It seems like I have used that title for another post before...uh..oh well. So much for originality.
I posted a link on Facebook tonight to an article about being fatherless. Check it out here
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/21970-fatherless-day
It goes into detail about how the epidemic of fatherlessness is having far reaching effects. So many children are growing up without fathers in the home that many don't think having one or being one is of any importance. Wow.
Throughout my time in the Church I have had people say repeatedly that we need to be careful about how we talk about God as Father, because may people have negative connotations due to their own relationship with their dad and that may carry over. Ok, maybe. But until reading this I had not considered something even more far reaching. Is the epidemic of fatherlessness somehow connected to the decline of the Church? Have the many that been raised without a father been convinced that they don't need one? never did? Perhaps similarly they don't think they need a Father in heaven. If we can make the connection of bad relationships with dad to negative connotations about God as Father why not the lack of a father to the conscious decision to not seek a relationship with God the Father?
We do need our fathers. Statistically children are much more stable and well adjusted in a two parent home. As a woman many of us buy into the lie, that's right I said lie, that we can do it all. Some women have to. I do get that. But often times we sell short the difference a father or even a father figure can make in a child's life. There is a lot more to say about this! Talk to me!
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I would tell people with love and respect who state be careful what you say about God as Father. "So let me get this straight. You are going to compare God our Father in heaven, the Maker of all things in heaven and on earth, the Maker of you, Who is perfect in every way, with not a blemish, wrinkle or stain, Who was here before time began, Who knows when this will all end in flames. Who can raise the dead, heal the sick, tell where all the lighting bolts to strike, your comparing HIM to a fallen wretch of a human being earth bound father? Please explain that to me?" Little harsh? I know how my childhood and early adulthood was effected not just having a stable father figure at home, but a Christian, father figure at home that practiced what he preached. Took years, a failed marrage and the grace, mercy and patience of God to start fixing me. Does it sound like I am venting? I'm not. I am not blaming my choices on anyone but myself.
Below is from the free resources of www.allprodad.com
Father Facts
By: Bryan Davis
The following statistics are published in the Father Facts study by the National Fatherhood Initiative.
Let's start with the fact that 72% of folks in our population believe the physical absence of the father from the home is the most significant problem facing Americans. And the problem is growing. In 1995, one out of every three births was to a mother who was not married to the father. That rate approaches 3 out of ever 4 in economically depressed areas. 4 in 10 children live absent from their biological father. About 40% of the children who live in fatherless households haven't seen their fathers in at least a year while 50% of children who don't live with their fathers have never stepped foot in their father's home. In other words, fatherlessness is a growing epidemic.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a four-term U.S. Senator, recently passed away. But his view on the necessity of fathers lives on. He said: "From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: a community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future -- that community asks for and gets chaos." Want evidence that he was right?
63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes
(Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes
85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes
(Source: Center for Disease Control)
80% of rapists come from fatherless homes
(Source: Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26, 1978.)
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes
(Source: National Principals Report on the State of High Schools .)
75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes
(Source: Rainbows for all God`s Children.)
85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home
(Source: Fulton Co. Georgia jail populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections 1992)
These statistics translate to mean that children from a fatherless home are:
5 times more likely to commit suicide
32 times more likely to run away
20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders
Boys are 14 times more likely to commit rape
9 times more likely to drop out of high school
10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances
9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated institution
20 times more likely to end up in prison
As fatherhood goes, so society goes. Let's do our part to turn the hearts of the fathers towards their children and the children to their fathers.
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