Notes
This episode pairs well with our 2021 Research Release.
Summary
We often gloss over the words “solemnly proclaim” in the opening paragraph of the Family Proclamation. Loren Marks, a BYU professor in the School of Family Life, joins the podcast to discuss the gravity of those words and how they should affect the way we view this special document.
“Whether you’re in ancient Israel or in the early Christian church or today, the role of prophets has not been to offer guidelines. We have other folks who do that. [Prophet’s] sacred mission, by their own report, is to deliver messages with life and death importance… [The proclamation] is far more than a set of guidelines and good ideas… it is a document that is centered on commandments and covenants.”
Marks also discusses maintaining family relationships with Christlike love (23:02) and what it means to have reverence for God and the family (30:15).
“For many of our wisest cultural critics… the primary concern is not that we no longer view anything as sacred or of worth, but that we get passionately religious about things that have no life and little to no ultimate meaning. I think the aim and the hope is that we honor what is truly sacred and holy as being sacred and holy. I think what these 15 wise prophets are claiming in the proclamation is that God our Creator, marriage between a a man and woman, and family relationships are on the short list of what we should hold most sacred and dear and reverent.”