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Building a Better Fatherhood

October 4th, 2014 Comments off

Self-giving love is the best foundation for family life

By Scott Yenor

This article was originally published at fathersforgood.org on September 21, 2014.

Cultural support for fatherhood has collapsed in the past 50 years, and there are few signs of a renewal. In light of this, how can fathers summon the courage to fulfill their mission?

Their mission is two-fold: to love their wives and commit to providing for the total welfare of their child. Each of these requires from men a conscious attitude of self-giving love. This admirable attitude does not come always naturally to us, and it is increasingly under siege in our culture that emphasizes independence and self-fulfillment. Read more…

Building a Better Fatherhood

September 24th, 2014 Comments off

Our culture of individualism has trouble seeing the family, or understanding what it is seeing, when it does see the family.  Ruth Institute Circle of Experts member, Dr. Scott Yenor has an inspiring article, well worth sharing with the dads in your life.

How is our culture’s emphasis on autonomous independence different from an attitude of love? Is that salary yours or is it the family’s? Is the house you live in yours or is it family’s? Is your child’s education his or hers or is it the family’s? Is your time yours or is it the family’s? When these things are yours, you have adopted an attitude of independence; when they are the family’s, you exhibit an attitude of love.

Writing on the Knights of Columbus Fathers for Good blog, Dr. Yenor points out that the world needs good fathers and that we do not appreciate them.  More than that: our culture of individualism undermines good fatherhood, and blinds us to good fathers when they do appear.

Scott Yenor, Ph.D. Ruth Institute Expert Author of "Family in Politics" a really great book, IMHO.

Scott Yenor, Ph.D.
Ruth Institute Expert
Author of “Family in Politics” a really great book, IMHO.

We hear all about “self-interest rightly understood” and “rational self-interest” and “ethical egoism.” These concepts obviously imply their opposites: “self-interest wrongly understood” and “irrational self-interest” and “unethical egoism.”  Perhaps we just need a completely new term to describe our current cultural moment: “irrational individualism.”

In any case, great and inspiring article by Dr. Yenor. Share with the Dads in your life!

 

 

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Gender gaps in college linked to divorce rates

August 4th, 2014 Comments off

BY NICOLE M. KING

The News Story – How Dad’s involvement can address the gender gap in higher education

While research has told us that the prevalence of divorce in our society can account for the gender gap within higher education, a recent article in The Huffington Post sheds more light on what the exact causal relation might be. It may not just be the possibility of divorce, itself, that has such an impact on both female and male adolescents, but rather the lack of father involvement in the lives of male children. Read more…

Fathers: their unique role

June 17th, 2014 Comments off

BY SHEILA LIAUGMINAS

Earth to Dad…did you get the message? That’s okay, here’s a backup…

On Father’s Day weekend in America, I couldn’t sign onto Facebook without an onslaught of the vast majority of postings from my ‘Friend’ world displaying a changed profile or timeline picture of their fathers, or them with their fathers. And in some cases, it was accompanied by stories about their fathers. Read more…

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A Right to a Father: In honor of Father’s Day.

June 15th, 2014 Comments off

It is Father’s Day. For me, this is a day to be grateful for my father, for all he did for me, my mother and my brothers and sisters.  I am grateful for how he went to work every day, came home every night, and stayed married to my mother for a lifetime.

Most of all, I am grateful to him for my faith. It was his simple yet profound faith that gave me a Catholic girlhood, which is the foundation of

I'm the bundle in my daddy's arms, next to my mom. Those are my two big brothers, Joey and Jerry, an d my godparents and their daughter.

I’m the bundle in my daddy’s arms, next to my mom. Those are my two big brothers, Joey and Jerry, and my godparents and their daughter.

who I am today.  I cannot hear the hymn “Faith of Our Fathers,” (often played at our parish on Father’s Day) without tearing up.

At the same time, I think of my young friends who have no relationships with their fathers, such as my young friend Alana.  She is the Foundress of the Anonymous Us Project. Alana was donor conceived. She never knew Read more…

What daddy’s little girl learns from her father

February 21st, 2014 Comments off

by Tamara Rajakariar

We often use the phrase “daddy’s little girl”, but I don’t think fathers realize just how much impact they have on their daughters.

A recent article by author Tara Hedman, an American mental Health counselor who specializes in women’s issues, listed 25 things that little girls wish they could tell their fathers. They seem simple but to be honest, I doubt that many men are aware of them. Read more…

Categories: Children, fathers Tags: ,

Are we forgetting that fathers matter?

January 18th, 2014 Comments off

by Alana S. Newman

Alana Newman, the child of an anonymous sperm donor, argues that it is wrong to deliberately bring a child into the world without a father. 

Watch the video.

Categories: Children, fathers Tags: ,

Saving Mr. Banks and the Greatest Story Ever Told

January 17th, 2014 Comments off

By Jennifer Roback Morse

This article was first published on January 10, 2014, at Christianpost.com.

Why do we love Saving Mr. Banks? We have been flocking to see it. Not a single frame of the film is wasted. But what makes it a masterpiece? I think we love this story because the redemption story it tells is one we never tire of hearing.

The word “Disney” has become synonymous with cutesy, sugarcoated escapism. But that is not what Disney studios have offered us here. Nor is it the image the film paints of Walt Disney himself. Read more…

Why women still need husbands

November 25th, 2013 Comments off

By

Over the past several decades, America has witnessed a profound change in the way women view men and marriage. It began with the baby boomer adage “never depend on a man.”

This message resulted in a generation of women who turned their attention away from the home and onto the workforce. They did what their mothers told them to do: they became financially independent so they’d never have to rely on a husband. Read more…

Categories: family, fathers, feminism Tags: , ,

Divorced From Reality

November 21st, 2013 Comments off

Don’t blame the gay lobby for the decline of marriage.

By Stephen Baskerville, a Ruth Institute Circle of Experts member

This article was originally published November 22nd, 2010, at theamericanconservative.com.

Defenders of marriage must face some hard facts or they are going to lose their fight—and with it, quite possibly, their religious freedom as well. Federal judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling nullifying Proposition 8 in California illustrates that, unless we can demonstrate very specific reasons why same-sex marriage is socially destructive, it will soon be the law of the land. Read more…