Sons Need Fathers

This article is from the Wall Street Journal.

When fatherless young people are encouraged to write about their lives, they tell heartbreaking stories about feeling like "throwaway people." In the privacy of the written page, their hard, emotional shells crack open to reveal the uncertainty that comes from not knowing if their father has any interest in them. The stories are like letters to unknown dads – some filled with imaginary scenes about what it might be like to have a dad who comes home and puts his arm around you or plays with you.

They feel like they've been thrown away, Mr. Myers says, because "they don't have a father to push them, discipline them, and they give up trying to succeed . . . they don't see themselves as wanted." A regular theme of their stories is that they feel safer in a foster care home or juvenile detention center than on the outside, because they have no father to hold together the family. There is no one at home.

This article reminds me of Rod Rosenbladt's presentation on fathers and sons at the Advent a few years ago. This issue presents itself a lot these days, probably because I have become attuned to it thanks to Professor Rosenbladt. As you celebrate Father's Day Sunday, remember the fatherless. - DOB