Religion & Law

MOJ friend and alum, Helen Alvare, has a thoughtful post on the Culture of Life Foundation website.  It begins:

Several columns ago, I addressed the worry that our country?s nearly 40% out of wedlock birthrate might represent some sort of tipping point for marriage, for  children?s well-being and for our society?s shared future.  I reviewed in-depth interviews with single moms which revealed nearly bottomless wells of mistrust regarding the men who fathered their children. The men?s behavior did not seem to merit better. This past Father?s Day, President Obama spoke to an aspect of this mistrust: he asked the fathers to step up to their fathering responsibilities. (See http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11094.html)  He explicitly discussed his own fatherless upbringing and the hole it left in his life. Good for him, and for the young men there in the Rose Garden. And good for the country too. A robust father-child bond is a crucial piece of the puzzle of that is a healthier future for U.S. children.

"But President Obama?s message, like a host of other attempts over the past several decades to ameliorate the situation of the children of lone-parents, is incomplete.



What?s missing? Or rather, Who is missing? The mother, as well as the father?s relationship to her. Advocating fathering of the children is great, but forgetting that everything related to fathering begins with the mother is foolish.

Read the rest here.