Bobzammel

Family is fairly important in the Mosaic Law. People are told to honor, obey, and not curse their parents-under threat of death. Newlyweds are not permitted to go to war, but to make each other happy. Adultery is forbidden. Children are to be educated.
The pro-family stance is in the rest of the OT as well. Proverbs states that finding a wife is a good thing. Ecclesiates also encourages men to love their wives.
As Malachi ends, we are told that Elijah will return to unite families. The only true anti-family argument is in Micah, and this is qouted again in the NT, but in the context this refers to disharmony due to Assyrian beseigement.
Anyway, in the NT, things get confusing. Jesus states that marriage was ordained in creation and that divorce-for any reason except for the wife being unfaithful-is Adultery. As for "Honor Thy father and Mother", Jesus attacks the Pharisees for altering this commandment, and likewise states the honor commandment is needed for eternal life when talking to the Rich Young ruler. Likewise, Paul and the other Epistle writers speak well of the family and set rules for marriage relationships.
(BTW the definition of honor in the bible is mainly to obey, so it technically fits into the biblical definition of love-which is more action than feeling). Finally, Jesus shows love to his mother by entrusting her to the "Beloved Disciple".
However on the flip side we have the following: Jesus stating his relatives are those who do God's will, and not his physical ones(Hence Christians often referring to each other as "Brother or Sister"). He also tells people to "Hate" or "Love less" their families, says being an "Eunoch" is a viable option, states that only God must be called Father, and states that those who run away from their families to follow Jesus or preach the Gospel will get 'replacements', except for fathers and wives, since God is the "only" father and you can't have more than one wife. (Presumabely he does not mean replacements in the physical sense but in the way he stated above-i.e those who do the will of God). However these seem to violate Jesus's notes about honoring parents-unless one twists the father in honor thy father and thy mother to God and the Mother to some Mother Nun...and leaving one's wife would be paramount to divorce. Plus in this situation, what happens to the kids?

Any thoughts on these contradictions?

Opera Nut

It also says that if the son displeases the father, the father has the right to kill the son.

In Matthew 10:35 et seq. it says "I come not in peace but with a sword; I have come to set the father-in-law against the son-in-law, and the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, and thine enemies may be in thine own household."

I threw that one at the fundie son in law and daughter in law after she screamed at me for being a heathen and I tossed myself out the door. Jesus' job is to BREAK UP FAMILIES!!
I told him(son in law) that, and that he should tell his preacher that his father can barely stand to be around all that fundie stuff, and he's doing the Xtian thing by alienating the relatives!!

And that is before you get to the part about leaving your family and hanging with Jesus. But I think it's all bullshit anyway.