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Democratic Parenting: The Importance of Family and the Family-Council
Bob Slagle, Ph.D., Psychologist, CA, USA.
"The great hope of Urantia lies in the possibility of a new revelation of Jesus with a new and enlarged presentation of his saving message which would spiritually unite in loving service the numerous families of his present-day professed followers." (2086)
The pre-eminence of family
In The Urantia Book the family concept portrays ideal relationships, even divine relationships, on the highest spiritual levels. We are all members of one family, the family of God. The endorsement and acknowledgement of "family" in this epochal revelation nearly exhausts our human concepts of supremacy and importance.
"Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family." (765)
"the family is the master civilizer.…" (913)
"...man's supreme evolutionary acquirement and civilization's only hope of survival.…" (943)
"The family was the first successful peace group …." (765)
"The most effective of all social groups is the family.…" (1775)
"The family is man's greatest purely human achievement.…" (939)
"Family life is the progenitor of true morality...." (942)
And from Rodan of Alexandria,
"...family life is...worth any price, any sacrifice…." (1776)
The privilege of rearing cosmic citizens, children of eternal destiny, inspires us to persevere through the trials of family life.
"No surviving mortal, midwayer, or seraphim may ascend to Paradise, attain the Father, and be mustered into the Corps of the Finality without having passed through that sublime experience of achieving parental relationship to an evolving child of the worlds or some other experience analogous and equivalent thereto. The relationship of child and parent is fundamental to the essential concept of the Universal Father and his universe children. Therefore does such an experience become indispensable to the experiential training of all ascenders.…" (516) Also, "...parental experience is essential, the idea of procreating cosmic citizens, the enlarged understanding of the privilege of procreation-giving sons to the Father." (939)"The creation of new pictures out of old facts, the restatement of parental life in the lives of offspring-these are the artistic triumphs of truth." (555)
While the human family does not survive death, the earthly family may contribute to individual survival because of the values, habits, self-maintenance, and gratifications that are fostered in family life. A Primary Supernaphim, Uranita's Chief of Seraphim says, "Love of offspring is almost universal and is of distinct survival value….The animals love their children; man--civilized man--loves his children's children." (940)
"Participation in family contributes mightily to social and personal progress. Couple marriage favors and nurtures intimate mutual understanding and effective co-operation which augments parental happiness, child wellbeing, and social efficiency." (928)
The same primary supernaphim from Paradise characterizes the home as, "civilization's most useful and sublime institution…" (931) Later she says, "The family is vitally linked to the mechanism of self-maintenance; it is the sole hope of race perpetuation under the mores of civilization, while at the same time it most effectively provides certain highly satisfactory forms of self-gratification." (939)
The family is nearly all-important to the child. "The family represents to the young child all that he can first know of either human or divine relationships. The child must derive his first impressions of the universe from the mother's care; he [or she] is wholly dependent on the earthly father for his first ideas of the heavenly Father." (1922)
The importance of family life is certainly not unique to our planet. The people of a continental nation on a neighboring planet, "...regard the home as the basic institution of their civilization. It is expected that the most valuable part of a child's education and character training will be secured from his parents and at home, and fathers devote almost as much attention to child culture as do mothers." (811)
Michael's dedication to his earthly brothers and sisters of Joseph's family should inspire any parent. Jesus served as father to his earthly family for almost a score of years. (1389) "The family occupied the very center of Jesus' philosophy of life-here and hereafter. He based his teaching about God on the family, while he sought to correct the Jewish tendency to over honor ancestors. He exalted family life as the highest human duty.…" (1581)
Jesus' dedication to his family was constantly being manifested. "Jesus rightly reasoned
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