To ignore the facts does not change the facts.”
-Andy Rooney
ancy quoted some startling statistics about fatherless homes during one of our published Round Table discussions. Today 50 percent of children are born into fatherless homes across the country, and the number is 75 percent in some minority communities. She pointed out the importance of a partnership in raising children and the model of a father in the home.
One of the pastors on the panel responded that this was “evangelical churchianity” and that the single mothers were better than his own had been. He told Nancy she should not have quoted those statistics.
To him and to many it is politically incorrect to say that fathers are important. It is politically incorrect to point out that too many young men and women are growing up without the important example of a father who goes to work to support his wife and children, who protects and nurtures them, who enforces family standards with love, and–most importantly–demonstrates what it is to be a good husband and father.
We live in a society that perpetuates the idea that women do not need men. And while most single moms are great mothers, most will admit that raising children alone can be overwhelming.
So here are some more facts:
- Our city has has one of the highest murder rates in the country.
- Fatherless homes produce children who make up 85 percent of the young men in prison.
- One out of three children in Marion County live in poverty.
As the late Andy Rooney said, the facts do not change because we have differing personal opinions about them. The facts also do not change because people are afraid to discuss them. These facts will change when we begin again to honor the roll of both mother and father in the most important job of raising children.
As a friend who runs a ministry working with single moms said, “Raising children is a 24/7 job. It really does take two.”
Blessings,
Jim
“…With God, all things are possible” – Matthew 19:26
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