Janie B. Cheaney: Covenants vs. clans

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 1st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Here’s WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on how a decline in marriage leads to a chaotic society.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: I once enjoyed the privilege of visiting Greece, where I felt the weight of history even in the subways. Especially at Mycenae, on the rolling plains of the southern coast.

From here the Greeks sailed to Troy to wage their legendary war. According to Homer, the expedition was almost doomed from the start when King Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the gods, to obtain fair sailing weather. His wife Clytemnestra never forgave him. Ten years later, when the King returned, she and her lover murdered him. Her son King Orestes felt duty bound to execute her for the sin of adultery as well as murder, thus activating the Furies, ancient earth-goddesses whose chief function was avenging blood. As dramatized by the Athenian playwright Aeschylus, around 500 B.C., the story becomes a courtroom drama posing this question: which has greater weight, a blood relationship or a civil contract? Is the murder of the husband, not a blood relative, less of a crime than matricide?

The court decides that Orestes was justified. This, according to Charles Hill in his book Grand Strategies, is literary notice of a milestone in human progress: the determination that marriage, not blood, is the foundation of civil society. God settled that question in Genesis 2:14, and every civilized culture has followed suit. It's only in primitive societies that kinship takes precedence, leading to feuds and vendettas.

Early in this century social observers like Charles Murray and Brad Wilcox began noticing a sharp decline in marriage among the poor. Clan was replacing covenant: blood kin had a greater claim to loyalty than the latest live-in boyfriend. The results were reduced earning power, greater stress, and troubled adolescence as the cycle continued.

So a recent NBC survey of 3000 18- to 29-year-olds isn’t encouraging. It asked them to prioritize a set of 13 life goals. Respondents diverged into four groups according to sex and political affiliation. Of those, only male Trump voters rated “Getting Married” as high as number four. Female Republicans saw it as less important than “Financial Independence” and a “Fulfilling Career.” Democrats of both sexes put marriage and children almost dead last.

Priorities do change among the young, so these disturbing results aren’t the last word. But it’s noteworthy that both groups of Republican Gen-Xers placed children before marriage, rather than the other way around. Are they subconsciously valuing blood over bond?

Years ago, my daughter worked for the late Andy Williams in Branson. Part of her job was to lip-synch onstage while Andy sang a medley of his greatest hits. At every performance, when he segued into "The Hawaiian Wedding Song," she could look into the audience and see gray-haired couples cuddling up in the darkness. Those marriages were not perfect, but they were covenantal. They were the backbone of "middle America" whose great-grandchildren were surveyed by NBC. Are they the last of their breed?

We walk around with no thought for the ground under our feet. But if the earth turned to Jell-o, we'd notice. Tribalism and blood feuds may not be likely, but social chaos looms. The reformation of America begins at home.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

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