Ten reasons why is there so much fatherlessness

Is there any mystery as to why there is more fatherlessness today?

State Senator Gary LeBeau, Democrat of East Hartford, has submitted a bill "asking the state to investigate the causes and potential remedies of fatherless families in Connecticut." In his press release, the Senator said this:

"I've been a public school teacher since 1971, and over that time I've seen a greater and greater percentage of kids coming from families with no father in the home," Sen. LeBeau said. "I want to know what, if anything, Connecticut can do about that, and determine what, if anything, the state may accidentally be doing to either encourage or support fatherless families. Maybe this is just about irresponsibility and selfishness, and maybe there's as much sociology here as there is public policy. But if there's something structural that can be fixed that will encourage men to stay with their children, we should do that. Kids need that."

While I'm heartened by this (see here for facts on the toll fatherlessness takes in the US) I'm also mystified. It's good that politicians are looking at this problem, but can they really be in the dark about the causes of fatherless families? Perhaps phrasing things this way will allow some folks in the Legislature to have political cover when they uncover startling truths about family life that have been known for, oh, 3500 years.

Here's my short and not exhaustive list of ten things which increase fatherlessness in society:

1. no-fault divorce
2. excessive female autonomy at the expense of the male in child-rearing, as exemplified in the area of abortion
3. the existence of abortion itself, which devalues life
4. the rise of cohabitation
5. the glamorization of single motherhood
   
6. the sexual revolution's terrible effect of amplifying male irresponsibility in general
   
7. heavy tax burdens
8. the drug epidemic
9. the proliferation of pornography
10. constant drumbeat of anti-male propaganda throughout society, as exemplified in a host of commercials portraying stupid men
    

What will the Connecticut Legislature say when they climb this mountain of wisdom and find out that the answers they seek are being put out there every day by the Family Institute of Connecticut and others viewed as reactionaries, "theocrats," and "Christofascists?"

Tags: Connecticut, Christian, Christianity, Evangelical, marriage, family, society, law, abortion, men, women