Father's Day

Tomorrow is Fathers Day. It is a good time to reflect on the role of dads in our lives.

Few will contest that our society is in trouble. It is one thing to be a doom and glooomer, yet it is equally mistaken to think that the current serious state of affairs is going to improve without us changing some fundamental and foundational premises and practices in our culture. Now.

The last verse in the Old Testament is Malachi 4:6:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Although "curse" is a heavy word, it seems to be a fair description of what is going on today. Economic dislocation, unemployment, addictions, abuse, sordid entertainment, diseases, crime, and the like, all have a common source: Many men being the perpetrators of negativity rather than the protectors from negativity.

A dad who is inclined to his children brings much blessings into their lives. The importance of being important. And one does not need to be a biological dad in order to act fatherly towards kids.

On the downside though...

Corporate titans who move work overseas like a kid playing Risk, politicians who lack even a modicum of courage in telling Americans that we are a selfish and craven people who had better change our ways, preachers and pastors who are more concerned about packing pews to pay off church mortgages than filling hearts and souls with the Good News that God loves sinners....that love is not all warm and fuzzy...it can be hard and holy. Media moguls who pedal degradation in a race to the bottom, appealing to the lower angels of our nature in search of market share, educators and other authorities being unwilling to stand up and say that some things are just right and wrong...and taking the heat. Too many men are either cowards or criminals.

Men are going to lead in a society....it is in our DNA. The real issue is whether we are going to be constructive or destructive. We haven't figured out how to promote healthy masculine virtues of adventure, courage, and risk-taking, without devolving into men seeking thrills without commitment.

This is especially true in the sexual arena our lives. From the powerful to the powerless, a lot of men seek to gratify themselves sexually outsides the protective confines of marriage. Or, their minds are so consumed by porn, that the desire for real sex with a real woman is dissipated. They really don't give much of a damn about the women they have sex with, and then sometimes are faced with the reality of now having sired children, when all they really wanted was some ass on a Friday night. Make no bones about it, a promiscuous culture is a culture of death. Short term pleasure and long-term negative consequences.

You want to curse a child with a lasting sense of low self-worth? Let him or her come to understand that his/her Father doesn't really care much about his son or daughter. Or, has other priorities like work, hobbies, affairs, watching tv, etc. Absent though present, or just absent period. Want to bless a child...make them the priority, not a priority.