The priority of fatherlessness

Outside of the marriage crisis, fatherlessness is the greatest social problem in America. Churches, schools, and non-profit organizations not partnering on specific initiatives to build virtuous men and strong fathers are missing an opportunity truly to bless society.

Fatherlessness affects all of us and is the root of all kinds of evil and brokenness. It is been well documented that 60 percent of rapists, 72 percent of adolescent murderers, and 70 percent of long-term prison inmates are men who grew up in homes without dads. The level of correlation between fatherlessness and social pathologies should be call to arms. The future of civil society hangs in the balance. Churches and community organizations lacking specific, directed initiatives to build and support virtuous fathers forfeit the right to complain about America's social problems.

Sadly, elitism and ignorance about fatherlessness confine the problem to low-income communities. It turns out that children from low-income, two-parent families outperform students from high-income, single-parent homes. "Young men who grow up in homes without fathers are twice as likely to end up in jail as those who come from traditional two-parent families...those boys whose fathers were absent from the household had double the odds of being incarcerated -- even when other factors such as race, income, parent education, and urban residence were held constant," says Cynthia Harper of the University of Pennsylvania and Sara S. McLanahan of Princeton University.

The problem of fatherlessness is bigger and broader. To understand it requires a proper definition: Fatherlessness is not defined as children with deceased fathers, but rather children with absent fathers. Men who are absent physically, emotionally, and spiritually from the lives of their children are everywhere and all contribute to the pathologies related to fatherlessness.

The data are overwhelming. Sixty-three percent of youth suicides, 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children, 85 percent of all children who exhibit behavioral disorders, 71 percent of all high school dropouts, 85 percent of all youths sitting in prisons, and so on, all have fatherlessness in common.

What are local churches doing about fatherlessness specifically? In most cases, nothing directly. But there are bright spots. Churches such as Crossroads Tabernacle in The Bronx tackle fatherhood openly and bless their communities. "Confessions of Fatherhood" is a short video (see below) produced by Crossroads extolling the virtues of fatherhood. It features men who are courageous enough to confess their imperfections and commitments to rely on all that the church provides to be the best fathers possible.

The parental humility displayed at Crossroads is a model for churches interested in addressing fatherhood specifically and locally while inviting other men to meet God there.