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If Fathers are Removed From Society, How Can Anyone Understand Authority?

Is Fatherhood Being Killed so the State Can Play God?



Is there a master plan for the subjugation of the human race? If so, it must perforce include a strategy for the removal of the single most influential figure in history--the Father. Complete sabotage of families and marriage would also be necessary to pull off this coup. From a purely secular standpoint, the health of a society can be measured by the vitality of fatherhood, according to relevant statistics. More importantly, the health of a society can be best measured from its ability to grasp the concept of God, the Father. For example, a society which merely accepts the God concept without differentiating between the elements of the Trinity is devolving towards paganism. But who would desire such a purge?
Trenchantly, Jim Sheridan--director of the academy-award-winning "In the Name of the Father"--once stated, "If you want to destroy a society, remove the fathers." The presence and activity of dads in a culture is so important that they cannot be removed without precipitating collapse, according to David Popenoe in Fathers, Marriage, and Children in American Society. Statistics clearly illustrate this claim. America is now increasingly fatherless. Popular sentiment, along with social engineering, academic pseudo-scholarship, and religious heresy all add to an unprecedented assault upon marriage and fatherhood. From a biblical viewpoint, this assault on the Father is a challenge upon the very structure of the universe and creation--whereas the Father initiated creation, carried out by His Son and Spirit. Marriage, as a symbol of the relationship between Christ and His Church, is made superfluous when Christianity no longer sets the mores of a society--as has evolved in America today. The New York Times recently reported that 50% of American children born to women 30 and under, are now out-of-wedlock. From a practical viewpoint, a world without fathers is rudderless, lacking principled leadership, at the whim of every passing fancy of the academy or elites. More ominously, such a society must be directed by a power-driven political cabal, where government becomes the head of every home, and political doctrines take the place of creed and code. Such a land will be a tyranny, where humans are merely pawns in the machinations of the deified state.

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I. Fatherhood Assassinated

Children, by definition, are vulnerable. They must receive defense from within the family unit, or they become extreme risks to predators and lack of instruction. The nuclear family contains a default structure designed to protect, feed, educate, motivate and enable children to successfully move into the adult world. This default structure was traditionally implemented by the parents, directed by the father. This structure has operated successfully since time immemorial. Recently, though, fatherhood has come under tremendous scrutiny and the entire premise of masculine, leadership has been rejected by many elites. In fact, it is the political and scientific opinion of many that masculinity has had a negative impact on the evolution of mankind. And so the institution of fatherhood has been systematically singled out for destruction. Popenoe then explains how being a dad has been trashed in our culture:
FATHERHOOD IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE The end result of the many cultural, social, and economic trends we have discussed is a society surprisingly unsupportive of fatherhood. Indeed, if one were specifically to design a culture and a social system for the express purpose of undercutting fatherhood and men's contribution to family life, our current society would be close to what would result. Consider the following key elements one would want to incorporate:
  1. Make marriage into a very weak institution..
  2. Sexualize the society.
  3. Institute an educational system that disregards the fact that childrearing is a major adult responsibility and that marriage is important in childrearing.
  4. Have an education system that does not recognize worker's family responsibilities and that stresses ever-increasing material consumption.
  5. Develop a culture that heavily stresses individualism.
  6. In social discourse, through the media, and in the design of the built environment, deemphasize the importance of children to the continuation of society.
  7. Overlook the importance of fathering when discussing male gender roles.
  8. When fathering is discussed, don't mention that fathers are unique and irreplaceable as protectors, challengers, disciplinarians and guides. 
If no person can be conceived without the work of a father, why does modern society insist on pretending fathers are irrelevant? Further, in a society where masculinity is regularly trashed, what generic definition and value does fatherhood hold? In a world of maternal values, doesn't the entire list of positive masculine traits get tossed in the trash? So if fatherhood has been murdered, who killed it and why?

II. Effects of Fatherlessness

A. Search for Identity

According to Guy Corneau, in Absent Fathers, Lost Sons--one of the most predictable and disturbing effects of fatherless sons is the lack of a strong male identity. Corneau writes,
Sons who have not been given adequate fathering are often faced with the following problems: in their teenage years they experience confusion about their sexual identity and adopt feminine types of behavior; their sense of self-esteem is unsteady; they repress their aggression, their ambition and their inquisitiveness. Some of them may suffer inhibitions as regards their sexuality. They may also exhibit learning problems. They have trouble respecting moral values and accepting responsibilities; they have little sense of duty or obligation to others. Their insufficient internal structure results in a certain laxity, a lack of rigor, a general inability to organize their lives effectively. In addition, research shows they are more likely to be homosexuals than are boys whose fathers are sufficiently present. Inadequately fathered sons are also more likely to develop psychological problems that manifest as juvenile delinquency and abuse of drugs and alcohol. All such behaviors are rooted in deep revolt against patriarchal society. The revolt mirrors to the father the consequences of his absence.

B. Homosexual Genesis?

As mentioned by Corneau, much research indicates that the lack of a male role model for boys is a source of homosexual orientation. In fact, no hard science has ever been delivered to prove individuals are born homosexual. Instead, the cause appears to be environmental, especially as regards the relationship with their father, for gay males. Irving Bieber believed homosexuality was caused by a too-close mother and a too-distant father:
Bieber believed that a "constructive, supportive, warmly related father precludes the possibility of a homosexual son; he acts as a neutralizing, protective agent should the mother make seductive or close-binding attempts."
Not surprisingly, the shattering experience of child sexual abuse can lead some to homosexual orientation, according to one source, which described a study on AIDS:
The study lasted for four years and included a total of 4244 men. To ascertain if an individual had a history of childhood sexual abuse they were asked on entry to the study to say if they had had a sexual experience before the age of 13 with an individual five years or more older than themselves; and/or if they had a sexual experience between the ages of 13 and 17 with an individual who was ten or more years older. Of the 4244 individuals in the study, 1686 (40%) reported childhood sexual abuse. There were 258 HIV infections during the course of the study, a rate of 2.1 per 100 person years.
While the cause of homosexuality is bound to be long debated, an unusual set of statistics have emerged from the coming trend towards adoption for gay couples. The statistics show that homosexual parenting appears to lead to a ten-to-twenty times increase in their children living as an adult homosexual. So for instance, while about 3% of Americans identify as gay--35% of the kids of gay male couples will live as homosexual; whereas almost 60% of the children of lesbians live as adult homosexuals.

C. A World Without Private Human Authority

Some point out it is a tenet of Marxism that all individual authority, especially that of the family and religion, must be sacrificed so the state can be built up. For example, the leftist Nazis viewed procreation as the concern of the state. A statement putting 45 Goals of Communism into the US Congressional record in 1963 would seem to verify the need for the family to be controlled. Here are a few:
Current Communist Goals EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FL. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 10, 1963. 40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. (Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963)
What better way for state power to be established than for the American family to simply be dismembered?

III. Marriage, Out-of-Wedlock Births & Divorce

Popenoe points out the two main reasons for fatherless children are the very high rate of divorce, and the growing trend of out-of-wedlock births. For example, in the African American community, chances are around 93% that children will grow up without a father for at least part of their childhood. Sadly, studies show that most fathers lose contact with their children after divorce, as men strongly connect childrearing with cohabiting with the mother. And most children with divorced fathers will eventually have no contact with their natural fathers. In fact, 60% of fathers never see their children after divorce, or just a few times a year. And most dads never pay any bills beyond their child support, which averages a paltry $3,155 a year. Nonmarital births and adoptions add to the statistics of the fatherless. These are children who will probably never know their fathers. When even celebrity "conservatives" like Laura Ingraham adopt children as unmarried parents, you know the problem is out of hand. Cohabitation is not the panacea some believe, either. Interestingly, Jay Teachman's study of the number of sexual partners and risk for divorce showed a high correlation for a lower number of partners and marital success. For example, virgin brides had very low divorce rates: "women who are sexually active prior to marriage faced considerably higher risk of marital disruption than women who were virgin brides." But cohabitation is a negative way to test a potential spouse:
In fact, Professor Jay Teachman explains that one of the most "robust predictors of marital dissolution that has appeared in the literature" is cohabitation itself, making living together actually one of the worst things you can do for your marriage, rather than something to help it.

IV. Attack on Fathers as Revolt Against God

Briefly, if one views the Father as an essential element of the Christian godhead--as Christ apparently did when he delivered the Lord's Prayer: Our Father Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name...(Matthew 6:9-13)--then to attack Fatherhood is to reject God. This is certainly occurring as the same critics lambasting fathers are also furious rejecters of the biblical way. Eric Voegelin, in Science, Politics & Gnosticism, trenchantly pointed out that the assault against God described by Nietzsche was really just an attempt to bury mankind's sins by deicide, or killing God:
The madman is therefore looking for man, but not the man of the philosopher: he is looking for the being that springs from the magic of the murder of God...Man cannot transform himself into a superman: the attempt to create a superman is an attempt to murder man. Historically, the murder of God is not followed by the superman, but by the murder of man...

Conclusion

If fathers have to be removed before a tyranny is established, America is well on the way. Note the following statistics to understand what grave danger America now is in regarding the loss of fathers. To reject fathers is to reject our historic Western approach to life. What follows can only be the bloodbath of liberty first, followed by humans, later.

Post-Script: Statistics of the Fatherless

A. Poverty:

Children in father-absent homes are five times more likely to be poor. In 2002, 7.8% of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 38.4% of children in mother-only household families. During the year before their babies were born, 43% of unmarried mothers received welfare or food stamps, 21% received some type of housing subsidy, and 9% received another type of government transfer (unemployment insurance etc.). For women who have another child, the proportion who receives welfare or food stamps rises to 54%. A child with a nonresident father is 54 percent more likely to be poorer than his or her father.

B. Fatherless Physical Abuse

Compared to peers living with both parents, kids in single parent homes had:
  • a 77% greater risk of being physically abused
  • an 87% greater risk of being harmed by physical neglect
  • a 165% greater risk of experiencing notable physical neglect
  • a 74% greater risk of suffering from emotional neglect
  • an 80% greater risk of suffering serious injury as a result of abuse
  • overall, a 120% greater risk of being endangered by some type of child

C. Crime, Substance Abuse & Self-Harm

  • 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, 5 times the average.
  • 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes, 32 times the average.
  • 85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes; 20 times the average;
  • 80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes, 14 times the average;
  • 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes, 9 times the average;
  • 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes, 10 times the average;
  • 70% of youths in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes, 9 times the average;
  • 85% of all youths in prison come from fatherless homes, 20 times the average.

D. More Statistics:

  • Adolescents from single-parent families engage in greater and earlier sexual activity.
  • Fatherless children are at much higher risk of drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality.
  • Most abused children come from fatherless homes; only 1/3 abused kids lived with both biological parents.
  • 50% of child abuse cases are committed by single mothers.
  • Fatherless children are at dramatically greater risk of suicide..
  • Fatherless boys have much more trouble establishing appropriate sex roles and gender identity.
  • 80% of youth psychiatric patients are from fatherless homes.
  • Fatherless children are less cooperative and score lower on IQ tests.
  • Fatherless kids exhibit significantly more conduct problems, and daughters have higher rates of anxiety or depression.
  • "Father hunger" often afflicts boys age 1-2 whose fathers are suddenly and permanently absent. Sleep disturbances, nightmares/ night terrors frequently begin within one to three months after the father leaves home.
  • Children of never-married mothers are more than twice as likely to have been treated for an emotional or behavioral problem.
  • Fatherless children are more likely to have been expelled or suspended from school, to display emotional problems, and to engage in antisocial behavior.
  • Researchers observed "greater levels of aggression in boys from mother-only households than from boys in mother-father households."
  • 80% of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from broken homes.
  • Violent school kids are 11 times more likely to live without their fathers and six times more likely to have unmarried parents.
  • 43% of prison inmates are fatherless; 14% lived in households without either biological parent; and 14% spent some of their childhood in a foster home, agency or other juvenile institution.
  • 72% of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers; 60% of America's rapists grew up the same way.
  • Only 13% of juvenile delinquents come from families in which the biological mother and father are married to each other. By contract, 33% have parents who are either divorced or separated and 44% have parents who were never married.
  • Fatherless teenage boys are more likely to be incarcerated for delinquent offenses and also manifest worse conduct while incarcerated.
  • 70% of juveniles in state reform institutions grew up fatherless.
  • Fatherless males engage in twice as much criminal activity, which triples if their neighborhood has a high concentration of single-parent families.


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Kelly O'Connell -- Bio and Archives

Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.


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