Someone has said, “As goes the family so goes the nation.” If this is true the outlook for America remains increasingly gloomy, for in many ways wholesome family life seems to be disappearing from the American scene.

The family has been affected by today’s mood of sexual permissiveness, by the popular rejection of all authority, by the seemingly deliberate pitting of youth against age, by the almost universal preoccupation with human rights to the exclusion of human duties.

Even in Christian circles the prevailing winds of change have been felt. Many Christian homes no longer stand in sharp contrast to those of the world. Many Christian families too often are torn by the same conflicts experienced by those that do not pretend to be united in Christian faith.

Too often Christian families have marched to the beat of the world’s drums. All history and experience, as well as the express Word of God, tell us that this is the pathway to disaster.

We of the National Association of Evangelicals call on Christians everywhere to work for the recovery of Christian family life, with its disciplines, its devotions, its moral and spiritual distinctives, its private and public witness to the ‘saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in human relations at the most basic level.

The regular use of the Word of God in family devotions, the regular experience of praying together, the sacrificial practice of Christian stewardship, the devoted observance of the Lord’s Day as a day set apart upon such fundamental and neces¬sary considerations are Christian family relationships founded and structured. They are not options for the conscientious Christian.