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What are family values? People throw this term around as if it is intrinsically meaningful, but it is hardly as clear as people seem to believe. Family values, what a group of people related by blood or marriage try to live their lives by, does not mean the same thing to everyone. Assuming otherwise is to believe that there is one set of principles by which everyone should live, and the government should take a role in determining what these should be.

If one family believes that education is the most valuable way a life can be lived, and another believes that it is reverence to Jesus, who should dictate which one is true? The government? In another example, if one family believes that children should be seen and not heard, and another believes that children are a vital part of family life who should choose which way a family conducts its business? NOT the government.

There is one group of beliefs that has become uniformly referred to as "family values." Political and citizen groups who press the importance of family values are typically requesting that the rest of the country accept their values. They may call them family values but what they really mean is that "they are my values and everybody else should live the way I do." And, I want the government to force this way of life on everybody else, though I certainly don't want the government telling me what I can and can't do.

Rather than asking if family values is an issue the presidential candidates should care about perhaps we should be asking if families themselves are an issue the presidential candidates should care about. If our country put families at the forefront of all issues and decided what is best based on what is best for families it will demonstrate that families are valued. Shouldn't this really be what we are asking?

Should we do what is best for Haliburton or for the people on Main Street? Should we be promoting a government that promotes the granting of golden parachutes, or one that allows people to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads? Shouldn't family values mean a way of governing that focuses on benefiting the family?

Unfortunately, the phrase "family values" has come to mean anti-abortion, forcing schools to teach Christian values as a doctrine, no gun control laws and choosing a school's books and curriculum based on one group's beliefs. I believe it is time that we change our focus from one group's "family values" and start focusing on valuing families.

Learn more about this author, Frances Simon.
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