Do we want fathers to stay around and raise their children? Or are we prepared to accept the chaos of fatherlessness?

No Interest in Fathers

by Adam J. MacLeod

President Obama’s enthusiasm for emphasizing the importance of fatherhood is an encouraging development. Unfortunately, the president has undercut this message with his own policies.

President Obama has made fatherhood a theme of his second term. In May of this year, while delivering the commencement address at Morehouse College, the president admonished the young men in attendance to set “an example for what it means to be a man.” In particular, “Be the best father you can be to your children, because nothing is more important.” He lamented that he did not know his own father. He disclosed that his own ambition is “to break that cycle where a father is not at home, where a father is not helping to raise that son or daughter,” and he resolved to be a “better father” himself.

In June, the White House announced that it was launching “a national conversation on fatherhood and personal responsibility.” The conversation commenced with an event celebrating “five outstanding fathers.” The president explained that

When fathers are absent—when they abandon their responsibility to their kids—we know the damage that does to our families. Children who grow up without a father are more likely to drop out of school and wind up in prison. They’re more likely to have substance abuse problems, run away from home, and become teenage parents themselves.

On the other hand, the president said, “We all know the difference that responsible, committed fathers like these guys can make in the life of a child.”

These are welcome statements from our most prominent citizen. The social experiment of genderless parenting has failed. Extensive studies have affirmed that fathers are essential to the enterprise of parenting. And the costs of encouraging fatherless families have proven to be very high. So, the president’s enthusiasm for preaching the virtues and importance of fatherhood is an encouraging development.

Unfortunately, the president has undercut this message with his own policies. In particular, his expressed interest in fatherhood is difficult to reconcile with his administration’s attack on fatherhood during the last term of the Supreme Court of the United States. Perhaps no one in the administration appreciates that, when it successfully argued that the Court should redefine marriage inUnited States v. Windsor, the administration helped to eliminate the legal office of fatherhood from federal law.

• The Elimination of Fatherhood from Law ...
• The Link between Fathers and Marriage ...

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