Beyond Family Values: A Call to Christian Virtue

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Summary: 'Family values' put in perspective
Review: Lee calls for those who clamor for "family values," especially evangelical Christians, to step back and take a look at what they're actually promoting. Lee contends that "values" can change, and can mean one thing for a lesbian couple with children and another thing for a traditional heterosexual couple with children. He also argues that evangelicals and other conservative Christians have made an idol out of the family, placing it even above church. Many of those same Christians also have bought heavily into our therapeutic, materialist, divorce-oriented culture, and "family values" even reflect some of that. That church community, Lee says, is where our priorities ought to lie and from which our direction ought to come. While he acknowledges the key role family plays in Christian faith, he argues that Christian families are simply part of the Christian Family, namely, the Body of Christ. Lee promotes Christian virtues -- in particular, faith, hope and love -- as those things to which Christians should aspire, and it should be the local congregation modeling these virtues, he says. Christians are called to be salt in the world, Lee points out, and this is accomplished not through political victory but through cultural engagement and by giving priority to the Kingdom of God. While much of the book gets weighed down in academic language and can be a difficult read at times in its opening chapters, Lee's central message still comes through clearly, especially toward the end -- and it's a challenging message. It's also one that the "family values" crowd needs to hear. Sure, Christians should have certain "values" to which they adhere, but these values have deeper roots, and it's those roots -- Christian virtues -- to which Lee is encouraging them to return.