Home is where the freedom is!

The greatest of liberty lies not in the rampant individualism of a college bound bachelor nor in the smiling face of the habitual barfly but in the home. As G.K. Chesterton noted, “this institution of the home… is older than law, and stands outside the State.” While government and laws can, and often do, affect our homes and the family that resides there, the home remains the a place where the vast majority of us can experience true liberty.

For decades we have been taught that the family is a safe shelter of routine in a world of uncertainty. In fact we are told that this shelter is crucial to a healthy and well rounded adulthood. If a family does what it is supposed to do then it gives us a systematic and orderly way to “fit in” with the rest of society. When a family fails then we have unruly and undisciplined school children, rampant drug use, teenage pregnancy and the like. When individuals don’t fit into society’s understanding of a healthy and orderly existence, the family is usually the first suspect.

Yet this is to have everything backwards. The family is not a servant of our society’s expectations. It not a training ground for the laws and limitations of the State. Our homes are places of escape from such rules; they are places where we can be truly free. The family is the place of constant experimentation and adjustment. It is a place for pushing the boundaries and testing the traditions. The family is anything but a servant. It is, by its natural institution, a wild and unruly place.

And yet this institution is under attack. From every side we find the fencing in of the family and the loss of man’s greatest liberty.