To accompany your Come Follow Me study for December 15-21
In addition to reading the Proclamation this week, you will want to:
- Read the historical resource material at https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/doctrine-and-covenants-historical-resources/51?lang=eng
If you would like a Kahoot game related to the Proclamation which you could use with your family or your class, or which you could play or learn from individually by converting it to a “Challenge” version, click here https://create.kahoot.it/share/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/db609b81-e291-47f0-a56f-38b9b6835c36. To use it with a group, after clicking on this link, you will need to log into Kahoot, creating a free account if you have not done so previously, then click on the blue “Host Live” button or the gray “Assign” button, depending on how you wish to use the Kahoot. Some of the Kahoot questions may presuppose that the player has read through the suggested answers to the following Points to Ponder and at least has browsed the Institute student manual as well.
Points to Ponder in The Family: A Proclamation to the World
1. Why would President Oaks have said, “I believe our attitude toward and use of the family proclamation is [a test] for this generation”?
2. Why would President Hinckley have first presented the Proclamation in a women’s meeting rather than in a regular General Conference session?
3. Wherein does the world most disagree with the principles of the family proclamation?
4. What unique Latter-day Saint doctrines underlie our positions on marriage and family?
5. What are some statistics you could cite to substantiate the claim that marriage and family life has suffered significantly in recent years and decades?
6. How would you answer a child who wanted to know why our Church discriminates against LGBTQ people, and what would be wrong with a marriage between any two people who truly loved each other?
7. What points in the Proclamation did you personally feel to underline?
8. What personal experiences have you had to increase your testimony of the divine inspiration behind the family proclamation?
9. Does the inclusion of a study of the family proclamation in a Doctrine and Covenants course mean that the proclamation will one day be part of the D&C?
Possible Answers to Points to Ponder in The Family: A Proclamation to the World
1. Why would President Oaks have said, “I believe our attitude toward and use of the family proclamation is [a test] for this generation”?
In view of the world’s opposition to many of its principles, it would test whether Church members would follow the world or the words of the living prophets and risk the ridicule and even persecution of the world.
2. Why would President Hinckley have first presented the Proclamation in a women’s meeting rather than in a regular General Conference session?
Probably to honor the sisters of the Church and acknowledge their unique role in the preservation of family values.
3. Wherein does the world most disagree with the principles of the family proclamation?
Probably in its acceptance of cohabitation outside of marriage and its acceptance of same sex marriage.
4. What unique Latter-day Saint doctrines underlie our positions on marriage and family?
- Our belief that God Himself lives in a family unit and that we have a Mother in Heaven
- Our belief in a pre-mortal life, in which we existed as male or female spirits literally begotten by heavenly parents
- Our belief in the potentially eternal nature of marriage and the family unit and the opportunity for eternal increase, with the possibility of becoming as our heavenly parents
- Our belief in the reality of modern revelation through living prophets
5. What are some statistics you could cite to substantiate the claim that marriage and family life has suffered significantly in recent years and decades?
Here are just a few examples.
- Since 1965:
- The percent of children in the US born to unwed mothers has increased from 5% to 40%.
- The number of couples in the US cohabiting rather than marrying has increased by 15 times.
- Child neglect and all forms of child abuse have quintupled.
- Psychological disorders among children have all worsened, from drug abuse to eating disorders; depression among children has increased 1,000 percent.
- Domestic violence against women has increased, and poverty has shifted increasingly to children.
- Juvenile crime has increased six-fold.
- Whereas same sex marriage was everywhere illegal until 1998, it is now legal in every state of the US and in many countries throughout the world.
- Children of divorced or unwed parents experience three times as many serious problems as those in intact two parent families.
- The US birthrate has declined from 24 per 1000 in 1950 to 10 per 1000 in 2021.
6. How would you answer a child who wanted to know why our Church discriminates against LGBTQ people, and what would be wrong with a marriage between any two people who truly loved each other?
The Church actually adamantly opposes discrimination toward LGBTQ people in housing, employment, and other matters. However, as the key to eternal happiness and progress is a marriage between a man and a woman, with eternal increase, the Church must clearly teach its members that any other course can lead only to unhappiness in the long run.
7. What points in the Proclamation did you personally feel to underline?
Your choice. Here is what I did:
8. What personal experiences have you had to increase your testimony of the divine inspiration behind the family proclamation?
My personal experience confirms the Proclamation’s assertion that “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Experience also teaches me that “Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” And I have a testimony that father and mother are happiest and succeed best when they work as “equal partners” in family matters and in raising and nurturing their children. My greatest happiness has come from my family, and I view that happiness here as a foretaste of that eternal happiness God has prepared for His faithful children.
9. Does the inclusion of a study of the family proclamation in a Doctrine and Covenants course mean that the proclamation will one day be part of the D&C?
Who knows? It could well make locating the Proclamation easier for some members, and it surely as a revelatory document is on a par with much that is already included in the Doctrine and Covenants. It must be remembered, however, that the Doctrine and Covenants was never intended to be a comprehensive collection of all revelations communicated in this dispensation. So, it could well be that the Church will continue to leave the D&C as it is, while leaving the family proclamation easily available in the Gospel Library.