Lesson video

Hi there, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marks, and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today, we're going to be using not only the discipline of theology, but also social science to look at the purpose of families and we'll think about the different roles that families can have and people have within them.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So, by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to explain the different purposes of families and Christian teachings on the purposes of families.

So, let's start with our keywords, then.

Family, traditionally a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit.

Procreate or procreation, having a child, seen as a duty in many religions.

Purpose, the reason for which something is done or created or why something exists.

So, today's lesson, we'll have two sections, the purpose of families, Christianity and the purpose of families.

So let's start with our first section, then, the purpose of Families.

Andeep, Sofia, Lucas, and Aisha are discussing their views on the purpose of families.

And Andeep says, "I think a family should be there to support you.

For example, in getting a good education." Sofia says, "I think that a family should be there to give children love and kindness." Lucas says, "I think a family should support you emotionally." And Aisha says, "A family should be there to support you through thick and thin." What other purposes could there be? Maybe you agree with one of these in particular, or there's other purposes you could think of.

Pause the video and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, let's have a look as social scientists at some survey data, which can tell us a bit about what people think the purpose of families are.

So, in 2022, a UK survey on family life asked parents and children, "Please tell us, in your own words, what family means to you." And let's see if some of those ideas that we've had already matched with the survey results.

Well, the most common answers included from parents: everything, life, purpose, love, care, joy, support and trust, safety, security, stability, a unit, nuclear, biological, includes descriptions of the family unit, togetherness, time together, and memories.

This is what the parents said family meant to them.

And the children said love and kindness, the unit, which includes references to descriptions of the family unit, care, help, looked after, support and communication, everything, security and safety, happy, fun, activities, and holidays.

So this is the most common responses from parents and children about what family means to them and I wonder if there are things that are similar and different between them.

What do you think is the most important differences we could have here? Take a look at both the list again and see which things seem the same and which things are different.

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well, we've definitely got similarities here about what a family is in terms of the family unit.

Could it be biological? Could it be parents and children? But we've also got the idea of it being somewhere that's safe and secure.

We've got a strong idea here about love and care, and what I really love is the children have mentioned being happy and things about fun, activities, and holidays.

So, let's do a quick check, then.

The most important purpose for a family for most people is to give money to each other.

Is that true or false based on the survey data we saw a minute ago? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is false, but why? Well, it's false because according to those survey results, most people value families for being able to live life together with love and kindness.

And actually, none of them really mentioned money, although they did obviously speak about security.

Well done.

So, attitudes towards the purpose of family depend on the context.

So we had lots of different ideas already this lesson, especially in those survey results, different things about what family means to people and it can depend on where you live, your culture, and the time that you're living in.

And as social scientists today, this is a very important thing for us to think about how the society that you're in might influence those views that you have.

So, in some cultures, it might be the norm that you look after elderly relatives by them living with you.

So they might come in and live in your house with you as an extended family together.

But in other cultures, the norm or the thing that people do might be to support our elderly relatives by supporting them financially or helping them to go and live in an old people's home or a residential place so that they have that kind of care.

Both cultures are respecting and caring for their elderly relatives, but might be doing in a different way.

In some cultures, again, it's imperative, it's very important to have children so the idea of procreation is valued and seen as something very important within families.

but in other cultures, fewer people might think procreation is essential and that you can have family units without necessarily having children.

So, let's look at another survey now which asks people their views on couples and people who do not have children, so people who've made a choice not to have children, not to procreate, and this asks people's views about that.

And this was completed at two different times, over 10 years apart.

And as social scientists, we're not only interested in how different places and different cultures may have different views on the purpose of families, but also how that might have changed over time and what might have led to those changes.

So, let's have a look at this data, which is gonna show us 10 years apart.

So in the year 2006/7, we've got 8% disapproving or strongly disapproving of people who do not have children, 70% somewhat in the middle, saying they don't approve or disapprove and then 22% saying they approve or strongly approve, so they kind of agree with it and think that it's a good thing to do.

In 2018 and '19, we've got 6% disapproving or strongly disapproving, so saying that they think it's wrong or that shouldn't be done, people not to have children, 53% somewhere in the middle, neither approving nor disapproving.

and then we've got 41% here approving or strongly approving of couples or people who are choosing not to have children.

So, have a look at this data and see what has happened to the number of people that approve or strongly approve of people not having children.

Look at that final column.

What's actually happened in that data in those 10 years? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a minute.

So it's gone up almost double from 22% to 41%, suggesting that more people approve of people choosing not to have children or making that choice to not have children.

So more people are approving of that over that 10-year period.

Can we think of why that might be? Why might those attitudes have changed over time to people who don't have children, then? Pause the video and have another think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, there can be lots of reasons why these attitudes have changed.

It could be to do with the number of people who belong to certain religions or follow certain teachings in certain religions decreasing or changing, changes in people's personal finances, being more understanding if people feel they can't afford to have children.

A general acceptance of people choosing not to have children, it could be to do with overpopulation in the world and people's awareness of that and the impact that could have on the climate.

Lots of reasons why, in the last 10 years, that might have increased the number of people approving of people not having children.

So, let's do another check, then.

So which of these has seen the least change, the least difference between the two numbers? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

The answer is the group that disapproved or strongly disapproved has only changed from 8% to 6%.

It's gone down by 2%.

The other two have moved quite a bit.

So maybe the people who strongly disapproved back 10 years ago still remained with that view that they strongly disapproved.

So we can see the biggest change is the group of people moving from neither approved nor disapprove to strongly approve or approving.

That's where the changes happened, not those people who disapproved or strongly disapproved to begin with.

So Diane and Alan are gonna explain to us their views on the purpose of family and their humanists, and here they are with their humanist family here.

And Alan says, "We believe the purpose of family is to love and respect each other.

We want to support our child to be the best they can be through creating a safe and respectful home." So here, we got that word safe again and to do with love and protection.

And remember, safety and security came through quite strongly from the children and the parents in the survey we looked at earlier.

And Diane says, "As humanists, we don't believe that a purpose of family is to bring our children up in a faith.

When they're older, they can make their own decisions about following a religion or not.

It's not for us to decide for our child." So, whilst they are humanists themselves, Diane is saying here she's not gonna say that her child has to be a humanist later.

If they want to be a religion, they can, but they don't see bringing up their child in that religion as part of their duty as a family and part of their purpose of their family.

So, as a humanist couple, Diane and Alan are raising a child but not necessarily going to raise that child to be humanist because they can decide for themselves later what they would like to be if they want to be a faith or not, but they don't see the purpose of their family is to raise their child in a faith.

So, let's do a practise task to see what we've learned, then.

So here, you've got part of an evaluation question, which is using a statement about the purpose of families.

So the statement is, "The purpose of families is to educate children into a faith," and you are going to evaluate this statement.

And in your answer, you're going to give reasoned arguments to support a different point of view, and you may refer to non-religious arguments.

So this is one section of an evaluation question and so we're not writing in support of this statement, we're thinking of a different point of view that we could raise to this.

Here, it's saying the purpose of families is to educate children into a faith and you could use non-religious arguments if you want to in answering this.

You can think about what Diane and Alan just said or you could think about all those different purpose of families that we've already seen so far in this lesson.

You're gonna write one paragraph using non-religious arguments to support a different point of view.

So if the question is the purpose of families is to educate children into a faith, what's a different point of view you could have? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

That was some good thinking there.

So your statement was, "The purpose of families is to educate children into a faith," and you were writing a paragraph using non-religious arguments to support a different point of view.

And your answer may have looked something like this.

Some people, such as humanists, would disagree with the statement as they believe it's not for families to choose what children should believe or not.

They may say it's more important for families to focus on creating a loving, stable environment.

Survey data shows that both parents and children have said families are important because they provide a caring and supportive environment.

This can be done without having to bring children up in a faith, so it's not the purpose of families.

So here, we've used some points from Diane and Alan, who are a humanist family that we met earlier, but also, what I really like about this answer is bringing in that survey data evidence showing how we're working as social scientists today.

Well done.

So, onto our second section, then, Christianity and the purpose of families.

So we've looked already so far in this lesson at non-religious views about the family and then also general views from survey data about the purpose of families.

And now, we're going to think about specifically Christian teachings and beliefs around the purpose of families.

And we've got a denomination tree here because there are many different denominations within Christianity that may have slightly different understandings of Christian teachings and different sources of authority that they draw upon to bring these ideas together, so we can remember that there is this diversity within Christianity.

Most Christians, however, would agree that general purposes of family are procreation, so that's having children, stability, security, and the protection of children which came through very strongly in that survey data, didn't it? And also educating children in the faith, Christianity.

So, this would be a difference to the views we have from Diane and Alan earlier on as our humanist couple.

Now, Christians will look to the Bible to find teachings on the purpose of family and look to those sources of authority to help them interpret those Bible teachings.

So, let's look at the Bible as a source of authority to where there may be some ideas about the purpose of family and how people should live as a family following the ideas in the Bible.

Well, one important passage is here from the New Testament Book of Timothy, and it says, "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." So how could this passage inform Christian ideas about how to live as a family and the purpose of family, then? Pause a video and have a think.

You can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, this has got quite clear teachings here, hasn't it? About providing for your relatives and looking after them and how actually, that is even worse than someone who's not even a Christian if you are a Christian and not providing for your relatives.

And here's Fergus, who's an Anglican Christian, which just means the Church of England and he's gonna tell us what he thinks.

He says, "I believe that this means we should look after our family members.

This includes food, shelter, and emotional support is part of being a good Christian." And lots of those ideas came through in the survey results at the start of the lesson, didn't they? But the Bible also speaks about procreation as a purpose of family.

So here, we've got quite an important verse that's used to talk about procreation and you might recognise it from being at the very beginning of the Bible in the Book of Genesis, and this is being spoken to Adam and Eve right after creation.

And it says, "God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

'" So what could this suggest about procreation, then? Pause the video and have a think.

You can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Yes, this phrase, "Be fruitful and increase in number," so this idea of populating the earth.

Remember, Adam and Eve are seen to be the first humans on earth, so the idea is to populate the earth and.

So this verse is used a lot around procreation and having children and that duty because it's being specifically told to Adam and Eve to do this.

Let's see what Rachel thinks about this.

She's a Plymouth Brethren Christian, and she says, "This was God's instruction to Adam and Eve at the beginning of time.

I believe this is also God's wish for us today.

We should procreate and have children to fill the earth." So, the type of Christian that Rachel is would believe that this story was literally true and that these words are direct from God, and they still apply in the same way to us today.

So she takes that to mean that we should be procreating and having children to fill the earth.

Let's do a quick check.

The Book of Genesis in the Bible tells Christians to have one boy and one girl, have many babies, be fruitful, increase in number, or only have nuclear families? Pause the video and have a think which of those is correct and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

So the phrase was, "Be fruitful and increase in number." You may have ticked something like have many babies because that's how it's interpreted by some people, but the correct phrase was, "Be fruitful and increase in number." And that's in the Bible.

Well done.

So, I said earlier that different denominations of Christianity have sources of authority that they turn to to help them understand the teachings in the Bible.

And in the Roman Catholic denomination, there is the Catholic Catechism, which has been put together with explanations of how to live out those teachings of the Bible in a more modern context 'cause, obviously, the Bible was written many, many years ago.

And this highlights the purpose of family, "The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute." So what is this suggesting the purpose of family is and particularly the role that parents have? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well, there's this idea here about education and actually, in social science, sociologists look at this very, very closely as an idea of how we are socialised into living in our society and our parents are the kind of first place where this is taught to us how to behave and how to belong and what we should do to fit in with our society.

And it's actually called primary socialisation.

It's a really important part of social science, this idea of how children are raised and educated by their parents, so we know that they have a very crucial role, and this is what's being highlighted here.

And Danielle, who's a Roman Catholic Christian, is going to explain more.

"The Catechism emphasises the importance of family in teaching children.

This includes teaching about our faith through Christian teachings, but also ensuring that they have a good education to succeed in life.

It is a key purpose of families." So, if those sorts of authorities focused on the purpose of families having the role in procreation, but then also the purpose of families where the parents have a role in educating children, then what about the role that children might have within that family? Well, in the New Testament, we have got this, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

'Honour your father and mother,' which is the first commandment with a promise, 'so that you may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.

'" So this passage here is giving a role to children.

Can you find that role that is given to children? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well, the role that's given to children in this passage is to honour your father and mother, which might mean listening to them.

It might mean following their instructions and wanting to learn from them and respecting them.

And actually, this is drawing on one of the Ten Commandments that you might know of, one of them being to honour your father and mother.

And that's in the Old Testament part of the Bible.

And those Ten Commandments are seen as really important, and this is linking to them by using that same language.

So this is really showing us that there's the purpose of family is for children to also honour and respect their parents.

So Andrew, who's an Orthodox Christian, is going to explain.

"When I read this in the Bible, it reminds me that if I respect my mom and dad and I do what they tell me, it is for the best.

I don't always agree at the time, but I know that they're doing it because they love me and they want the best for me." And another important passage which can help us understand the purpose of a family is also found in Ephesians, where the Bible also emphasises the importance of a Christian upbringing as a key purpose of family.

So here we've got this passage.

So here we have this passage.

"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." So what is this telling us about that importance of a Christian upbringing, then? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well, here we've got this phrase, "training and instruction of the Lord." So it's not just about having a safe and secure environment, there's also that role in the purpose of a family in bringing children up within the faith, bringing children up in the faith as part of their Christian upbringing.

So that then links to those ideas in social science about socialisation, bringing up the children to be the religion that the parents are.

Remember, that was something that Diane and Alan were not doing as a humanist family.

And David, who's an Anglican Christian, which is Church of England, says here, "I believe the purpose of family is to bring up my children as good Christians.

I do this by taking them to church and reading the Bible together.

I believe that God has blessed me with children, so I should introduce them to the faith as the Bible says I should." And you will often find in churches there's many activities that are done for families and for children in particular to help families with this purpose that they have.

So we've seen here there's many purposes of family in Christianity, and let's together give one purpose of family in Christianity.

Mm.

To procreate, yes, because there's that instruction in Genesis to "be fruitful and increase in numbers," so procreation could be one purpose of family in Christianity.

So over to you, then, give another purpose of family in Christianity.

Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

I've got here to educate children in Christianity 'cause we had those phrases about training and bringing up children in the way of the Lord and then also that role of education that we had in the Catholic Catechism.

We could have also said to provide stability, security, and protection for children.

Well done.

So time for another practise task to see what we've learned then.

Alex has already started answering this question, and we're going to finish it for him.

And the question is, explain two religious teachings on the purpose of family.

And what we need to do is refer to sacred writings or another source of religious belief and teaching in your answer.

And we've had lots so far in this lesson, those different teachings and ideas from the Bible.

However, he has forgotten to refer to sacred writings or another source of religious belief and teaching in his answer, so we're going to have certain points from him, but he's not put those sources in.

Let's have a look.

We're gonna read what he's written, and for one of his paragraphs, name a source of authority, say what it teaches, and apply it to the purpose of family.

So Alex's points are here.

One Christian view on the purpose of families is that parents should procreate and have children and then another Christian purpose of families is to educate the children in the faith.

We're going to name a source of authority that helps with that point, and say what it teaches, and then apply it to the purpose of families.

So pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

So, the sources you could have drawn on are: when Alex says one Christian view on the purpose of families is that parents should procreate and have children, you could name the source, the Bible says, and what it teaches, "be fruitful and multiply," and then apply that to the purpose of families, this shows Christians they should have children as God has commanded them to.

The second point that Alex made was another Christian purpose of families is to educate children in the faith and the source could be that the Bible says, "bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord," and this shows that Christians, that they should bring up their children to follow Christian teachings.

So well done there.

So, let's summarise what we've learned today then, the purpose of families.

There are different purposes of family.

These purposes include procreation, stability, security, protection of children, educating children in a faith.

Surveys are being conducted to find out people's views on families.

These show that love, kindness, and support are important purposes of a family for many people.

Attitudes towards procreation and people not having children have changed over time with more people approving of people not having children now than in the past.

And Christian teachings suggest the purpose of a family is to provide, to teach Christianity, and to procreate and educate.

So well done for your hard work today and I hope to see you again soon.

Buh-bye.