The World Peace Blessing

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The World Peace Blessing
U P F
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The World Peace Blessing

• The Significance of Marriage and Family
• for World Peace in the 21st Century

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The World Peace Blessing Presentation 1

• The Need for Family Renewal

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The Primary Human Institution
The family is the most important human
institution. Without it we would not exist.
Through it we transmit language, culture, ethics
and core values.
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The Primary Human Institution
The quality of character, and the quality of the
love of the man and the woman, as husband and
wife and as father and mother, makes them the
pillars of the family.
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The Primary Human Institution

• Children need to experience the love and
  security of parental care in order to develop
  into happy and mature individuals.
• Without such an experience and example they lack
  the skills necessary to build their own family.

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The Primary Human Institution

• A good experience in the family is the foundation
  of good character.
• When children do not experience love in the
  home, they may seek fulfillment in other,
  self-destructive, anti-social behaviours.
• Problems in the family are at the root of many
  social ills.

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The Family is Sacred
The family---marriage and parenthood--- is
regarded as sacred by the worlds religions.
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Religions Honour the Family
When the personal life is cultivated, the family
will be regulated when the family is regulated
the state will be in order when the state is in
order, there will be peace throughout the
world. The Great Learning
When the family declines, ancient traditions are
destroyed. With them are lost the spiritual
foundation for life, and the family loses its
sense of unity. Bhagavad-Gita 1.40
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Religions Honour the Family
When a man honors his father and mother, God
says, I regard it as though I had dwelt among
them and they had honored me. Talmud
If a man does not know how to manage his own
household, how can he care for Gods church? I
Timothy 3.5
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Religions Honour the Family
Lord, give us joy in our wives and children, and
make us models for the God-fearing. Quran 25.74
My father, thank you for petting me my mother,
thank you for making me comfortable thank you
for robbing me with wisdom, which is more
important than robbing me with clothes. Yoruba
Nuptial Chant (Africa)
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Family Breakdown has Social Consequences
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Family Breakdown

• From 1901 to 1970, divorce was up 700
• From 1970 to 1992, divorce was up 270
• Within 6 months 50 have doubts, 30 report
  big fights, 4 separated for at least one night
• 1970 to 1995 Married couples with children
  declined by a third. Single parent families
  nearly doubled

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Impact on Children

• Divorce leading cause of child depression
• 75 of adolescent patients in drug abuse centers
  are from single-parent homes
• 63 of youth suicides are of single-parents
• 70 of teen pregnancies are from single-parent
  homes
• 75 of juveniles in jail are from single-parent
  homes

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Impact on Children

• In 1960, 243,000 children were living with a
  single parent who never married. By 1993 this
  figure had risen to 6,300,000
• From 1979-88, the suicide rate for girls rose
  27, boys rose 71 (10-14 years old)
• In 1970 1 in 20 girls under 15 had sex. By 2001
  it had risen to 1 in 3

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Social Decline

• 50 of all single mothers are living in poverty
• The cost of teenage pregnancies in 1985 alone was
  16.65 billion, paid through welfare benefits.
• In 1990, more than one third of all murders were
  committed by someone under the age of 21
• Since 1960, the juvenile crime rate is up 600

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Behavioral Risks Associated with Loss of
Virginity in 12-16 year old Males
Non-virgin
Virgin
Virgin
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
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Sexual Disorder and Family Breakdown

• Sexual promiscuity, infidelity and pornography
  lead to sexually transmitted disease, divorce,
  and family breakdown
• Family breakdown undermines social stability,
  good citizenship, educational development, and
  contributes to crime, youth alienation and
  suicide
• To build a world of lasting peace, we need to
  restore true love, true parenthood and true
  family

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Impact of the Sexual Revolution
The most powerful means to destroy society is to
destroy its one absolutely fundamental building
block, the family - the only institution where
most of us learn lifes most important lesson,
unselfish love The family is destroyed by
destroying its foundation, stable marriage
Marriage is destroyed by loosening its glue,
sexual fidelity fidelity is destroyed by the
sexual revolution.
Peter Kreeft Ecumenical Jihad Ecumenism and the
Culture War
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The Need for Marriage Renewal
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The Need for Family Renewal

• To deal with the root of problems we need to take
  a new look at the family and how it can be
  empowered to deal with the increasing freedoms
  and influences of the twenty first century world
• To be successful, it will need to have the active
  participation of families, educational
  institutions, governments, religious bodies and
  the media
• To build a world of lasting peace, the values of
  true love based on the family, should become the
  foundation for social relationships upon which
  all sectors of society develop

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The Need for Family Renewal

• Building a healthy family begins in the home,
  where children observe their parents
  relationship. The family is the primary place for
  children to learn about love.
• As teenagers, children spend most of their waking
  hours in educational institutions and therefore a
  character based program on love, marriage and
  family should support good family values.
• To support the development of healthy families,
  social policies should be evaluated based on
  whether they strengthen or weaken the family. The
  mass media and entertainment industry can play an
  important role in helping to strengthen the
  family.

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The Importance of Sexual Abstinence before
Marriage

• The focus should be on developing character,
  talents, capacities, and virtues, to become a
  good man, husband and father or a good woman,
  wife and mother
• Premarital sex is detrimental to our character
  development and to our capacity to establish a
  good marriage and family

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The Significance of Marriage

• A partnership of man and woman
• A sacred, exclusive and eternal commitment
• Which forms the most fulfilling, secure and
  constructive base for
• sexual/conjugal love
• creation of new life
• establishment of lineage
• raising/educating children

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Types of Love on the Family
The family has the potential to manifest most
fully, Gods ideal of true love.

• Childrens love
• Brotherly and sisterly love
• Marital love
• Parental love

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The Blessing Movement Building One Family under
God, One Family at a Time

• Affirms the sacred and social value of marriage
  and family
• A public commitment to one universal human family
  bound together in solidarity and mutual respect,
  beyond the barriers of race, religion,
  nationality, and culture
• Each of us has a family-building responsibility
  
• as a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a child
  that contributes to the broader task of
  peace-building