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Image of family life out of sync with reality
Nov. 11, 2009
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Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionThe results of one of the most comprehensive studies of the status of women in the United States were released Oct. 16. The conclusions drawn from the data in “The Shriver Report: A Women’s Nation Changes Everything,” by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, have the potential to change the discussion of public policy on a broad range of issues from the workplace to the family living room.
Writing about the report in her online column at NCRonline.org, Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister says, “Not since John F. Kennedy appointed Eleanor Roosevelt in 1961 to head his President’s Commission on the Status of Women have we had a complete review of the circumstances defining the lives of women in the United States. Now we do.” The data points to how radically our society has changed since 1961, and, as Chittister writes, “for the sake of the country as well as for its women, other social institutions are going to have to adjust to this new reality.” Chittister served on the advisory board for this study.
The most society-changing statistics reported are something that many have known intuitively: Fully half of the U.S. work force is now women. More than 40 percent of those are the primary breadwinners of their families. Another 23 percent are co-breadwinners of the family, meaning that the family can’t get along without their income. The stark reality is that women aren’t working to earn a little extra money or for “fulfillment.” They are working so families can survive.
Yet, the report also concludes that the “men and women who are riding the crest of major social change in America [do so] with little or no support.” The report says, “The parameters of their jobs have yet to change to meet new demands.” According to the report, “Americans across the board desire more flexibility in work schedules, paid family leave, and increased child care support.”
Political and business leaders have failed families, the report concludes. (Read the report at awomansnation.com.)
A third pillar of society -- the church -- is also coming up short with regard to the American family. An example: The bishops maintain a Web site, www.foryourmarriage.org, to encourage and support married couples. The Web site’s “Marriage Tip” for Nov. 4, the day this editorial was written, is “Keep reasonable work hours. If you give all your time and energy to the job, what’s left for the most important person in your life?” After reading the Shriver Report, this advice rings hollow.
Church leaders -- from the U.S. bishops’ conference to the Knights of Columbus -- seem fixated on an image of family that no longer exists. As a first step to correcting that image, the bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth should make the Shriver Report mandatory reading in every diocesan family life office in the United States.
So, just because "reality"
So, just because "reality" seems to have taken a step in the wrong direction, the Church should no longer propose the ideal for the consideration of the faithful? Is it wrong, for example, to remind married couples to "keep reasonable work hours" and concentrate on what really matters: marriage and family? According to NCR, yes, it is wrong, and that is a sad joke.
The Church is CALLED to stand in the midst of the stream of history and to counter that flow when it is leading in the wrong direction. The Church is CALLED to be a sign of contradiction in the world becoming increasingly secular. The Church is CALLED to proclaim the message of Christ, in season and out of season. Just because society seems to be going in one direction does not mean that the Church should follow. Rather, the Church should, and does, encourage people to prioritize.
Is it more important to pay for a two week vacation to the Bahamas, or to spend an extra hour a night with one's family? Is it more important to live in the toniest neighborhood, or to be home at 5:30 every night for a family meal? Is it more important to work overtime or take your wife out for your anniversary? Is it more important to have a new car or a new phone, or to attend your son's baseball games? Is it more important to get the extra holiday pay or to spend the holiday with your family? Society may say one thing, but the Church says something else entirely. As it should.
Granted, there is much to commend the Shriver Report and a great deal that needs to be done to encourage and support working families. One thing that is not helpful, though, is to abandon the Church's support for family as the most important, the central, reality of life. God did not create man and woman for work, but He created man and woman for each other. The Church has an obligation to preach this truth to the world. Doing otherwise does not help families. The only people it does help are those who do not have the courage to stand up for the truth.
It seems you missed the point
It seems you missed the point of the editorial, which is that most people do not get to choose between the things you have listed (i.e. sacrificing an extra hour per day or the trip to the Bahamas, working overtime or going out to dinner). For a lot of people, it's work overtime or be out of a job or have both spouses working to make ends meet--and maybe send the kids to Catholic school--and never get a chance to take a vacation together.
These admonitions appear to be directed at a very limited few Catholics who might be doing very well economically, but for some reason, though they still presumably attend to the bishops' communications, do not have their values in line with the bishops' ideals. In other words, it seems that there are no people for whom this advice has meaning. Of course, if it speaks to you, Mr. Green, far be it from me to advise you against taking it.
You would do better to
You would do better to encourage people to heed the advice from the USCCB's web site to work reasonable hours. People are becoming slaves to their jobs. Part of that is necessitated by the confiscatory tax rates that Democrats impose as a burden on working families. Tax relief and reduction, as favored by Republicans, would do much to alleviate that burden. Want to help families? Vote Republican! Your editorial contains flawed reasoning. For example, just because 23% of women are co-breadwinners for the family does not mean that the family can't get along without their income. Perhaps the family could get along without their additional income; they'd just have to downsize the home or drive less expensive cars. More lies from NCR, trying to spin data against the bishops and in favor of left-wing policies. Lies, lies, lies from NCR.
The bishops will never make
The bishops will never make the Shriver Report mandatory reading because the most bishops of the Catholic Church have a very immature and underdeveloped knowledge of human sexuality. They are literally five hundred years behind the rest of Western contemporary knowledge of the subject and therefore unable to contribute significantly to the discussion. If our bishops and priests were allowed to marry and have families they would understand something about family life, including the family life of same sex couples and gay people in general. The bishops, for the most part NEVER have to worry about hunger or housing because most of them live as kings and princes with their every need being catered to. Most bishops are indeed "fixated on an image of family life that no longer exists". They have lost their credibility and authority because they are so out of touch with the every day issues of The People of God. The Shriver Report is an important contribution to the discussion.
It always amusing to read
It always amusing to read reponses to "new studies" or "reports" like the Shriver report calling for the Church to change its "outmoded" structure before it crumbles into oblivion in the face of so-called new socio-economic trends. What is not being addressed of course is the obvious question of what drove women to the workplace in the first place. Remember the promises
of feminism? How if only women could work with equal pay and pursue careers!
After listening to this canard for several decades we now have a whole generation of women single, isolated, and in the same economic drudgery that men have faced for years..with one difference many of the women folowing feminist advice have also given up hope of having a family as well. For those that do have kids, many as the vaunted Shriver report reveals,are working so much their kids grow up while "Mom" is at the office. What Sister Joan should be lamenting is not the outmoded mindsets of the Bishops or of the Knights, (most KofC's are Dads supporting their families) but the flawed and deceptive
feminist ideology that is behind what much of the Shriver report condemns
Republican policies have
Republican policies have driven families to hold two or more jobs to pay the mortgage on a small home, not a mansion. Blaming the families is typical right-wing cant. The newsletter of the local diocese ran an opinion column a while back that said that women should not work, they should stay home with their children. You have to wonder what decade these people live in.
I remember in my Catholic high school the dean of students, a priest, saying that parents could not take children out of school for medical appointments, and when one student who had done so explained that getting an orthodontist appointment on a weekend was almost impossible, Fr. Boniface said "I don't care, that's no excuse!" Spoken like a man who never had to take a child to the doctor, totally insulated from reality.
The reason bishops will not
The reason bishops will not make the Shriver report mandatory reading is simple. The report is about women and they do not care about women, much less the children they have, unless their male children want to become priests. Bishops and priests have a very narrow understanding of women and their role in our society. And this report will only reinforce their prejudice that women belong in the home and men belong in the work world. This is how God wants it you know, or at least that is what they promulgate. Just look at the way they treat women in the Church. Women have no role in the three roles of Christ: priest, prophet, and king. The church gives lip service to the way these roles play out in the lives of Catholics who are not ordained priest. The church is concerned only with the ordained priest, not women, children, families, or marriage, or men who openly have sex with women. The entire church revolves around the role of the ordained priest and no other. Read about women!? Who are you kidding? They only read about themselves and how to protect their power, status and wealth. Look at D'Arcy. He gets to keep the bishops residence for his own personal use and with the approval of his successor. Why is that?
God forbid we put forth an
God forbid we put forth an ideal and not give into the failings of society as the values that should be upheld.
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