Newsmax published an opinion piece titled “Nation’s Strength Grounded in Strong Families.” According to the article, the U.S. Census Bureau data released in December shows that only 47% of U.S. households are made up of married couples, and 25% of American children live in a single-parent household, often without a father.
Troy Miller, author of the article and president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, believes that the nation's strength is grounded in strong families.
As the nation gears up to celebrate the its 250th birthday, Miller recommended on American Family Radio (AFR) that people do more to talk about families and values.
"If you go back to some of the aspirations and the hopes that the pilgrims had when they came over, it was all centered around their families. They were coming over because of some of the oppression in Europe, to be able to live out the lives they wanted to and to their conscience,” Miller says.
He explains the “great American experiment” was founded on the fundamental base of the family.
“That the family was center to society and the core of a successful growing society," Miller states.
When asked for reasons why things have been on the decline, Miller pointed to several reasons, including policies and laws within the United States. He also mentioned the church and believers.
"Churches have a lot of programs, of youth programs. We have other things, but we really don't reinforce that the strength of the family is found in the mother and the father and holding families together,” Miller says.
Furthermore, the responsibility for the family really lies in the home, he notes.
"We don't have enough families themselves who are just concentrating that 'this is my responsibility to teach my kids, to hold my family together and to pass along family values,'” Miller says.
That, said Miller, has been a cause of deterioration for the last 50 years.
