c. 1996 Religion News Service
HERNDON, Va. (RNS)-In 1960, about 7 million U.S. children lived in homes without a father.
That figure now stands at nearly 23 million.
At an”Interfaith Summit on Fatherhood”convened by the National Fatherhood Initiative, a 3-year-old advocacy group, Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders and others drew attention today (May 17) to the issue of father absence and examined how religious institutions can ameliorate the problem.”We believe that this (father absence) is the most socially consequential problem of our time,”Wade Horn, director of the National Fatherhood Initiative, said at the gathering, which drew about 60 people. The non-profit organization, based in Lancaster, Pa., aims to strengthen the institution of fatherhood in America.
The absence of a father often leads children to become more violent and more sexually promiscuous than children in two-parent families, Horn said in his opening address. Children living apart from their fathers also are more likely to drop out of school, suffer emotional problems or commit suicide as adolescents, he said.”Father absence may not be the sole cause of each of these social ills, but it certainly makes each one worse,”he said.”The available evidence suggests that improving the well-being of our children-and ultimately our nation-depends upon us finding ways to bring fathers back into the home.” Religious leaders cited instances of faith communities addressing the importance of fatherhood. Among the examples: the mostly evangelical Promise Keepers movement, which seeks to strengthen the commitment of men to family life; books and curricula that encourage strong marriages; and rituals in African-American churches and Jewish synagogues that affirm a father’s place in the family and the house of worship.
But speakers also acknowledged that there is much work to be done.
Don Browning, a professor of ethics and social sciences at the University of Chicago Divinity School, said the absence of fathers is not discussed much in the academic or denominational circles in which he travels. Denominational grappling with issues of abortion and homosexuality have”pushed everything else off the map,”he said.
But Browning warned that the language used in conversations about fathers should be carefully crafted.”There are great suspicions in our society that the fatherhood discussion is a subtle way to introduce patriarchy,”he said.
Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, suggested that a good job, as well as a good marriage, is important in strengthening the bond between fathers and their families.”We should not discount the critical difference that having a a decent job … makes for a man’s self-esteem,”Pilla said, voicing support for a higher minimum wage, flextime, and other”family friendly”employment practices.”The church has a vital role … in ensuring that the world of work is supportive of fatherhood,”he said.
Pilla said all fathers-those married and those not-should receive the support of the religious community.”Does our concern as religions for fathers extend to those who may not even be married?”he asked.”They, too, deserve our ministry.” Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, called for men to volunteer for positions in which they can be positive role models, such as mentors and Sunday school teachers.”We don’t need men on the budget committee nearly as much as we need them in the church school,”she said.
She cautioned that”radical feminism”is a hurdle that must be overcome to promote a”pro-marriage, pro-family, pro-father agenda.””We understand that in a family … a view of equality that is essentially androgynous does not work,”she said.”Fathers are more than sperm banks and automatic teller machines.” Speakers expressed the hope that the gathering would spur greater religious involvement in supporting fathers and that it would encourage men without children to be mentors to fatherless youths.
Pollster George Gallup Jr., chairman of the Gallup International Institute in Princeton, N.J., said in a brief interview before his luncheon speech to the gathering that there is growing concern about the issues raised at the summit.”I think that increasingly the American people are alert to the problem and the need to develop systems that will take better care of kids,”he said.
A Muslim from Delaware urged that individual members of houses of worship no longer keep the problem of absent fathers to themselves but rather share ideas with the entire religious community.”We have to take this to our pastor, our imam (Muslim spiritual leader), our rabbi (and tell them) I got something here,”said Brother Asim Howard, a public relations officer for the Muslim Center of Wilmington, Del.”This is hot. We need to talk about it now.”
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