatherford, Texas PHurdWford@AOL.com EST. 01/01/01