Our Father and Baltimore

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.   Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in Baltimore, as it is in heaven.   

I saw former Georgia Bulldog tight-end, Benjamin Watson, being interviewed a couple of times on the news this weekend regarding the recent Baltimore uprisings.  He is a very impressive and thoughtful gentleman.  Here is an excerpt of what he posted on his Facebook page:

“We have major problems as a nation. Yesterday Ferguson burned. Tonight ‪‎Baltimore burns. Tomorrow it will be another city in our homeland. Watching the coverage I’m hearing yet another version of a nauseatingly familiar narrative. Violence by police reciprocated by violence by the community, reciprocated by violence by police reciprocated by…. It seems fruitless to continue to analyze, condemn, and respond to these dreadful episodes. ‘Frustration, anger, tension boiling over, upset and unfortunate’ are words we hear from Baltimore residents. When it comes to law enforcement, race, poverty, education, immigration we always talk about fixing ‘broken’ systems….After each situation the more I am convinced that the love of God for our fellow brothers and sisters who were created in His image, is our only hope for reconciliation. But the only way we can even see him that way is if God illuminates our view and changes our thought process…I see a brokenness that only Christ can give us the wisdom and power to mend.”

I must say, I fully agree with Benjamin, Christ is the answer, because He is the way to the Father.  Jesus put it this way, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him….The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…”

It is also earthly fathers that hold the answer to Baltimore and many of our urban problems.  Many are claiming that the problem in our urban centers is poverty.  Poverty is not the problem.  A lack of earthly fathers living up to their obligations is the problem – poverty is the result.  A 2012 Heritage Organization Report titled, “Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty” had this to say about the role of fathers and the God-ordained institution of marriage: 

“Child poverty is an ongoing national concern, but few are aware that its principal cause is the absence of married fathers in the home. Marriage remains America’s strongest anti-poverty weapon, yet it continues to decline. As husbands disappear from the home, poverty and welfare dependence will increase, and children and parents will suffer as a result.”  

Additional findings indicate that the benefits of fathers and marriage are not just monetary.  “Children raised by married parents have substantially better life outcomes compared to similar children raised in single-parent homes.  When compared to children in intact married homes, children raised by single parents are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems; be physically abused; smoke, drink, and use drugs; be aggressive; engage in violent, delinquent, and criminal behavior; have poor school performance; be expelled from school; and drop out of high school.  Many of these negative outcomes are associated with the higher poverty rates of single mothers. In many cases, however, the improvements in child well-being that are associated with marriage persist even after adjusting for differences in family income. This indicates that the father brings more to his home than just a paycheck.”

 

 Those looking for an explanation to poverty and its associated problems would be wise to understand the troubles associated with single-parenting.  When single-parent families are compared to intact married families, the children are, “More than twice as likely to be arrested for a juvenile crime; Twice as likely to be treated for emotional and behavioral problems; roughly twice as likely to be suspended or expelled from school; and a third more likely to drop out before completing high school.”    
 

Benjamin Watson is right.  For those who turn to Christ they can come to realize that God is, “A father to the fatherless.”  

Love and the Lightning Rod

When I was in Afghanistan the first time, my boss (a full colonel), was an alcoholic and an adulterer.  I’m what he might call a “Bible Thumper,” and it soon became apparent that he  didn’t care for me too much. However I can  say he shared something with me that I thought was exceptionally insightful.  It came right after he disclosed his intent to fire me (or more precisely, relieve me).  What the Colonel said that I believe is very perceptive was, “Oftentimes a leader becomes a lightning rod; the unit members direct all their negative energy and frustration at the leader, fairly or not.”  In spite of the fact that he eventually got a young, female soldier pregnant, was later fired for being AWOL during a drinking binge, and his actions against me were overturned by the Department of The Army, that was a very astute observation.

There is good reason why leaders can become lightning rods – they make decisions and implement policies that affect our existence. For better or worse, leaders, like families have an inordinate influence on our lives.  Healthy marriages create healthy families.  Healthy families create healthy neighborhoods.  Healthy neighborhoods create healthy cities.  Healthy cities create healthy states.  Healthy states create a healthy country.  Why in the world would any leader want to upset the very foundation for a healthy nation?

On January 30, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt underscored the importance of marriage in a message to Congress, “The institution of marriage is, of course, at the very foundation of our social organization, and all influences that affect that institution are of vital concern to the people of the whole country.”  Make no mistake, marriage matters.

 As mentioned in my last column, Obama advisor David Axlerod said in his book Believer: My Forty Years in Politics that Obama “misled” Americans about marriage.  Why the need for deception?  As a candidate for president, Obama told Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church that marriage could only extend to heterosexual couples.  “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman,” Obama said. He continued, “Now, for me as a Christian — for me, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”  Me too, Mr. Obama, me too.  However, unlike God, Mr. Obama changed – or as he said, “evolved.”

Why not a man and a dog? A woman and a cat? A man and his car? A man and multiple women?   Back in the 1880’s, the Territory of Utah had a problem with Mormons and polygamy.  The problem was so disturbing that President Grover Cleveland addressed it on December 8, 1885.  In his First Annual Message to Congress he declared, “The strength, the perpetuity, and the destiny of the nation rest upon our homes, established by the law of God, guarded by parental care, regulated by parental authority, and sanctified by parental love. These are not the homes of polygamy.”

Regarding the necessity for a mother, President Cleveland continued, “The mothers of our land, who rule the nation as they mold the characters and guide the actions of their sons, live according to God's holy ordinances, and each, secure and happy in the exclusive love of the father of her children, sheds the warm light of true womanhood, unperverted and unpolluted, upon all within her pure and wholesome family circle.”

Unlike what we see in “Married With Children” or “The Simpsons,” Cleveland knew the value of fathers, and the value of a family that only a mother and father can form.  He told Congress, “The fathers of our families are the best citizens of the Republic. Wife and children are the sources of patriotism, and conjugal and parental affection beget devotion to the country. The man who, undefiled with plural marriage, is surrounded in his single home with his wife and children has a stake in the country which inspires him with respect for its laws and courage for its defense.”

Being a devoted Mom or Dad is not easy, especially in a culture and country where anything goes.   If President Cleveland recognized the importance of traditional marriage back in the 1800’s, how much more so is it now?  In closing, I’ll confess I’m in agreement with what former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, ironically, not exactly a practitioner of traditional marriage, said about the issue, “I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman.” 

The Lord is my Shepherd; the Terminator is my lightning rod.

This article appeared in the 25 FEB 2015 Upson Beacon.