Phyllis Schlafly - Who Killed the American Family?

PRAISE FOR MRS. SCHLAFLY & WHO KILLED THE AMERICAN FAMILY?

Phyllis Schlafly has been, and continues to be, one of the most influential women in America. She stood virtually alone in the 1970s when the early feminist movement attempted to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. It would have had a terrible social impact on our nation. Arrayed against her were two US Presidents, two First Ladies, the majority of congressmen and senators, most universities and the entire media. She stood like a rock in response to unmerciful criticism and scorn. From then to now, Phyllis has represented an unwavering voice of reason about marriage, parenthood, the defense of righteousness, and conservative thought. I admire her greatly and thank God for the impact she continues to have on our nation.

JAMES C. DOBSON, PH.D., PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER OR FAMILY TALK

My friend, Phyllis Schlafly, has been a prominent figure in the conservative movement for decades. With courage and tenacity she has led the charge against liberal feminists who have been at war with traditional values and the nuclear family of this country. Who Killed the American Family? is a brilliant analysis of the assault on the family, and it provides practical solutions for turning the tide in the culture war and reinstating the eminence of the American family.

DAVID LIMBAUGH, LAWYER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST AND NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

With her characteristic courage and insight, the Iron Lady of the conservative movement indicts all those complicit in the forty-year war on the American family. Phyllis Schlafly exposes how feminists and globalists have worked in cahoots with the public school establishment, the welfare system, the divorce courts, the judges, and free trade activists to deconstruct the very heart of American identity and exceptionalism.

ROBERT W.PATTERSON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR FOR THE PHILDELPHIA INQUIRER

Who Killed the American Family? goes beyond the clichs of both sides to offer a clear and powerful analysis of the forces that are destroying the family and the consequences that are already ensuing. Mrs Schlafly confronts important issues that are ignored by most advocates for the family. The result is the most penetrating account yet of the civilizational implications of radical ideologies that are not only dismantling the family but doing so quite intentionally and methodically and destroying freedom in the process.

STEPHEN BASKERVILLE, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT AT PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE AND AUTHOR OF TAKEN INTO CUSTODY: THE WAR AGAINST FATHERS, MARRIAGE, AND THE FAMILY

WHO KILLED THE AMERICAN FAMILY?

BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A CHOICE NOT AN ECHO

PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY

WHO KILLED THE AMERICAN FAMILY?

Copyright 2014 by Phyllis Schlafly

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Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-938067-52-5
eBook ISBN: 978-1-938067-53-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schlafly, Phyllis.
Who killed the American family / Phyllis Schlafly.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-938067-52-5 (hardcover)
1. FamiliesUnited States. 2. Family policyUnited States. 3. Domestic relationsUnited
States. I. Title.

HQ536.S367 2014
306.850973--dc23

2014020590

When I was married in 1949, it was perfectly normal to quit my job (which I enjoyed) and begin a new life as a wife and full-time homemaker. We started out in a three-bedroom house with a white picket fence in a small Midwestern town and had six children. That was then the norm. Along with veterans returning from World War II (like my husband), we contributed to the baby boom. Many of my friends and neighbors had six children too.

That is not the norm anymore. A pregnant teenage girl receives more encouragement (and financial incentives) to collect welfare than to marry her childs father. His role is defined not by law or a marriage contract or the culture, but by a judge. Everyone seems to accept the notion that a judge, rather than parents, can determine the best interest of the child.

We hardly hear anyone today standing up for the proposition that traditional civil marriage is essential to society because it provides the legal construct under which a couple voluntarily accepts the rights and responsibilities for the resulting children. The states vital interest in defining marriage is to maintain family autonomy for the benefit of the next generation.

Village is the progressives metaphor for the theory that the government, speaking through judges, psychologists, school personnel, and social workers, should make decisions about child rearing, not the parents.

Some states are moving to give judges the authority to name three or more legal parents of a child. The rationale is that only a judge can decide the best interest of the child, and if there are three adults with some relationship to the child, then a judge may designate all three as the legal parents. That might be one man paying child support and two lesbians spending it.

You may think that the court intervenes only when there is a nasty divorce conflict, or when the parents are drug addicts, or when someone fails to get adequate legal advice. But that is not true. No family is safe from the official busybodies.

Many divorced dads have discovered that they have no right to see their own kids. A judge decides what is demeaningly referred to as child support and visitation. Sadly, many of our social ills are attributable to children being cut off from a relationship with their dads.

The nuclear family used to be the basic institution of American society. It gave us a society in which people could make their own decisions without government supervision or financing. The nuclear family has been the essential building block of a free society with limited government. The nuclear family is not dependent on government supervision or handouts. There are other family types, but the nuclear family is the most independent and autonomous.

The word nuclear is used generally to refer to a central entity or nucleus around which others collect. The term nuclear family, then, refers to a household consisting of a father, a mother, and their children, all in one dwelling.

Americans who grow up in a nuclear family one in which the parents are married are more individualistic, self-supporting, and entrepreneurial than other people.

Some libertarians believe in writing their own marriage contract, but the law makes it impossible to make a binding or enforceable agreement about custody of your own children. Any such contract can be voided and replaced by the opinion of a judge or other government official.