Image Credit: Canva
Note from The Tennessee Conservative: Editorial statements in this column are the sole opinion of the author; they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff of this publication.
Submitted by Gloria Giorno –
My best friend’s mother passed away two days ago. Watching her lovingly care for her mother through illness and loss brought me back to my own mother’s death in 1998. I remembered sitting beside my mother during her suffering, helping my father afterward, and doing what I believed God called me to do as a daughter. It was not always easy. My parents and I did not agree on everything. But we understood something that now feels lost in modern culture: family was sacred.
As Christians, we believed love meant sacrifice, patience, forgiveness, and showing up even when life became difficult. We honored our parents not because they were perfect, but because God commanded us to honor them. That reflection led me to a painful question many parents quietly carry today: when my final days come, will my own children care enough to sit beside me the way I sat beside my parents?
Family estrangement has become increasingly common in America. In cases involving abuse, addiction, or danger, separation may be necessary and understandable but many families today are breaking apart not because of abuse, but because our culture increasingly encourages separation over reconciliation, self over sacrifice, and distance over forgiveness. Modern society often celebrates cutting people off rather than working through pain. Adult children are frequently encouraged to “guard their peace” by removing parents, siblings, or relatives from their lives whenever conflict arises. While healthy boundaries can be necessary from both parents and adult children, Christians are also called to something far more difficult: grace, humility, repentance, communication, and reconciliation whenever possible. Instead, young adult children want instant gratification, choose to hide behind their blocked social media accounts as well as phone numbers. In my day, these things were the equivalent of mean girl behavior in high school.
Part of this cultural shift began many years ago in ways that may have seemed harmless at the time to those of us who were parents….” participation trophies”. Many children were raised being told that everyone is a winner regardless of effort, sacrifice, or outcome. “Participation trophies” and the constant protection of children from disappointment unintentionally taught many young people that losing, discomfort, and learning to lose with grace were things to avoid rather than opportunities for growth. We allowed this to happen and it was only the beginning. Life requires resilience. Faith requires humility. Healthy relationships require compromise.
Previous generations understood that disagreement did not automatically end relationships within families. Disagreements were not fights or reasons to cancel family members. We knew to admit when we were wrong, compromise to keep familial peace and to continue loving people even during conflict. Today, many young adults have been taught to view disagreement itself as emotional harm instead of learning how to work through uncomfortable conversations with parents or loved ones, many have learned to walk away entirely. Compromise has become viewed as weakness rather than maturity. Yet compromise, patience, and forgiveness are essential parts of both Christianity and family life. No family survives without them. Today those participation trophies are sewn in social media. Social media is the driving force for going no contact with parents, grandparents and siblings. Many online influencers, self-help personalities, and social media communities encourage young adults to walk away from parents at the first sign of conflict rather than dealing with issues in a Godly manner. Most influencers are woke liberals whose goal is to follow the Communist democrat agenda and sadly, social media is influencing conservative young adults more than those already woke. Instead of promoting prayer, forgiveness, honest communication, and reconciliation, many voices online promote isolation, resentment, and self-centered thinking. Social media is not a voice of reason but rather the voice of division. The instant gratification generation prefers an immediate easy solution, walking away, to actually putting in the work to make families exist. Not perfect but exist. Christians must recognize the spiritual danger in this. The devil works through division, pride, bitterness, and broken relationships. When social media constantly teaches people that every disagreement is “toxicity” and every difficult relationship should be discarded, families slowly begin to collapse under the weight of unforgiveness and selfishness. The destruction of the family has consequences far beyond individual households. Throughout history, the first steps in communist movements has been weakening the authority and stability of the family unit. Strong families create individuals grounded in faith, tradition, morality, and personal responsibility. Those things stand in the way of governments or ideologies that seek greater control over people’s values, loyalties, and identities. Communist systems view religion and the traditional family as obstacles because both teach that ultimate authority belongs to God, not the state. Christianity teaches loyalty to faith, family, and moral truth above political ideology. When family bonds weaken, society becomes more isolated, dependent, and vulnerable to cultural manipulation.
Welcome to the latest wave of communism coming to America. We will not see communism arriving with soldiers or revolutions but instead quietly through cultural shifts that erode faith, personal responsibility, and the importance of the nuclear family. Social media, entertainment, and modern ideology often encourage people to prioritize self-fulfillment above duty, permanence, or forgiveness. Relationships, parents and families become disposable and optional. Even Christianity itself is sometimes treated as outdated or oppressive. This cultural shift has left many parents asking heartbreaking questions: What happened to the children we raised with love? Why has disagreement become a reason to sever relationships entirely? Why are families no longer taught how to endure hardship together?
I know my own children grew up in a loving Christian home. We ate dinner together every evening. We attended every game, concert, and event possible. I was there for their highs, lows, illnesses, heartbreaks and achievements. Their grandparents were deeply involved in their lives, and my children witnessed firsthand what it looked like to care for aging parents with dignity and devotion. We were not perfect, but we loved one another deeply. We were also loyal and committed to family as God had commanded. But I do not know my children today. In my case, their significant others are insecure, weak and fear our strong family bonds and felt we were too close so they needed the bonds to be destroyed. That is why estrangement leaves so many parents, like myself, spiritually wounded and broken. Most days, I feel like I have lost a limb. I have created, carried and loved my children before they existed. It is not only the loss of communication with my children but also the loss of identity, I have been a mom since I was 23, loss of tradition, and any connection. It is not sharing stories weekly anymore but hearing and seeing their accomplishments from afar through what mutual friends share. That is the life of a parent who has been discarded.
The Bible warned that division would increase in difficult times. We are living in a culture that increasingly rejects accountability, rejects authority, and often rejects God Himself. Christians should not ignore the spiritual dimension of what is happening inside families. The enemy thrives where forgiveness disappears and pride replaces humility. Christianity is ultimately about redemption. Families can heal. Hearts can soften. Children can rediscover compassion and honor. Reconciliation does not happen through politics alone, but through prayer, humility, truth, and a return to God. Unless we do these things, we will fall to the devil and communism and Christianity will be taken away from America. We will live in a Godless and selfish society. Is that the goal of social media indoctrination? Is America on a do or die journey? Are we in the final days?
The family is not a burden to discard when relationships become difficult. It is one of God’s greatest institutions. If we continue allowing faith, family, and personal responsibility to collapse, society itself will continue to fracture. My prayer is that Christians remember who we are called to be and not perfect people, but forgiving people. Not prideful people, but humble people. Not isolated people, but families willing to fight for one another before it is too late. God must remain at the center of every family, because when God is removed, something else always rushes in to take His place. We are at a crossroads. Are we going to trust and follow God or are we going to allow Satan to usher in communism? Only young adults can answer that question. If they do not change their ways, they will repeat the cycle through their children as they are witnessing what their parents are doing and learning that walking away is a normal thing to do. The cycle will then continue. Welcome to communist America.
