Of Forests and Trees

Family North Carolina Magazine—May/June 2009

By R. Matthew Lytle

This issue of Family North Carolina deals with big issues. More specifically, it deals with big-picture issues. That is, the May/June issue does not focus on individual bills or even individual policies. Instead, we take a few steps back and look at public policy and the family from a distance, hoping to catch a glimpse of the big picture.

Looking at the big picture is always a helpful practice. Oftentimes, we get so caught up in the details that we think of nothing else. While details are important, it is also important to remember that they are part of a greater whole. Just as the picture on a puzzle box gives us direction when we assemble the smaller pieces, understanding the big picture in public policy gives us direction when we consider each “piece,” whether that piece is a bill, a court case, or new data about a specific aspect of the family.

With that in mind, each of the articles in this issue helps us to see a different aspect of the big picture. In this way, these articles should not be considered as self-contained works. On the contrary, they work together to describe different aspects of the family policy landscape.

In the feature article, Alysse ElHage takes on the notion of a homosexual agenda. While some have argued that there is no such agenda, this article draws from works by early homosexual activists to demonstrate that such an agenda exists. These early activists had a specific plan in place—a chess game in which they had strategically planned out the moves that would eventually allow them to achieve their goal: normalization, or the acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle as normal and healthy. Alysse then examines seemingly unrelated measures in the public square and demonstrates how these measures all work together toward achieving the big-picture goal of the normalization of the homosexual lifestyle.

One of the most common complaints the North Carolina Family Policy Council and other like-minded organizations receive is that there are other, more important issues. We are often pigeonholed into being a “two-issue [i.e., abortion and homosexuality]” organization. With such looming social ills like poverty and crime, would we not be better served by focusing our attention elsewhere? Paul Brown addresses this question and argues that by working to preserve the family, we are in fact addressing the root cause of these social ills. Paul’s article shows that a strong family will lead to a strong society. When the family flourishes, social ills such as poverty and crime diminish.

Paul Ribeiro answers some common objections to the proposed amendment to North Carolina’s Constitution that would include the definition of “marriage” as the union between a man and a woman. Paul looks at the growing number of states that have legalized same-sex “marriage” in spite of existing marriage laws. Paul argues that, although North Carolina has strong marriage laws, judicial activity in other states show that such laws are not adequate protection in the face of a redefinition of marriage by the courts.

My article looks at the big picture on a more fundamental level: the formation of a worldview. Since one’s worldview determines how he or she sees the world around them, it is important to understand how a worldview works and how it can be affected. This article also highlights Focus on the Family’s The Truth Project, a training curriculum designed to help Christians develop and strengthen their worldview.

In addition to these, our staff updates you on the latest news about the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of how the Lottery Act was passed and offers a legal analysis in the Courts page. We also discuss the poll we recently commissioned on how registered voters in North Carolina feel about an amendment that would include in our State Constitution the definition of marriage as “the union of one man and one woman.”

I hope the articles in this issue of Family North Carolina will help you see the big picture when it comes to public policy as it affects the family. Hopefully, you will see that the work we do here has much greater impact and application than meets the eye. As the old saying goes, it is easy to “miss the forest for the trees.”

I also hope that through this issue you will be able to determine where you fit in that larger picture and that this will inspire you to keep working to defend the family.

R. Matthew Lytle is director of research for the North Carolina Family Policy Council.