Earlier this week, I had thought we might need to set aside our “Spiritual Disrupters” theme introduced in my two most recent posts (In Need of Spiritual Disrupters and Disrupting Foolishness) and shift the focus in another direction for Father’s Day, but God seemed to intervene with a different idea. Given the relentless war being waged against traditional families and everything associated with them, calling for a disruption in the growth of fatherlessness in our country seems to fit perfectly. You’re probably already aware that a full one-third of the children in America are currently living in fatherless homes, and more fatherless children are pouring across our southern border every day. We’re experiencing an explosion of juvenile crime, a dramatic escalation of adolescent mental health issues, plummeting academic achievement, increasing teen suicides, and chaotic gender confusion. In addition to that, addictive social media programs are making the development of healthy interpersonal relationships for our kids nearly impossible. To think that the impact of missing fathers has nothing to do with that would simply be another example of the blind, toxic foolishness we wrote about last week. 

A Critical Acknowledgement ~
So, we begin by acknowledging the obvious, that is that the role of parents has always been vitally important to God. He made that eternally clear when He delivered those commandments to Moses. As all of us know, He gave us these words:

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12 NKJV)

In light of that, the degree of fatherlessness in this country is more than a major problem. It’s a plague of epidemic proportions and one that will never be resolved by dumping more borrowed money into more doomed-to-fail government social programs. After all, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that political priorities and legislative agendas have been instrumental in creating the absentee father issue in the first place. And even with the mounting evidence of its devastating impact, the current ruling class fails to even admit that fatherlessness is a problem. That’s a pretty good clue that if solutions are to be found, they will need to come from somewhere else. 

When fundamental issues with Biblical roots, like fatherhood, do manage to find their way into the light, the liberal power brokers respond by bringing out the usual array of psychological and sociological “experts.” Their objective, of course, is not to confirm scientific data. It is simply to intimidate and silence unsophisticated country bumpkins like me. The obvious policy of the so-called “mainstream” news media is to shut down honest debate and only air the point of view that supports the approved leftist political narrative.

The Indoctrination Begins ~
To keep issues with Christian connections from gaining political traction, a cadre of selected academic elites is always called on to lecture us. With an air of condescending superiority, they proceed to assure us that living in a culture reminiscent of a 1950s carnival sideshow is really a good thing. The “experts” unleash their lofty intellect and prized collection of meaningless psychobabble verbiage to support unthinkable things. They even suggest that exposing kindergarteners to live demonstrations of every demented perversion that crawls out of hell and shows up on TikTok makes the children healthier. Unfortunately for them, the One who created us also has some things to say, and His words have unsurpassable eternal authority. 

I realize that in some circles fatherhood is a “controversial” subject, so we might as well get at least one of the “offensive” issues on the table right up front. According to our Creator and the Originator of every human relationship, fathers are men, not surgically remodeled women. They aren’t “want-to-be” men, or “identify-as-male” men, or “I’m-a- man-because-I-can-dress-and-act-like-one” men. Fathers are genetically, biologically, physiologically, and irreversibly what God designed them to be … masculine. 

Truth with Extensive Implications ~
Like it or not, God will not be swayed by hormone injections, surgical procedures, political declarations, or women who can dress in overalls and look like a plumber. No manipulation of language or mangling of definitions is going to change the fact that the living God ordained that fathers are men and mothers are women. And it’s vital that children understand that piece of foundational biological and social truth. When children are robbed of those basic facts or misinformed about them, their capacity for healthy, long term relationships is severely damaged, and sometimes beyond repair. Solutions are desperately needed, and the quest to find them begins by acknowledging that the problem exists. 

Red flags have been waving at us for decades, but many of us haven’t noticed. Fatherlessness is a huge, multifaceted problem and full of complexities. Even if we acknowledge that the issue exists, we’re prone to feel frustrated, overwhelmed, and helpless. Though we might be tempted to just utter a prayer for merciful divine intervention and hope things get better, there’s more that we could do. Simply taking ownership in some critical areas can have more impact than we might expect. Here are a few suggestions:

• • For those who are fathers, step up and own the role. Own your share of everything about it. Own the joy, the pain, the challenges, the financial burdens, the frustrations, the failures, and the possibilities. God is the one who possesses and dispenses that title, not the government. Regardless of how children might have come under your care, God sees no difference in your role. You must never relinquish it to anyone, especially not to arrogant, narcissistic political puppets who claim America’s children belong to them. Excuse me, but that’s intolerable.

• • As a parent, own the responsibilities. A primary responsibility is to lead and guide the children’s education and to protect their minds and hearts from exposure to satanic perversions. God was both direct and purposeful when He issued this command:

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6–9 NKJV)

• • As a child of the living God, own the representative obligations. We are not just religious practitioners. God has called us His children:

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:15–16 NKJV)

As such, we are called to be the living representatives of all that God stands for and we have a mandate to encourage one another. One way to do that with powerful potential is to encourage young men to envision fatherhood as an incredible gift of God, not just one of the intrusive possibilities that sexual activity can bring. God can use our experience and your influence can help them see fatherhood as the most personally fulfilling, emotionally uplifting, spiritually enriching, and lasting contribution they are likely ever to make.

• • In a culture obsessed with success and achievement, we must own and embrace the rewards only God offers. Sometimes parenthood feels like work that never ends, and the only rewards are frustration and fatigue. But most of us who have left more than one generation in our wake, realize something. The pain and the tears may have been intense at times, but the joy our children brought to us easily overshadows it all. Our trophies will eventually tarnish, our achievements will be forgotten, and all our treasured possessions will belong to someone else… except for the ones our fatherhood brought to us.

Celebrating what our fathers mean to us is a wonderful thing, but if we don’t once again begin to honor what that relationship means and start treating it with the respect it deserves, traditional families will disappear and Father’s Day will vanish along with them. We must not let that happen.

Happy “Disrupting Fatherlessness” Day 2023!

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the pull quotes below.  Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter.

• • “When children are robbed of the foundational biological & social truth that God gave us, their capacity for healthy, long-term relationships is severely damaged, sometimes beyond repair. The quest to find solutions begins by acknowledging that the problem exists.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • “Encourage young men to envision fatherhood as an incredible gift of God. Your influence & experience can help them see fatherhood as the most personally fulfilling, emotionally uplifting, spiritually enriching & lasting contribution they are likely ever to make.”@GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • “The joy our children bring to us easily overshadows the pain and tears. Our trophies will eventually tarnish, our achievements will be forgotten, and all our treasured possessions will belong to someone else … except the ones our fatherhood brought to us.”@GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • “If we don’t once again begin to honor what that father/child relationship means and start treating it with the respect it deserves, traditional families will disappear, and Father’s Day will vanish along with them. We must not let that happen.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)  

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