Father’s Day is just around the corner and with it brings a multitude of different feelings and memories. Some have great memories of their fathers and some have ones that are very painful. The pathway God has designed for the nuclear family is father, mother and children. Both the father and mother’s roles are priceless – each are needed to raise healthy children.
The role of the father is extremely crucial when it comes to choosing life in an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. Studies have revealed they carry the most weight in a woman’s decision to choose life or abortion for their baby. It is the father’s strength, confidence and support that empowers the woman to move past her fears and welcome their child into this world.
Conversely, when fathers abdicate their role, pressure the woman to choose abortion, or be noncommittal, citing that it’s the woman’s choice, they feed into the woman’s fears that she will be alone with this pregnancy and with the raising of the child.
The role of men in our society was created by God and there are needs only they can fill. David Blankenhorn, author of Fatherless America, revealed the following statistics (1):
- Approximately 30% of all American children are born into single-parent homes, and for the black community, that figure is 68%;
- Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics.
- Over half of all children living with a single mother are living in poverty, a rate 5 to 6 times that of kids living with both parents;
- Child abuse is significantly more likely to occur in single parent homes than in intact families;
- 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census;
- 72% of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers. 60% of America’s rapists grew up the same way according to a study by D. Cornell (et al.), in Behavioral Sciences and the Law;
- 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes according to the National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools;
- 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes according to a report in Criminal Justice & Behavior;
- In single-mother families in the U.S. about 66% of young children live in poverty;
- 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes;
- Children from low-income, two-parent families outperform students from high-income, single-parent homes. Almost twice as many high achievers come from two-parent homes as one-parent homes according to a study by the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.
- 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes according to a study by the Center for Disease Control;
- Girls living with non-natal fathers (boyfriends and stepfathers) are at higher risk for sexual abuse than girls living with natal fathers;
- Daughters of single mothers are 53% more likely to marry as teenagers, 111% more likely to have children as teenagers, 164% more likely to have a premarital birth and 92% more likely to dissolve their own marriages.
- In a longitudinal study of 1,197 fourth-grade students, researchers observed “greater levels of aggression in boys from mother-only households than from boys in mother-father households,” according to a study published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
- The Scholastic Aptitude Test scores have declined more than 70 points in the past two decades; children in single-parent families tend to score lower on standardized tests and to receive lower grades in school according to a Congressional Research Service Report.
The importance of fathers is indisputable.
Years ago in the nineties, a game reserve was created at Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa. The team brought in 6,000 animals of 19 different species to occupy this new reserve. One of the species they moved to the game reserve were elephants. Due to their immense size and weight, they chose to only bring in the young ones and the adult females. Thinking they were being prudent, they didn’t realize they set up conditions for the unimageable.
As time went on, they found the young male elephants became increasingly aggressive and destructive. They began to do things that most elephants didn’t. They would gore rhinos to death, attack and kill humans, and became destructive in so many others areas.
Perplexed, the zoologists were unsure as to the reason of the young elephant bulls’ behavior but they had an idea. They decided to try and curb their aggressive behavior by bringing in older male elephants. What happened surprised them all. In a short amount of time, the young elephants began to exhibit better and more controlled behavior. It seems the older male elephants began to teach the younger elephants what was proper and improper behavior. (2)
It is a powerful picture of how God’s design for the family unit has been proven over and over again to be the best for everyone. As we celebrate Father’s Day next week, the Church is the greatest messenger on the importance of fathers and how men can be good fathers for their family. With the absence of many fathers in this generation, a great void has overtaken our culture. Now, more than ever, we need Godly men in our churches to take up the mantle of fatherhood and mentor young men who have not had a great role model of what it means to be a man and a father.
May this Father’s Day be one of celebration for God’s perfect design as well as a starting point in our churches to proactively step in as fathers to those who have been left with a void.
(1) https://fathermatters.org/the-decline-of-fatherhood-and-the-male-identity-crisis/
(2) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-sep-18-mn-24037-story.html
