As the Synod on the Family began on October 5, Cardinal Peter Erdo opened with a reflection on the family.  “The family,” he declared, “is almost the last welcoming human reality in a world determined near exclusively by finance and technology.  A new culture of family can be the starting point for a renewed human civilization.”

A culturally impoverished understanding of “family” pervades the American milieu.  A family-oriented culture has indeed fallen by the wayside, and its revitalization is essential to trumping the current technological and economic preoccupations of the government.  So how does one form a more family-oriented culture, and what can one do to redirect current societal trends?

Returning to the historical roots of this problem may provide an answer.  Nearly a half century ago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan authored a report predicting the widespread collapse of the family.  As an Assistant Secretary of Labor under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Moynihan formulated national policy for the War on Poverty.

Moynihan noticed a positive correlation between unemployment and welfare—when one increased or decreased, so did the other.  This correlation ended around the year 1962, and Moynihan realized that the number of black women on welfare was increasing even as more black men were getting jobs.  The integrity of the War on Poverty appeared to be at stake in the implementation of welfare programs; Moynihan thought it was important to investigate this discovery.

In The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, Moynihan addressed the roots of black poverty in America.  Moynihan expressed particular concern about the state of the African American family: “At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family,” he wrote.  “It is the fundamental source of the weakness … at the present time.”  Particularly problematic was the increase in out-of-wedlock births.  During the years 1940-1963, “[t]he white [out-of-wedlock birth rate] was 2 percent in 1940; it was 3.07 percent in 1963.  In that period, the Negro rate went from 16.8 percent to 23.6 percent.”

The out-of-wedlock birth rate was one of a conflagration of problems facing the black community, including delinquency, crime, unemployment, lack of education, and fatherlessness.  Moynihan ultimately traced these problems to the disintegration of two-parent, mother and father households and the proliferation of single mother households.  Moynihan’s findings dovetailed with those of sociologist E. Franklin Frazier in 1950:

“As the result of family disorganization a large proportion of Negro children and youth have not undergone the socialization which only the family can provide.  The disorganized families have failed to provide for their emotional needs and have not provided the discipline and habits which are necessary for personality development.  Because the disorganized family has failed in its function as a socializing agency, it has handicapped the children in their relations to the institutions in the community.  Moreover, family disorganization has been partially responsible for a large amount of juvenile delinquency and adult crime among Negroes.  Since the widespread family disorganization among Negroes has resulted from the failure of the father to play the role in family life required by American society, the mitigation of this problem must await those changes in the Negro and American society which will enable the Negro father to play the role required of him.”

After his study, Moynihan suggested revising the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program because payments were only provided when a man did not reside in the house.  AFDC unwittingly perpetuated single mother households by disincentivizing poor women from keeping men in the home in order to receive a welfare paycheck.  In conclusion, Moynihan recommended that “a national effort … must be directed towards the question of family structure.”

Unfortunately, Moynihan’s report and conclusions were denounced as racist and stereotypical.  Critics including the NAACP, and African American politicians including Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton framed it as an attempt to undermine civil rights.  Yet despite a cadre of critics, the report has been hailed as prophetic by many contemporary politicians, authors, and social scientists.

Indeed, today’s statistics seem to bolster Moynihan’s theory.  The number of out-of-wedlock births has increased for all races.  According to National Review Online, about 41 percent of all births today occur out of wedlock.  Almost 75 percent of African American births, 67 percent of American Indian births, 54 percent of Hispanic births, 29 percent of Caucasian births, and 17 percent of Asian births also occur outside of marriage.  Moynihan attempted to fix the problem when less than a quarter of African American births occurred outside of marriage—now all but one racial group surpasses that percentage.

President Johnson’s goal for the War on Poverty was “not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it, and, above all, to prevent it.”  According to Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post, the War on Poverty has decreased the poverty rate from 26 percent to 16 percent.  The removal of the government safety net, however, raises the poverty rate to 29 percent—3 points higher than before the War on Poverty began.  The War on Poverty, then, has succeeded insofar as it has relieved the symptoms of poverty, but it has glaringly failed to cure or prevent it.

All of the evidence merits further consideration of Moynihan’s report and proposed solution: a national effort directed towards the reparation of the patrimonial family structure.  Perhaps the War on Poverty could be made more effective if familial stability and the patrimonial family were held as normatively good, in the same way that education or health care are.

In short, the culture can only be made more accepting of families if the importance and inherent goodness of stable, two-parent, mother and father families is acknowledged.  One of the best methods for the revitalization of the family in contemporary society, then, is to manifest how strong families address the root causes of contemporary, increasingly salient social issues.  If policies and societal practices recognizing, benefitting, and encouraging the formation of strong families are implemented—even on a micro-scale—then, as Cardinal Erdo stated, family can truly serve as a fresh start for a “renewed human civilization.”

Bob Burkett is a former editor of the Irish Rover and a current fellow at the John Jay Institute.  He enjoys malapropism in all of its varieties, particularly when used in name pairs like “Tilia and Lim.”  He can be reached at rburkett@alumni.nd.edu.