This GCSE RE Christianity quiz takes a look at family life. Ever since the Gospel reports of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the theme of the Family has run in close parallel with the origins and nature of Christianity. For as long as the raising of a next generation continues to require the time-honoured procedure of a committed heterosexual couple beginning the process in an act of physical love, the traditional model of the family unit will offer a model of commitment, love and even sacrifice (e.g. of parental time, and other opportunities diverted to allow time for nurture of the child/ren).
Of course, now more than ever, other forms of family or household units are abundant as a proportion of marriages fail, and step- or half-siblings grow up together, while many people remain single; some couples remain childless by choice or through medical problems, and others again may still have the galling experience of coping with the loss of a child (at whatever age) to illness or accident.
Meanwhile there are also various forms of formal legal union between adults of the same gender, and they and others can successfully adopt children. Christianity as a whole needs to move with the times, and to find and express characteristic and positive approaches to people in such a range of circumstances.
This quiz deals first with the traditional life-stage 'markers' within the Christian tradition, in the context of a person's faith community being a wider family under God; later on we address a small but pithy selection of personal and moral conundra that may come any Christian's way. We are conscious that the quiz may be seen and done by people of any age and faith (or none); for whom some of the issues raised may seem alien, alarming or even perverse, while others might strike as rawly personal. Please approach what follows with a suitably open mind!