 It is the task of neither the State nor the Church to define the family or to promulgate laws upon it.This duty is reserved to the Word of God, held by Protestantism to be sovereign, i.e., beyond the control of either Church or State.The family (defined as the covenantal commitment of one man and one woman to each other and to their offspring) is not instituted by the State nor by any other external power, but proceeds naturally from the heads of households, who are directly responsible to God.