Does Fatherlessness Influence Unbelief?
By Elizabeth Prata
I have sympathy for all those daughters and wives and women and sons who did not have a father. Either because their dad died early, or abandoned them, or divorce, or abuse. In a One Minute Apologist session, the impact of an absent father is discussed.
In addition to earthly issues, fatherlessness has serious spiritual implications for the child and adult. I distinctly remember the transition from the acceptance-as-normal of a two-parent home these days you have to further define, as women and man, married, mom and dad of opposite genders, to a home that ‘didn’t need’ a father. Where divorce was accepted as a something as simple as checking off items in a grocery list, and how women can ‘do anything’ including work AND raise the kids by herself. Fathers became bumbling fools on television and unnecessary in the public domain.
All this of course is untrue. As Perry L. Glanzer has stated in his essay , Fatherlessness, Whether Chosen or Not, Is Still a Tragedy:
Throughout the ages, it was always understood that fatherlessness is a tragedy and deprivation, even when others needed to step in to take these roles through tragedy or the sinful choices of parents. Indeed, it is a tragedy that needs special attention. Orphans (James 1:27) and the fatherless (Ex. 20:22; Dt. 24:17, 19-21; Dt. 26:12-13; Job 31 17, 21) receive special notice and protection throughout Scripture. One characteristic of God is that God, as the Psalmist declares, “is a Father to the fatherless” (Ps. 68:5; see also Ps. 10:14, 18; 146:9; Hosea 14:3). Churches, as God’s representative on earth, should be a strong support to fatherless children and single parents.
It is a praise to the Holy Spirit when He saves a daughter or a son out of unbelief even though the earthly model for the Father was absent in their lives!
If you are in Christ, rest in the eternal fact that a loving Father has always loved you, even before you knew Him, and who will never abandon you again. Ever.
Further Resources
Essay- What does it mean that God is father to the fatherless?
