Fatherlessness and Crime (Page 5)

At it's heart, the Civil Rights movement was and is about the question of what constitutes a just law.  In answering that question, the Civil Rights movement appealed to Natural Law in order to find legitimacy for it's claims.

From Martin Luther King's Letter From a Birmingham Jail:

One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of Harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

I think that these questions we're talking about in this thread need to be looked at in the context of what MLK pointed out, are they just laws and just acts in that they conform to the moral law. Do they uplift human personality, or degrade it.

If it is true that there seems to be a correlation between the shift over the past decades in the belief of what a correct sexual anthropology is and the rise of things such as Fatherlessness and it's fruits, then perhaps it is wise to consider whether a degradation has been taking place in the human personality.

Why should the blame be put on the father.  How many children in today's society grow up without a mom.  It's called latchkey kids.  Sure their mom may come  home at night, but the see their parents 2-3 hours a day at most.  In the 50's and 60's families could afford to have a parent stay at home.  An ave - good salary was $20-30,000 and a house cost roughly the same.  Now ave -good salary is 50 -150,000 and a house costs at least $200,000 (at least here in Colorado).  That has forced both parents into the workforce.  It just doesn't add up.

My wife was a dedicated teacher.  She loved her career and would have done it for the rest of her life.  Then we had our little girl, and she quickly and happily gave up her job as a teacher of other children to become the teacher of our little girl. 

You can see the diference between the kids in day care and the kids who are with their parents.  And even more so you can see the diference in the kids who can't afford day care and are missing their parents.

I guess I am saying that the family has been broken up by socio economic impacts that prevent the family unit from being one vs multiple individuals all focused on individual goals and ideals.

Fatherlessness is the effect of a father not being around.  This can happen even if there is no divorce.  The problem is People don't give the time to their kids, whether it is through abandonment or overwork or just plain selfishness of taking the limited free time we all have and spending it away from our children.

I have read about half of the responses here, and if this has been covered I apologize.  But I think we are not looking at causation and correlation correctly.  Yes, in instances of crimimals and poorly adjusted humans, I would bet there is a high rate of fatherlessness/uninvolved parenting/etc.  But there are LOTS of folks on this board who grew up without a father, in daycares, that turned into moderately successful engineers and homeowners without getting pregnant at 15 or turning to drugs or crime.  There is certainly a strong CORRELATION between crime and absentee parents, but to say that moms that work or dads that leave CAUSE dysfunctional children is, frankly, insulting to me and many others that have chimed in here.

That is all, go on with your thread drift.

Think of it this way - single parent households shift the bell curve of future success inwards towards less success.

Y'all remember bell curves, right?