Is promotion of the family a common good and profitable? These questions appear to be the point of contention for corporate America due to confusion in the definition of “family.” Consider the Human Rights Commission report (buying guide) of companies that promote the lesbian and gay agenda versus those that do not. The Human Rights Commission promotes lesbian and gay initiatives especially the promotion of same-sex unions as equal to heterosexual unions. The commission attempts to call to attention to companies that are not “gay-friendly” and thus, according to them, “discriminatory” in their actions due to their perceived lack of support for the causes important to the commission. The commission wants companies to recognize the effect upon their bottom lines if they promote these lesbian and gay initiatives.
A natural question arises from this article: why? Does it make cents ($$) for a company to promote an ideology that makes no sense for the common good of society in order to affect its bottom line? We should look at this question in the light of what is the vocation (that is to say, the very purpose) of society
The vocation of humanity is to show forth the image of God and to be transformed in to the image of the Father’s only son. This vocation takes a personal form since each of us is called to enter into the divine beatitude; it also concerns the human community as a whole (CCC 1877).
Does Promoting the Family Make Sense?
Why promote the natural order of the family? A couple of things come to mind when we look at the natural order of family.
- There is natural mutual love expressed between man and woman in matrimony.
- There is a greater awareness of the dignity of the human person (Familiaris Consortio, 6)
Man and woman are called to a total self-giving love that is exclusive to them within the bonds of Holy Matrimony. This unique gift is crucial towards the progression of a just and faithful society. (FC, 14). Society as a whole benefits from the proper order of family consisting of father, mother, and, children. The first task of the family is to live in fidelity not only to each other but to Christ Himself a genuine effort to develop an authentic community of persons. This authenticity directs parents to provide for the needs of their children. There is someone to care for, to nourish, and to foster a genuine relationship rooted in love.
Promoting the Family Makes Cents as Well as Sense
The family serves as the vital cell of society and both complement each other (FC, 42, 45). The argument from HRC does not reference how the gay agenda benefits society, let alone benefitting the financial revenue of corporations. It only references how it benefits their agenda of “equality” regarding same-sex unions.
Here then lies a choice.
1. A company can assist its bottom line according to the premise of the HRC based on the idea that more homosexuals and people who support the gay agenda will become customers of theirs, while at the same time weakening the very structure in society (the family) that naturally procreates and hence builds up the economy.
Or
2. A company can assist its bottom line by supporting the continual development of the family: mother and father having children, promoting a sound moral environment for their children and directing their consumer financial actions to provide for their children within a firmly grounded social reality that will continue to grow, mature, and desire basic goods and services to help their family grow.
As a father of three wonderful children on earth and several more in Heaven, I appreciate a business that affirms the roles of me and my wife as father and mother to our children because it aides the common good of society. This means that I and others who, like me, understand the value of the family to the future of society have our own use for this Human Rights Commission report. A writer for World Net Daily went through the report to show how we can use it to create a list of the most family-friendly companies. Valuable information for those of us who would like to demonstrate consumer loyalty to companies that are not promoting the “gay” agenda.
