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To the Editor:
Father’s Day is June 18 and I enjoy seeing the pictures of fathers in the Elizabethton Star. These last days before the coming tribulation the Bible says will be characterized by evil and sinfulness. Among other evils 2 Timothy 3 says people in the last days before the return of Jesus will be disobedient to parents and unthankful.
Recently in Elizabethton two brothers were charged with the murder of their father. If they did it, they should get the award for most evil sons. This week in Johnson City one father and his young son were charged with robbery and murder. If convicted he would get the award for evil father of the year. That evil father is why a record number of grandparents are raising their grandchildren.
In a survey by Dennis Prager he found more than a fourth (25 percent) of adult children never talk to their parents. Having no contact with parents is the opposite of honoring them. Prager says a society in which children don’t honor their parents is doomed to self-destruction. Prager says, “what goes around comes around.” If your children see you honor your parents, no matter how difficult it may be, the chances are far greater they will honor you! “Father Knows Best” was an American sitcom that was popular on TV for six seasons from 1954 to 1960. It depicted a wise family man and his common-sense wife raising children who respected and honored them. Over the last 40 years TV movies and cartoons for children have devalued fathers and masculinity. They usually only show fathers as fools and knuckleheads and not as wise heads of the home. The lack of fathers and this devaluation of fatherhood and masculinity has helped create more evil men and enablers of evil men than ever before. Fatherless boys are far more likely to grow up and mistreat women and commit violent crime. Dr. Anthony B. Bradley, a professor, said, “almost every major school shooter since Columbine suffered from dad-deprivation. Sadly, the (Uvalde, Texas) shooter is a textbook case of a dad-deprived, abused, and neglected kid. Hurt boys, hurt others,” Bradley said. One woman said, “we need more dads and less dudes!” Godly fathers are irreplaceable!
The National Center for Fathering (www.fathers.com) reports there’s a crisis because an estimated 25 million children (33 percent) in America are negatively effected by their father’s absence. The percentage of American children living without their biological father has tripled since 1960. Our culture has changed, the needs of children haven’t. In the 1960s President Johnson devalued fatherhood by believing daddy government could replace fathers with welfare. In the 1950s surveys of public school teachers, the top disciplinary problems listed were: talking out of turn, chewing gum, running in the halls, dress-code violations and littering. Now the top problems that 2022 teachers report are drug and alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, robbery, assault and shootings. Things are unquestionably worse in our schools than they’ve been in the history of this nation. Studies show when fathers are involved, their children learn more, perform better in school and exhibit healthier behavior and emotions. The National Center for Fathering says fathers are irreplaceable and make a unique positive contribution to their children’s lives!
If it were classified as a disease, fatherlessness would be an epidemic worthy of attention as a national emergency. Studies show the negative impact of not having a father. Children who grow up without a dad are more depressed. Of youth who commit suicide 63 percent had no father. Of high school dropouts and pregnant teenagers 71 percent had no father. Of youth with behavior problems and youth in prison 85 percent had no father. Of homeless and runaway children 90 percent had no father. Children growing up with a father have a much better likelihood of success as well-adjusted, healthy productive adults. In 2008 President Obama said, “Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.”
The first step to bring communism to a country is to destroy the family and the role of the father. God wants our family to be a lifelong priority. In the Bible in Malachi, God says He wants to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. God’s people need to pray for this to happen. Most atheists had no father. To those, attitude toward one’s father largely shaped one’s attitude toward God.” If you have a father honor him as the Bible says. If you have a Christian father thank God, you are blessed. A father knows best when he knows and loves Jesus. A Christian father is a giver, provider, defender and leader and does all the things needed so the family can thrive. Those without a father often have an identity problem and do not know who they are. Only Jesus can fill this hole in their life and show them who they are. If you have no father or an abusive father don’t write yourself off. Only Jesus is the author and finisher. Put your trust in Jesus. He will help you forgive your father and heal your broken heart and get past your past. Fathers matter but knowing Jesus matters most. Those who love Jesus and have faith in Jesus are a new creation and by the ripple effect every future configuration for them is positively altered forever! If you love Jesus and Jesus is your Savior then God the Father adopts you as His child and you will have the greatest father for eternity. You can praise and talk to your God the Father as Paul does in 1 Timothy 1. Now to the first Person of the trinity, the King eternal, immortal, invisible the only Almighty God the Father be honor and glory and power forever and ever!

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton