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For millions of children across the U.S., this Sunday will not be a cause for celebration. Because of dramatic increases in divorce and nonmarital childbearing, about 28% of our nation's children -- more than 20 million kids -- now live in a household without their father, up from 10 million kids (14%) in 1970, according to a recent Census Bureau report. Moreover, because most of these boys and girls see their dads infrequently (once a month or less), Father's Day will offer cold comfort to many of these children. Our nation's epidemic of fatherlessness is just the most salient indicator...

We've often discussed anti-father bias in Child Protective Services cases. Fathers are frequently marginalized and deprived of custody of their children when their wives/ex-wives/ex-girlfriends abuse their children. This terrible Nebraska case detailed below is another example. In the case, a mother abused her daughter and child protective services took the girl. There were no accusations of abuse against the father. Nevertheless, they deceived and manipulated the father into relinquishing custody of his daughter. The girl was left fatherless -- can anyone guess what's going to happen to her?Surprise, surprise -- without her father, the girl's life, in the words of...

"There are cretins, there are cowards, there are rats that walk like men. And then there is Larry Patterson Jr...an officer tried to pull Patterson over last week...Patterson sped away...[and] crashed into another car. He did not hang around to exchange insurance information. Instead, he bailed. "But he left something behind."Namely, his passenger. More to the point, his daughter. She was found wedged between the rear windshield and the deck behind the back seats. She is 5 months old...despite not being secured in a car seat, [she] came through the accident without injury."Her name is Larissa, perhaps in honor of...

"Whenever I tried to get my daughter, Family Court wouldn't let me," said Jewell's father, Ricky Ward. "The courts wouldn't hear me out. I blame this on Leatrice Brewer and Family Court.""She wanted to kill them. I let the court know that. But they took only one side...I loved them. I've been fighting for them."--Innocent Demesyeux, father of Michael, 5, and Innocent Jr., 18 monthsBoth fathers warned the family court that their children's mother was violent and dangerous. Both tried to get custody. Both tried to save their kids. The courts, apparently blinded by the family law system's pervasive pro-mother...

"Clinton also recognizes that many states’ child support guidelines are excessive, noting:"'Child support payments can represent half of [low-income] men's income, and can provide a strong incentive to work in the underground economy.'"Clinton’s proposals are a good start, but much more needs to be done to address the problems low-income fathers face."My new co-authored column, Hillary Clinton’s Youth Opportunity Agenda Will Help Low-Income Fathers (Black Press USA Network, 1/25/08), discusses some small but significant proposals from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to resolve the child support problems faced by many low-income African-American fathers. The proposals are based on the Urban...

The issue of Single Motherhood by Choice has been getting a good deal of press lately, and is becoming increasingly acceptable in our society. Now Hugh Hefner, 81, apparently is going to selfishly crank out an inevitably fatherless child with de facto Single Mother by Choice Holly Madison, 28, one of his Playmate girlfriends. According to the World Entertainment News Network:"Playboy boss Hugh Hefner is apparently finally willing to grant girlfriend Holly Madison's wish of becoming a mother by agreeing to seek fertility treatment."Madison has regularly expressed her desire to become a mother on the hit reality TV show The...

Responsible fathers needed, mayor says   Nat Roberts, 12, waits for the start of a parade kicking off the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom Celebration. Members of the Knights of Columbus join in prayer during the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom Anniversary Celebration at the Monument for Religious Freedom along Washington Avenue yesterday. Knights of Columbus members, framed by American flags, arrive at the Monument of Religious Freedom.    Tomzak calls on churches to promote responsible fatherhood at religious freedom event At the ceremony yesterday to mark the 231st anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's religious freedom statute, Fredericksburg Mayor Tom Tomzak...

“In my state I do not recall a circumstance...where a law of this kind interfered with the rights of a parent in a way that seemed like it was out of keeping, but if you’re familiar with such, let us know.”--Mitt Romney, presidential candidate and governor of Massachusetts, 2003-2007"The continual use of some men's groups to spout bogus facts and statistics is a problem we need to correct...[the idea] that men are falsely accused of domestic violence and lose contact with their children unjustly as a result...is not accurate...just the opposite is true."--Rita Smith, Executive Director, The National Coalition...

For fathers and the children who love them and need them, Massachusetts sometimes looks a lot like feminist hell. In this series, Ned Holstein, Executive Director of Fathers & Families, points to four um...problematic...Massachusetts family law bills. The first bill Holstein cites limits the freedoms of all dads--even married dads and "dads" with no children! From Holstein: Here are four candidates for the most dubious family bills in the Massachusetts Legislature....I would like to hear from those in other states – tell me about the legislative doozies in your state. Then we will determine the winner of “most ridiculous family...

CHICAGO...Mr. Steinback in almost an hour-long discourse called for leniency. He ran the gamut of emotions from calls for pity on a man who had already paid a high price to reminders of Black's charitable giving, scholarly attainments — his biographies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon — his continued admiration of America. Mr. Steinback argued that in London and on the Continent, Black, who was in 2002 made Lord Black of Crossharbor, was deemed controversial for his boldly stated pro-Americanism...It was, however, the very boldness of Black's life that the prosecutor, Eric Sussman, cited as reason for a heavier...

No other topics I write about so consistently provoke passionate personal response as those dealing with systemic discrimination against men. When, for example, I point out double standards for boys and girls in the health care system, or expose the use of bogus statistics around domestic violence, my inbox fills with male gratitude simply for acknowledging an obvious fact: Our culture is profoundly misandric.Of the myriad forms of discrimination men cite, one looms over the rest: The egregious treatment meted out to fathers in the throes of contested child custody following the "no-fault" divorces most of them did not...

During this holiday season, a Tucson father has three reasons to celebrate. Andrue Smith's wife recently gave birth to triplet boys. But tragically, his wife died after the babies were born. Andrue is now struggling to cope with the loss of his wife and raising the babies on his own. They're daddy's little boys. Legend, Tristian and Jaisyn were born six weeks premature, a week ago today. "All I wanted was a son," he told us. You can see the love in Andrue's eyes. Love, and sorrow, because his wife Debbie will never see her babies. Andrue says, out of...

<p>"I am a father of four children. For that, I stayed. I never could have left him. Never."</p> <p>"The 26-year-old bricklayer was two days into his walk and about 50 miles from Tucson when he saw the boy, who had walked away from the crash...Christopher had scrapes on his leg and was dressed in shorts despite the desert cold. The boy had his dog with him and was holding a side mirror from the wrecked van.</p>

Former professional basketball player Jason Caffey had two children with his wife, and at least six other children with women in metro Atlanta, Alabama, Louisiana and Illinois. Professional football player Travis Henry, a Denver Broncos running back with a $25 million contract, has nine children by nine women in four Southern states, including a Lithonia boy fathered out of wedlock three years ago. Caffey, who earned as much as $5 million a season in a 10-year NBA career with the Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks, filed for bankruptcy in Alabama in August. His wife, who lives in...

A woman who became pregnant after a one-night stand yesterday won the right to keep the existence of her baby a secret from its father. In a landmark decision, three Appeal Court judges agreed that the 20-year-old single mother has "the ultimate veto" over whom should be told about the child, who is being put up for adoption. Describing the case as "on any view extraordinary", Lord Justice Thorpe ruled there was no justification for "breaking open the mother's secret". And Lady Justice Arden said this was not a violation of the father's rights to family life under the Human...

I debated the issue of Single Motherhood by Choice on Fox's nationally-syndicated Morning Show with Mike and Juliet yesterday. Also on the show were two single mothers by choice, including Louise Sloan, author of the new book Knocking Yourself Up, a psychologist, and 18-year-old Katrina Clark, a child of a single mother by choice. As you can imagine, I was badly outnumbered, and was the only one representing the fathers' side, which is always fun. They extended our topic over three segments, so it's lengthy as far as TV goes--to watch the video of the show, click here. www.GlennSacks.com, Glenn...

Jerry Syrovatka says that at 51 he can still run circles around his 8-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. But who knows how long that will last? The Weston Ranch resident is part of a growing phenomenon among baby boomers: men who father children well past the age of 40. "I'm in construction, so I can keep up with the big guys and the little guys," Syrovatka said. "I still got the old spunk in me." There's a joy to fatherhood no matter when someone has a child, but many Americans are waiting longer. Research shows the percentage of married men...

In the heartbreaking Melinda Smith case, a San Diego father and daughter were needlessly separated by the foster care system for over a decade. Last week, Los Angeles County settled a lawsuit over the case for an undisclosed sum. Yet a recent Urban Institute study found that the Smith case typifies the way the foster care system harms children by disregarding the loving bonds they share with their fathers. Smith was born to an unwed couple in 1988. Her father, Thomas Marion Smith, a former Marine and a decorated Vietnam War veteran, saw Melinda often and paid child support. When...

AP) The father of a 5-year-old Cuban girl at the center of an international custody battle did not abandon or neglect her, so he should get her back, a judge ruled Thursday. Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen said she would not immediately return the girl to her father, Cuban farmer Rafael Izquierdo, who wants to take her back to Cuba. The girl went into foster care after her mother brought her to the U.S. in 2005 and then attempted suicide days before Christmas. She has been living with foster parents in Miami for the past 18 months and they want...

WEARE – A father attacked his daughter's boyfriend last week after learning the boy had sex with the underage girl, police said. It was about 1:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10, when the man stormed onto the grounds of John J. Stark High School and beat up the 17-year-old from Henniker. School was just letting out, and many students witnessed the attack, said Detective Lou Chatel. The boy suffered bruising and later received two stitches to his face. The father was charged with simple assault, a Class B felony. Police said the boy is dating the man's 15-year-old daughter. The man...

Ford has come out with a new father-positive car commercial for its 2008 Taurus. The ad, called "We Know," depicts a father looking out for his little son as he rides his bicycle, and then draws an analogy between the way the father knows how to keep his son safe and the way Ford says its automobile engineers know how to keep people safe. The ad depicts the father as being what the vast majority of fathers (and mothers) are--caring, loving parents. To watch, click here.Last year there was considerable controversy in the fatherhood movement over Ford's controversial “Bold Moves”...

DALLAS There's new information today on an overweight father going to extreme measures to adopt a child. Gary Stocklaufer says he's still being treated unfairly by a judge in his home state of Missouri. Despite having weight loss surgery in Dallas, he received notice from a judge overruling his motion for a rehearing to adopt his cousin's son. Back in June, the Stocklaufers petitioned to adopt 4-month-old Max, who had lived with them since he was a week old. Gary was denied the adoption because he was overweight. When news of the court denial spread a hospital in Dallas agreed...

Virginia E. Fisher  Other Articles by Virginia E. FisherPrinter Friendly Version   Where Have All the Christian Men Gone? My Conversation with John Eldredge September 3, 2007 Many men balk at the idea of going to church. Some resist the tendency in Christian circles to "feminize" God. Others object to how Christian men tend to be so tame and passive — more like women — and very bored. And so, it is perhaps not surprising that John Eldredge's books, especially Wild at Heart, have been wildly successful. Seeking to discover the secret of a man's soul, Catholic and Protestant...

Last month my column highlighted the often-neglected voices of fathers in the abortion debate. [www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.207] Afterwards, several men contacted me to recount their painful memories. Wayne Auman of North Carolina was one of those courageous men. His memories are so vivid and his pain so poignant, I invited him to share the story in his own words: It all began in 1981, I was dating an incredible girl, and we planned to eventually marry. We had been together over a year, and we were crazy in love. Then one September day she approached me with tears in her eyes and...

Analyze this, the first sentence of an account of a Michael Bloomberg speech to the National Press Club last week, and then take the quiz on why notable public opinion leaders are reluctant to weigh in on the sensitive question of fathers, marriage and child poverty: "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a divorced, billionaire dad, said Tuesday that unwed fathers increase poverty and the government should take steps to get them back with their families." A divorced, billionaire dad. Meaning what? A gratuitous insertion in a wire service account, it's clearly intended to convey a message. But what? That because...

NOW Challenges Fatherhood Programs The National Organization for Women (NOW) has filed a federal complaint against three Responsible Fatherhood programs funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – for alleged sex discrimination against women. The three grantee organizations are Love in the Name of Christ (Love, INC), Fairbanks, Alaska; Catholic Charities of Idaho; and South Coast Business Employment Corp., Coos Bay, Ore. NOW complains that women are excluded from these programs “solely because they are women.” Love, INC was given a five-year grant of $205,834 a year for a Fatherhood Initiative Project aimed at helping low- and...

Fathers Important Protection Against Poverty from staff reports New York mayor proposes tax incentives to keep dads in the home. In a speech at the National Press Club, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said missing fathers contribute to poverty and government should do what it can to bring them back into the home. Bloomberg proposed withholding tax refunds from deadbeat dads, increasing participation in the Earned Income Tax Credit and doing away with the marriage penalty tax. Gerald Prante, a staff economist at the Tax Foundation, said the mayor's proposals make good economic sense. "The Earned Income Tax Credit is...

Those guffaws floating over Colorado last Sunday morning didn’t come from the comic strips in newspaper but from the Sports section. With stunning velocity, Denver Bronco Travis Henry is racking up statistics not usually charted in professional sports; he has scored nine illegitimate kids with nine different women. Henry is outdistanced, however, by former NBA Houston Rocket Calvin Murphy who had 14 out-of-wedlock children by nine women. Of course both are lapped by super-stud and premier athlete Seattle Slew, the Triple Crown winner who begat 1,066. But in contrast, Slew’s progeny were planned and a source of pride celebrated by...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion is frequently considered a woman's issue and one where men should have little no role in the decision and likely have little or no ill-effects afterwards. However, one man who regularly counsels men who have been involved in an abortion says that claim is unfounded. Kevin Burke is the associate director of Rachel's Vineyard Ministries, a group that reaches out to those adversely affected by an abortion to provide them hope and healing.In an interview with Zenit, Burke says men suffer from a myriad of problems following a partner's abortion -- especially one in which...

DENVER — Denver Broncos legend John Elway has been hired by Cherry Creek High School as the football team's new quarterbacks coach, MyFoxColorado.com reports. Elway, 47, is coaching his son Jack, who is in his senior year at Cherry Creek. Click here to view the MyFoxColorado.com report. The younger Elway shares his father's Number 7 jersey.

God, in His providence, has seen fit to bestow upon my wife and me two beautiful girls that we must steward into greatness. It has been a blast watching my daughters develop into righteous and rowdy, gorgeous girls. The thing that sucks with their metamorphosis into womanhood is the guys who’ve begun to buzz around our happy nest interested in my ladies. As much as I don’t like the idea of their dating, I have got to suck it up and accept it (bartender, I’ll have a shot of whiskey). All you dads who are worth your salt and give...

As the new Reuters article "Children of single dads get less health care" (8/8/07) [http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL86095820070808] explains, a new study by Health Services Research claims that single fathers are less likely to take their children to the doctor for routine visits than single mothers, and are also less likely to have health insurance. Despite the alleged disadvantages single mothers face, we're told that "nonetheless, children of single mothers were most likely to make well-child visits to the doctor for preventive care." I think that single fathers should be more careful to make these "well-child" visits and have health insurance, but there...

Why are men reflexively treated as the fall-guy in the abortion debate? Recently National Review Online convened a group to opine what would happen in a post-Roe v. Wade world to women who might obtain an illegal abortion. The panelists reveal that before 1973, women who sought an abortion were not subject to criminal prosecution. So overturning Roe v. Wade would not fill our jails with post-abortive women. [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjkwNWQ4ZDQ2NTljNDg4MjUyYWIxZWQ0NDVjMTkxYjg=] One theme surfaces repeatedly in the commentaries: feckless boyfriends who abandon their partners in their hour of greatest need. Hadley Arkes of Amherst College describes women having an abortion as routinely...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- A local man said he's upset a judge took away a foster son because he is obese. Gary Stocklaufer weighs 500 pounds. He said a family court judge ruled this week that he wasn't fit enough to be an adoptive father. "It's out-and-out discrimination," Stocklaufer said. "We don't have a checkered past. We don't have a rap sheet, like a lot of people do. We don't have any cases of abuse." Stocklaufer is a state-certified foster parent. He and his wife, Cynthia, had taken in baby Max from a cousin who couldn't raise him. The couple also...

One of the most surprising scenes in the new Harry Potter book occurs in the chapter "The Bribe" (pages 210-215)--a scene which reflects our sharply anti-father political environment. (As an aside, even though J.K. Rowling is an avowed single mother advocate, in the Harry Potter series she mercifully spares us any nonsense on the glories of single motherhood.) The scene involves Harry and Lupin (pictured, with Harry), a former teacher at the school who is also a werewolf. Lupin is married to Tonks, and Tonks is pregnant with their child. Lord Voldemort (the devil in the Harry Potter series) has...

The strict father has been the target of much criticism over the past four decades, which is one reason why we don't have very many strict fathers around any more. (Divorce is another reason). I'm not a particular advocate of strict/hard-line parenting, and it's certainly true that the old, tough dad had his drawbacks. The best parent is one who mixes affection and discipline, who loves and is lovable but at the same time is respected and, when necessary, feared. But not all parents can do all these things, and while we might have wished that the old dad were...

Bobby Grady, a convicted felon in secure detention, didn't know for more than a year that he had a son. When he finally learned of his son's existence, it was only to discover that his parental rights were about to be legally terminated. Now, Grady wants his son. Jeffrey, a Milwaukee doctor, raised Grady's son since the boy's birth (he is being identified only by first name to protect the boy's identity in the community). The 3-year-old has had serious medical problems, which required Jeffrey and his wife to take him for treatment several times a day at some points....

Recently my daughter and I were watching her second favorite movie, The Sandlot 3 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0817307/]. (Her favorite movie is The Sandlot 1). The movie is the story of arrogant baseball star Tommy "Santa" Santorelli who (warning: plot spoiler ahead) travels back in time to 1976 and relives his boyhood days on the sandlot baseball team. This time he chooses friendship over individual accomplishments, and ends up turning his life around, becoming a beloved baseball star instead of a hated one. When Santorelli goes back to his childhood he is reunited with his mother, who died when he was about 12....

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud,...

Many academics would consider my lack of manliness a good thing. They regard boys as thugs-in-training, caught up in a patriarchal society that demeans women. But I can't shake the sense that boys are supposed to become manly. Rather than neutering their aggression, confidence and desire for danger, we should channel these instincts into honor, gentlemanliness and courage. Instead of inculcating timidity in our sons, it seems wiser to train them to face down bullies, which by necessity means teaching them how to throw a good uppercut. You can't build a civilization and defend it against barbarians, fascists and playground...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. On Friday I discussed the sexual and spiritual wasteland where so many of our kids have ended up. And they don’t even know how they got there or how to get out. Today I want to talk about how parents—and especially dads—can combat that culture. The truth is, contrary to what the media tells you, dads do matter. As Dr. Meg Meeker puts it in her new book, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, “Most of you out there are good men . . . but you are good men who...

I was genuinely flattered to hear of the worldwide enjoyment of my parody and hyperbolic WND article this last week, "If I am elected President." It is often said that the most powerful position in the world is the U.S. Presidency. But I believe it hits much closer to home than the White House and is a role, quite frankly, that I'm much more eager to fulfill. Before I reveal that commanding position, I'd like to discuss the power utilized in it. The purpose of powerCalvin Coolidge, America's 30th President, once confessed, "I suppose I am the most powerful man...

There is a certain immediacy about motherhood that cannot be said of fatherhood. Nature goes a long way in helping a mother know what it means to be a mother. Ovulation, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and breast feeding are natural and immediate experiences that teach a mother a great deal about the meaning of her motherhood. Motherhood is eminent, but fatherhood is transcendent. If nature does comparatively little to teach a man the meaning of fatherhood, his wife, his children and his culture must help to fill in the blanks. Nonetheless, secular feminism, the high divorce rate and abortion most emphatically...

The father factor: Fathers and sons http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=281935077507132005&an=410802067106152007&ac=Opinion http://tinyurl.com/38wf8g Saturday June 16 2007 Men become biological fathers in a moment. Not much is required except the right anatomical equipment and opportunity. The father need not love the mother. The father does not need a course in parenting, nor does he need to even desire to be a parent. The father does not always even know of his progeny. Nevertheless, each child born into this world has two parents, and one of them is, by definition, the father. For many men, that is where their input begins and ends. Children need fathers....

Elise Graveline Hilton  Other Articles by Elise Graveline HiltonPrinter Friendly Version   What Makes a Man a Hero? June 15, 2007 It is almost impossible to find a decent hero these days — our sports figures are regularly arrested, dress up in weird costumes or get married for three minutes, our civil servants lie to us on national television and allow their staffs to "put the right spin on it", and the movies offer up too violent a fare to present to our young people for emulation.  Where can we look for role models and people of distinction?I am...

One in three American children live in fatherless homes. One out of three. This is a national disaster. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Census Bureau: 63 percent of all youth suicides; 71 percent of pregnant teenagers; 85 percent of all youth in prisons; 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children; and 71 percent of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. Those sobering numbers represent the "what" of fatherless homes. Perhaps you have heard some of these numbers before. But what you...

Theresa A. Thomas  Other Articles by Theresa A. ThomasPrinter Friendly Version   The Story of Champions June 15, 2007 Once upon a time there was a boy named David. His dad was a golf professional, and his family lived on the fifth hole of a modest golf course. Every day David spent hours hitting golf balls, tee to green, over and over again, until the hazy orange light of the setting sun could no longer be seen, and pine tree shadows overcame him in the darkness. When he was old enough he worked as a caddy, lugging golf bags almost...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday that fathers have to share the responsibility for raising children and caring for families because their role doesn't end at conception. Days before Father's Day, the first-term Illinois senator and father of two daughters delivered his life message as well as an assessment of what government needs to do in remarks at a Baptist church. "What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child," Obama said. In his prepared text, Obama said: Men need to "stop acting like boys - who need...

Two months after giving birth to her daughter, Jen McClure-Metz received a phenomenal job offer. If she wanted to become a producer on a hit television show, she’d have to start in a month. McClure-Metz and her husband talked it over and made the same decision many families are making: Dad would stay home full time and take care of their daughter. “While I never thought that I would end up staying home with Sarah, I knew that I was fully capable of doing so,” says Brian Metz, McClure-Metz’s husband. But almost four years into it, McClure-Metz began to feel...

Psychology Today To Child Custody Divorce Courts, Father's Rights Groups: Dads Are Equal By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----June 3 ...... It was not easy writing the above headline. But when Psychology Today, one of the most respected lay journals on clinical psychology releases research illustrating that fathers are empowered biologically no differently than women when it comes to nurturing children, all keywords are needed. The Psychological Today story: The Making of a Modern Dad, by Douglas Carlton Abrams illustrates in vivid scientific detail how fathers are no different in their biological programming than mothers when raising children....