General Conference, April 2015 

I was deeply moved at conference time to hear Elder L. Tom Perry powerfully declare, in what was to be his final sermon, that “Family is the center of life and is the key to eternal happiness.”

He recalled his experience of attending a colloquium on marriage and family at the Vatican in Rome, Italy a few months earlier, where representatives from 14 different faiths spoke about what is happening to the family in today’s world. (1)

Pope Francis opened the first session saying, “We now live in a culture of the temporary, in which more and more people are simply giving up on marriage as a public commitment. This revolution in manners and morals has often flown the flag of freedom, but in fact it has brought spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings. . . .” In speaking to the rising generation, he said, “It is important that they do not give themselves over to the poisonous [mentality] of the temporary but rather be revolutionaries with the courage to seek true and lasting love, going against the common pattern.”

Elder Perry continued that, “As I listened to the widest imaginable variety of worldwide religious leaders, I heard them agree completely with each other and express support for one another’s beliefs on the sanctity of the institution of marriage and of the importance of families as the basic unit of society. I felt a powerful sense of commonality and unity with them.” He said one of his favorites was when a Muslim scholar from Iran quoted two paragraphs from our very own Proclamation on the Family.

A Choral Celebration of the Proclamation on the Family

In 2002 Marvin Payne and Steven Kapp Perry wrote and produced a marvelous 60-minute production “FAMILY: A Joyous Proclamation,” a musical representation of the Church’s “Proclamation on the Family.” While written in English, it has been translated into Portuguese and performed in Brazil. Two hundred people from twenty stakes in Sao Paulo were involved in this theatrical presentation. Over 10,000 people attended the fifteen performances. (I have just learned that they will be performing it again next year.)

I will include here a few words of script and the song “Father, Mother, We Need Your Love” sung by a children’s choir.

Man: I am Father—I will love by finding my family what they need to live, and by protecting them from hurt and evil. Their Mother will help me. We are equal.

Woman: I am Mother—I will love by feeding and teaching my children. Their father will help me. We are equal.

Father, Mother, We Need Your Love:

 

How the Church Distinguishes Itself from the Rest of the World

Elder Perry said, “If all of those faiths and religions essentially agreed on what marriage should be, and if they all agreed on the value that should be placed on home and family relationships, then how are we any different? Here is the answer: while it was wonderful to see and feel that we had so much in common with the rest of the world in regard to our families, only we have the perspective of the restored gospel.”

“What the restored gospel brings to the discussion on marriage and family is so large and so relevant that it cannot be overstated: we make the subject eternal! We take the commitment and sanctity of marriage to a greater level because of our belief and understanding that families go back to before this earth was and that they can go forward into eternity. . . . No one has ever come up with a more efficient way to raise the next generation than a household of married parents with children.”

Elder Perry quotes New York Times columnist David Brooks as saying: “People are not better off when they are given maximum personal freedom to do what they want. They’re better off when they are enshrouded in commitments that transcend personal choice—commitments to family, God, craft and country.”

Conclusion

Elder Perry states that, “Despite what much of the media and entertainment outlets may suggest, and despite the very real decline in marriage and family orientation of some, the solid majority of mankind still believes that marriage should be between one man and one woman. They believe in fidelity within the marriage.”

Another song that I find particularly touching in the Payne/Perry production is a song where children sing of the happiness and security they feel when they see and feel their parents’ love and fidelity toward each other.

Parents: Our children deserve to be born to a mother and father who have given their lives to each other in marriage and keep giving to each other the married love they give to no one else.

No Other Love:

 

Elder Perry concludes with these words:

“We need to remind ourselves once in a while, as I was reminded in Rome, of the wonderfully reassuring and comforting fact that marriage and family are still the aspiration and ideal of most people and that we are not alone in those beliefs. . . That is why the Church actively participates in and provides leadership [to] efforts to strengthen the family. . . . We want to our voice to be heard in sustaining the joy and fulfillment that traditional families bring.

“Let me close by bearing witness (and my nine decades on this earth fully qualify me to say this) that the older I get the more I realize that family is the center of life and is the key to eternal happiness.”

Janice Kapp Perry: composer, author and lecturer

(1) Elder L. Tom Perry, “Why Marriage and Family Matter—Everywhere in the World,” General Conference address, April 2015, only a few weeks before his passing. All quoted material in this article are from his address.