By designating June 2026 as Nuclear Family Month, Tennessee has publicly affirmed what Scripture, history, and social reality all confirm: strong marriages, present mothers and fathers, and stable homes are essential to human flourishing and America’s future.
As we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Tennessee has offered the country a timely reminder: the family is not an accessory to civilization. It is one of civilization’s foundations.
That is why Tennessee’s enactment of House Joint Resolution 182 matters. As amended, H.J.R. 182 designates June 2026 as “Nuclear Family Month” and begins by affirming that “the nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children, is God’s design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world.”
This is much more than a run-of-the-mill legislative action. It’s a bold declaration of values that reflects what we as a society believe about human flourishing and what produces the best outcomes for both individuals and the nation.
Tennessee H.J.R. 182 is significant for many reasons, but foremost among these is that it affirms the truth of marriage and family that’s rooted not in the latest cultural trends but in faith, responsibility, and generational stability. Strong marriages lead to strong families, and strong families are the bedrock of a healthy nation.
God details his design for marriage and family very clearly in Genesis 2:18, 21–24 (NKJV):
“And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’ … And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Our culture has long attempted to jettison God’s design for humanity, and Pew Research Center has found that the United States has the world’s highest rate of children living with one parent and no other adults: 23 percent, more than three times the global share of 7 percent. Opponents assert that marriage was invented by the Church or the state as a means to control people, and particularly as a way to oppress women. Others will say that marriage isn’t necessary, and all that matters is that two — or more — people love each other. (Of course, the latter notion is belied by the constant push to expand the definition of marriage.)
These sorts of ideas reject the truth stated in Genesis: God created man and woman to complement one another in the one-flesh union of marriage.
Within this sacred institution, the Apostle Paul exhorts husbands to “love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” and instructs wives to “submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body” (Ephesians 5:25, 22–23).
Paul wrote that marriage is a profound mystery. It isn’t just a social or legal contract — it’s a covenant that reflects Jesus Christ’s relationship to His bride, the Church. As Christ died for the Church, a husband should be willing to die for his wife, and a wife’s submission extends from her love and gratitude for her husband.
One of the central blessings and purposes of the marriage covenant is fruitfulness – the call in Genesis 1:28 for man and woman to be fruitful and multiply. Children raised in the context of this covenant in God-fearing homes are blessed to witness a Christ-centered marriage centered on virtue, sacrifice, and service within the home. Such children experience both a father’s and a mother’s love and learn to love the Lord and His Word.
Taking all of these benefits into consideration, it behooves our leaders in government to enact policies like Tennessee H.J.R. 182 that support rather than undermine the role of family in our country.
Some might insist that marriage and family are private matters and that it’s nobody else’s business how people choose to be in relationship to one another or how they go about creating a family. But whether these individuals want to admit it or not, marriage and family life have civic consequences that affect all Americans.
The social data bears this out. Federal child well-being data show that in 2021, about 6.8 percent of children in married-couple families lived in poverty, compared with 37.1 percent of children in female-householder families with no spouse present. Research has also linked single-parent family structure with lower average educational achievement, and an Institute for Family Studies analysis found that cities with higher levels of single parenthood had 118 percent higher violent-crime rates and 255 percent higher homicide rates before controls. The same report notes that family structure remained significantly associated with total and violent crime after controls, though not with city-level homicide after controls.
None of this should be read as a condemnation of faithful single mothers or fathers who sacrifice daily for their children. Many do heroic work under heavy burdens, but compassion for difficult circumstances must not require silence about God’s design or the social good of children being raised, whenever possible, by a married mother and father in a stable home.
Thankfully, stable families counteract many of these kinds of problems, leading to stronger communities and less social fragmentation. Additionally, a culture that honors marriage and family tends to encourage responsibility and long-term commitment in other spheres of life. Tennessee H.J.R. 182 is a public acknowledgment of these realities.
On a personal note, I need look no further than the contrast between my husband’s family and my own to see how these realities can play out. My husband comes from many generations of strong Christian marriages. His grandparents on one side were married for 70-plus years, and the other for 50-plus years, and my incredible in-laws will celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary this summer. This family is full of God-fearing, loving, well-educated people who contribute much to society.
In my family, which isn’t Christian, there have been many generations of children born out of wedlock – including me – and many divorces. Along with all of this was a lack of education, financial instability, substance abuse, and lots of other issues. I grew up witnessing this brokenness and was on a not-so-great path myself prior to meeting my husband. I’m blessed to have been married for over 20 years to my pastor-husband, and we have the awesome responsibility and honor of raising our children to fear and love the Lord.
Although I didn’t learn anything from my family about what healthy, Christ-centered marriages or childrearing look like, I did learn to love our country.
My adopted father spent almost 20 years in the Army, and I was surrounded by veterans and other patriots. As a Christian, I now can recognize that an integral part of loving one’s country is to care about its moral and social foundations. But the freedoms we enjoy in America can only be sustained when families are strong and citizens are formed in homes that value and teach personal responsibility and duty to neighbor. The selflessness that should accompany the Christian faith aims to uplift and serve others, seeking what is best for all people, aligned with God’s design for marriage and families, which is a unifying stance, not a divisive one.
Undoubtedly, some will perceive Tennessee H.J.R. 182 as an unnecessary move, nothing more than a symbolic gesture that lacks any kind of legal force. They’ll insist that politicians just want to garner votes with their Christian conservative base and make other arguments. But what these individuals might not understand is that even if the legislation is symbolic, that doesn’t alter the fact that symbols do matter because they shape culture, values, and public priorities. Just ask people who advocate for removing statues from public venues — along with replacing such statues with their approved iconography — whether they believe those symbols affect the culture and public perception.
Public affirmation of marriage and the nuclear family sets a standard that can encourage people to invest in these institutions, whether through legislation that upholds them, nonprofits that serve them, or companies with policies that support them. And we as individuals can be inspired to confidently proclaim God’s truth about marriage and families, knowing that at least in Tennessee, our state government isn’t antagonistic toward our faith and values.
However, if we believe that what God’s Word says about marriage and family is true — as reflected in Tennessee H.J.R. 182 — then we can’t just talk the talk; we also need to walk the walk. First, by strengthening our own homes, through zeal for our marriage vows, praying together as a family, worshiping together, loving and serving one another, and creating an intentional family life with Christ at the center. This isn’t something that happens by accident: We must fiercely protect these values in a fallen world that seeks to destroy all that we hold dear.
Governments can affirm the importance of family, but only people of conviction can preserve it by living out God’s design with courage and consistency, demonstrating the beautiful way that faithful households can lead to civic renewal and a thriving nation. In honoring marriage and family, Tennessee has acknowledged a timeless truth. And it’s up to us to make that truth visible in our own lives.
Amanda Bauch is an award-winning writer, editor of numerous bestselling books, and a pastor’s wife raising a son and daughter in Nashville, Tennessee. Her work celebrates God’s design for marriage, family, and faithful citizenship. Read more in her book, One Nation Under God: 40 Devotions for Patriotic Women.
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