Families – Threats – Absentee Fathers

From our Introductory Post:

“The righteous have sat back and allowed the wicked to take over our relationships to God, families, churches, governments, schools and colleges, journalism, entertainment, sports, sciences, and a whole litany of other endeavors in our society.”

Families – Threats – Absentee Fathers

In our previous post we considered the topic of Threats to Families, specifically Materialism. We will now take a look at another threat to the family, Absentee Fathers.

This one is personal for me because my dad, except for his money, was absent from my life beginning at the age of 10 until I became an adult. As I got older and gained a little wisdom, I discovered that my dad was a hard working person who loved his family, but did not understand how to show it. He wasn’t nearly as bad a fellow as I had been led to believe. Sadly, he died at an early age so I did not get to know him very well.

It is safe to say that the problem of absentee fathers is of great concern to our whole society regardless of political affiliation or religious belief. Absentee fathers are easy targets, and everyone considers them a lower form of life. Many state legislatures have passed “dead beat dad” laws in an effort, not to get dads back in their homes, but to recover money to be distributed by dedicated government bureaucrats.

One can find all kinds of statistics at the website, http://www.dads-daughters.com/absentee-fathers.html . I encourage you to visit this site to see how bad the situation really is. According to an older article in USA Today we learn that, “Communities across the country are experiencing success with counseling for unwed fathers plus other mentoring initiatives.” See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2638_v127/ai_20954306/ . Apparently a real genius wrote this article because the conclusion is, “kids still need two parents to protect and prepare them for life as adults.” Imagine that! Even “Manchurian candidate” Obama went after absentee fathers in the black community, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/us/politics/15cnd-obama.html . Has anyone heard him say much about it since his election as president? Well, at least he models fatherhood with his two girls as far as we can see. However, some of the comments offered by his daughters during his campaign did make one wonder about their respect for their father.

Analyzing statistics and assessing blame is all well and good. The solution to the absentee father problem is found in Scripture. “1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. 4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:1 – 4) If a father is to bring children up, he must be present in the family, the mother must support him in his efforts, and the children have an obligation to obey the parents and honor the father and mother. Perhaps the situation with the “absentee” fathers is being aggravated by un-submissive wives and disobedient children. Just a thought!

Summary

This post has examined Absentee Fathers as a major threat to families. We discovered that the solution is obedience to the commandments of God for fathers and children found especially in Ephesians 6:1 - 4. Our next post will take a look at another threat to families, Lack of a Stay-at-Home Parent.

I remain yours in the name of Jesus Christ, the Creator and Name above every name.

“Mr. Phil”