Questioning the Nuclear Family

In Christian circles there has been a lot of talk around protecting the nuclear family. Perhaps it is less today than it was ten years ago, but nevertheless there is the assumption that the family unit of mom, dad and kids living in their independent house in the suburbs is an ideal that needs to be protected. Yet I question whether the nuclear family is a Biblical concept at all and I further question whether living in nuclear family units is necessarily the best social set up for us.

Interestingly, a very cursory internet research on the nuclear family shows that the idea of the nuclear family is argued to be necessary for the survival of the human species, to support certain political and economic systems, such as democracy and capitalism, societal ideals such as the American dream, the industrial revolution, the British aristocracy, and the maintenance of ideological roles of men, women and children. None of these are particularly Biblical.

According to Wikipedia, the idea of the nuclear family became prominent in Western Europe with the arrival of early capitalism because it was a financially viable social unit. Further, “after the Second World War the United States experienced a renewed interest in 'the home' and building family units. The family unit became a symbol of security and a return to traditional gender roles”. The popularity of the nuclear family came about, in part, through business practices of people such as Henry Ford and the policies of Franklin Roosevelt.

But outside of the West, and prior to the 20^th century, the vast majority of the world’s population have lived in a variety of set ups other than the nuclear family. Interestingly, the West is also moving away from the concept of nuclear families towards such things as blended families, binuclear families (separated spouses marrying new spouses with children), and single-parent families. “Today nuclear families with the original biological parents constitute roughly 24.1% of households” (Wikipedia).

While some may see this shift in the West as a negative thing I experience it very positively. The short period (some 100 years) that a small sector of the world’s population (Western Europe and the US) lived in nuclear family units, which originally originated due to political, ideological and economic influences, has had its pros and cons. However, to hold onto it as some sort of Biblical or Christian ideal seems it may be misguided. Its origins are not Biblical nor are its ideals.