Author-Jennifer Roback Morse
Publisher-Spence Publishing
ISBN-1-890626-51-1
The author is a Roman Catholic. She is an economist by background. She has two children, one adopted from a Roumanian orphanage and one of her own. She and her husband are foster parents for San Diego County where they reside. She confesses that this book and another called “Love and Economics’ are the result of her facing her desire for motherhood and lessons being learned in the family which she and her husband care for. In her earlier days she had espoused a libertarian view of life but found it did not produce its promised fruits. Dr Morse brings a unique perspective to the subjects of love, marriage, sexuality and the family in this book. Her reasoning is powerful and she debunks the idea that freedom means being unencumbered by relationships, and that sex is a purely private activity with no moral or social significance. She shows that ‘consumer sex’ has left millions of people miserable. She deals with so called ‘reproductive freedom’ and destroys a number of the myths which have been in vogue these last fifty or so years and have been so prominent in the liberal and feminist agenda that concern marriage and the family. She systematically works her way through these matters leading the reader to the conclusion that marriage and family as the main building block of society must be based upon the law of self giving love and this is linked inextricably with the reality of God and His purposes for mankind. This is not a ‘christian’ book, but it confirms the Christian world view throughout. It makes for compelling reading, its reasoning confirming the solid biblical values the Lord has set forth in scripture and inscribed in human nature through His creative act. She argues that strong, lasting marriages are essential for the survival of free society, not to mention basic human happiness. She upholds marriage and decries the necessity for the ‘hook up’ living so popular among couples today and the easy way which married couples in difficulties move toward divorce. The book challenges but also edifies and encourages.
