Freud & Faith: Part 5, The Best Parents in America  We live in
an culture, in America at least, that is both child-centric and
nurture-obsessed. Interestingly, American Christianity has fully
embraced these cultural emphases. American Christianity has made
the parental nurture of children its defining witness to the
world. This is a strange move to make given Jesus's consistent
marginalization of family love. That is, Jesus doesn't place
storge (love of family) at the center of his Kingdom vision.
Rather, Jesus's focus is on what the Greeks called xenia (love
of the stranger/outsider; hospitality). This downplaying of
storge in favor of xenia is clearly illustrated in Jesus's
teaching. Two examples:  Matthew 5: Luke 14: As we reflect on
all this, we might ask: Given Jesus's clear and consistent
teaching, how did Americans and American Christians come to
place so much emphasis on family love?  Some of the answer has
to do with Freud.  As noted above, American culture is child-
centric. This is a unique cultural