“It is my view that our society can be no more stable than the foundation of individual family units upon which it rests. Our government, our institutions, our schools…indeed, our way of life are dependent on healthy marriages and loyalty to the vulnerable little children around our feet.”

— James Dobson

We watched “It Happened One Night” released in 1934 and still rated an amazing 8.1 on IMDB. It is a black and white film with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in a story about a young spoiled rich woman who briefly falls into normal 1934 society without any money or resources. It’s a love story, well told with good acting, likable characters and interesting settings. It’s depiction of the super wealthy and common people in 1934 struck me as significant. The rich were depicted about the same as they are today, nice cars, fashionable clothes, surrounded by servants/employees and pursuing everything wealth affords. However, the common people everywhere, as the scene moves from Miami across the nation up to New York, are all very similar working to survive, unpretentious, enjoying simple pleasures, enduring common struggles, and seeking the essential purposes of life, love and family. 

I wondered whether the common people of today have anything in common with American society in 1934. I know it was just a movie, but I think the strength of America does rest in the common people, often referred to as the middle class, but actually representing those from the poorest families to those making a very good living, but not acting like royalty, wound up in leisure or promoting their own fame and fortune. Though many in 1934 were still recovering from the Great Depression, the qualities depicted were still evident in subsequent decades, perhaps to the end of the century. What has happened to the common American people? 

Devastation of the family, rather than economic measures, have taken the greatest toll on the middle classes, which at its foundation is a father and mother who nurture children who in turn grow to start and maintain a vibrant family themselves. The family is resilient, because it was established by God. “ ” ‘Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ ” (Matthew 19:4-6) The enemy seeks to destroy the family through divorce, abortion, pornography, feminism, sexual immorality, perversion, pedophilia, humanism, socialism, and more. Let us seek God and live. Lord Yeshua, strengthen our families.