Posted on 04/29/2008 8:39:52 AM PDT by Finally Awake
Is There a War Against Fathers in America? Albert Mohler President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
April 4, 2008
Albert Mohler recently interviewed Stephen Baskerville. Dr. Baskerville is a professor at Patrick Henry College and author of the book, Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage and the Family.
Mohler: I find fascinating the fact that you have a rather aggressive title here: youre talking about a war against fathers, marriage and the family. There are a lot of people who, I think, are unaware of this war. Help us understand it.
Baskerville: Most people are unaware of it until they are sucked into itusually through the family court system, divorce or some other method. Americans would be very shocked if they knew what was going on in this country under the name of divorceno fault divorce.
What we call divorce has become essentially a euphemism for government officials, courts primarily, and social service agencies to invade familiesto separate children from parents who have done nothing wrong; to plunder the parents for everything they have in many cases and even to criminalize the parents and jail them without trail; to turn them into criminals in ways the parents are powerless to avoid.
The overwhelming victims of this are fathers, though at times it happens to mothers as well. Usually it is not a matter of gender bias, it is a matter of power and moneyof the huge machine that has grown up in the last four decades around the question of no fault divorce, child custody and related issues.
Mohler: Now in your work you really demonstrate how the no fault divorce revolution and the law has brought enormous consequences. Can you help spell those out for us? I think an awful lot of Americans, especially those who are younger, arent aware of how the law really has been transformed in this area.
Baskerville: Thats right. The term no fault understates the problem. It really is unilateral divorceinvoluntary divorce. It allows one spouse to force divorce on the other without the involuntary spouse having done anything wrong. In other words, your spouse can divorce you without you having done anything legally wrong or agreeing to the divorce. In fact, it goes further than that. Maggie Gallagher describes it as the abolition of marriage, and that is really what it is. The marriage contract is not in any way legally binding anymore. It can be broken without consequence by one spouse unilaterallythe other spouse has no choice. Divorce is simply forced on that spouse. And most often its the father.
Mohler: Lets just revisit the situation before no fault divorce. At that time society privileged marriage as a contract above other contracts because it was understood to be more than a contract. Marriage was understood to be the basic building block of civilization. And to dissolve a marriage was understood to be an issue of such consequence that there had to be cause. I think thats what people dont understand. When it says no fault it really means no cause. You dont have to have a cause now. One spouse can simply decide that he or sheand in a lot of cases its bothdoesnt want to be married anymore and there is nothing the other spouse can do to prevent the divorce. Isnt that the ultimate issue here?
Baskerville: That is correct. And to be fair, though, this was happening even before no fault divorce. No fault divorce laws really just put the nails in the coffin. They just codified what was already taking place. Therefore, simply repealing no fault divorce and reinstating fault in divorce would not solve the problem.
The issue today has really become child custody: by shifting the battle into the area of children they turned children into political weapons. Because what happens is not only can one spouse unilaterally divorce the other, but sheand it is usually the mothercan take the children with her (or sometimes the father does it to the mother), but in most cases the mother can divorce the father, and without any grounds, take the children. She doesnt have to give any reason. After that point the fathers contact with the children when it is not authorized by the government becomes a crime. He can be arrested for trying to see his own children without having done anything legally wrong. And this is whats shocking: they just turned children into political weapons and political tools.
Mohler: Ive been concerned for years about what Ive called the divorce industrial complex. You really do a great job in your book in demonstrating how there is an entire pernicious economy based upon and encouraging and facilitating divorce.
Baskerville: Its huge, thats right. And whats most important about it is this huge machine is government based. Its not just private entrepreneurs in this case, it is government officials. Its lawyers, its judges and its the huge social services bureaucracies its a huge entourage that is not only profiting from divorce, but increasing government power over private lives in very dangerous ways.
Mohler: Professor Baskerville you were talking about the fathers as victims of this and I think in that context thats clearly the right way to talk about this. But ultimately, children are the victims of all of this.
Baskerville: Well, thats exactly right. This is the main cause behind the epidemic of fatherless childrenthat 24 million fatherless children in this country are not that way because the fathers have abandoned their children, contrary to government and other propaganda. Overwhelmingly, it is because fathers are forcibly kept away from their children. Fathers who have done nothing wrong are forcibly separated from their children. We know that fatherlessness is the single greatest predictor of social and personal deviance among children, alcohol and substance abuse, crime and low educational attainment and yet we are told that fathers are abandoning their children. This is not true.
In addition to being one of Salems nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts, R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and recognized as one of Americas leading theologians and cultural commentators. Contact Dr. Mohler at www.albertmohler.com.
I often said prices went up in the 80’s because of the double income families and people knew people would pay more. And it inched itself into almost NEEDING a double income. Alot of families could sacrifice for less income, but we all know they won’t.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a combination of both.
Governments have increased their tax burden onto the very backs of the moms that were encouraged to work outside the home. Between the two, it has made it very hard for one to stay home. I have, but that was because I woke up in time and didn’t stay working once I married. But I truly sympathize with the moms who really didn’t know that they would want to stay home with their babies, and had a mountain of financial obligations that were tough to change or get out of. They got stuck.
It is my opinion that if both parents cared about the family they would not get divorced.
But if that is too old-fashioned of me then at least, I think that if two divorced parents truly both cared about the family then they would make sure their children had full and frequent access to both their parents.
Too often one parent just doesn’t care anything about the family and uses a divorce as a weapon to hurt and punish their ex. And our society just accepts that. THAt is the problem in my opinion. (That and premarital sex which is where a LOT of single mother families are coming from.)
Absolutely nothing. My point was that a parent should be at home with the children to teach them values.
That is not an option as it would take away government jobs. They can’t have a socialist society without creating jobs for the masses.
sarc.
The first thing they need to do is past the Presumption of Equal Custody law in every state, including Tennessee. Half the states have that now.
Good answer.
The children need both parents.
The federal government is heavily involved in child support. The budget for collection of child support is $5 Billion dollars. On top of that there is a budget for “incentive payments” paid to states for their efforts in collecting child support. The more money collected by the state the higher the “incentive payment”. At one time this incentive payment was for collecting child support from men for children on welfare, but now all collections are available for these incentive payments. Not too long ago states were allowed to spend the incentive payments for anything they chose. There are over 60,000 people employed in the child support industry.
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