G.K. Chesterton on the Fundamental Significance of the Family

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

5 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2022

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, comments on an important book he is reading: The Story of the Family: G.K. Chesterton on the Only State That Creates and Loves Its Own Citizens, edited by Dale Ahlquist (Ignatius Press, 2022). In this compilation of texts from Chesterton, he shows that “society is built on the family.” He eloquently explains that one cannot free something from what it is by nature, including marriage and the family. You cannot free a marriage from the union of a man and a woman, the natural end of which is the bearing and rearing of children. There is no other social relation parallel to the natural and “mutual attraction of the sexes,” and by missing this point, the modern world has fallen into countless “vices and follies,” including same-sex sexuality and transgenderism. Chesterton shows that undercutting the “triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child,” destroys any civilization that once cherished them. Seeking to thwart nature, we succeed only in cutting off the very limb on which we are seated. Ultimately, “the war against the family” is a “war against God and the Church.” The road back is through “the story of the family.”

See The Story of the Family: G.K. Chesterton on the Only State That Creates and Loves Its Own Citizens, edited by Dale Ahlquist (Ignatius Press, 2022) https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-story-of-the-family-g-k-chesterton-on-the-only-state-that-creates-and-loves-its-own-citizens/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, this is Hank Hennigrath, president at the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answerman broadcast with another Hank Unplug short.
0:21.6	I'm in process of reading a book by Dale Alquist.
0:26.7	It's the story of the family.
0:30.4	It's really the story of the family as seen through the eyes of G.K. Chesterton.
0:36.4	There are a lot of great Chesterton quotes in the book. I haven't memorized
0:42.9	them yet, but I can paraphrase them. One of them is the statement by G.K. Chesterton
0:52.3	that you cannot free things from their inherent nature. You can try to free a tiger
1:01.1	from a cage, but you can never free him from his stripes. If you even try to free a camel from the burden of his hump, you may well be freeing him from being a camel at all.
1:17.8	If you seek to free a triangle from the prison of its three sides, you only succeed in bringing the triangle to a lamentable end.
1:29.4	That's a paraphrase.
1:31.0	It's said, I'm sure, far more eloquently by Chesterton.
1:35.2	But basically, the point is you cannot free something from what it is.
1:42.8	And he uses this quote to make a point
1:46.0	regarding the family and marriage.
1:49.0	You cannot free a marriage from the union of a man and a woman,
1:54.0	the proper end of which, of course, is to bear children.
1:58.0	There is nothing in any other social relations in any way parallel to the mutual
2:06.0	attraction of the sexes. And by missing this simple point, the modern world has fallen into a
2:15.4	hundred vices and follies,
2:19.3	follies ranging from same-sex sexuality to transgenderism.
2:24.3	By seeking to destroy the triangle of truisms,
2:28.3	we succeed only in destroying civilizations
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Christian Research Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Christian Research Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.