Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council with an important reflection tied to this week’s State of the Union address:

As we use this time to consider our country’s future, we must also recognize that the state of our Union is directly connected to the state of our unions. Where do the pre-governmental institutions of marriage and family, church and synagogue, the building-blocks of any healthy society, stand today.

… Churches and religious institutions have to step up and provide not only the guidance but the active, compassionate intervention families and children need. And, of course, state governments and educational institutions that serve, rather than fragment, family values are essential. Our places of worship were once seen as the center of any community. To churches, which are already doing so much, I say we need to do more to remind people of what is important in life. Most people understand something very basic: Families — families with both a mother and a father — are at the core of a flourishing culture. It is part of what the Bible calls “the law written on the heart.”

For the Union to be strong, so must our unions.