Pat Fagan Says Married Intact God Worshipping Families Are the Answer to Today’s Social and Economic Problems

“The single biggest political act you can do is to be chaste and to get your fellow twenty year olds all across the country to embrace chastity,” Dr. Pat Fagan, the Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, told the students and faculty at Christendom College on September 22. Fagan’s talk, which was part of college’s Major Speaker Program, explained how, from a sociological viewpoint, the married intact heterosexual family that worships God weekly has the most positive effect on children and society.

Fagan revealed an impressive array of sociological data that demonstrated that children raised in families that worship regularly and stay together were most likely to perform better in school, avoid drug use, and have more fulfilling lives.

Based on the data, Fagan proposed that a key public policy, which needs be put in place, is the safeguarding of the religious freedom for the intact married family that worships God weekly.

“The family needs to have its full freedom with cooperation from the pastors and the teachers in raising their kids,” Fagan said.

He highlighted three institutions – family, church, and school – as the “people forming institutions,” and warned of the challenges facing by them.

“I’m an immigrant,” Irish born Fagan explained. “When I came to America, I could feel the freedom everywhere, except in one area, and that was in education. In all other western countries, parents had freedom of choice to send their kids to a public or private or religious school—not in America. And the roots of that go back to the 1820’s and anti-Catholicism. And that major flaw has stuck with America and it’s time to get rid of it.”

Fagan also examined the history of the cultural destruction of the family, highlighting key figures from the National Organization of Women and the judiciary, as well as Barack Obama. He lamented that the sociological health of America was horrible and that the only hope for the future was the family.

“The married intact family that worships God weekly is the only way to save the future of America,” he said.

He encouraged the students to live chaste, virtuous, and loving lives. Like the early Christians who lived amongst dark pagan times, the witness of strong loving families will save our culture, he told them.

You can watch this insightful lecture in the video below or download it at Christendom on iTunes U, christendom.edu/itunesu.

About Dr. Pat Fagan
At the Family Research Council, Dr. Pat Fagan directs the work of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI), a branch of the Council that focuses on studying the effects of the relationship between marriage and religion on society. Fagan has worked for the Free Congress Foundation, assisted Indiana Senator Dan Coats, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Family and Community Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under George H.W. Bush, and was a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation for thirteen years before joining FRC.