It is hard to talk about fathers and their roles in the family these days without sounding old fashioned. In a society where many of the icons and celebrities of society are single mothers, in a society where a woman could walk across the block to the fertility clinic and buy herself a child, in a society where fathers are charged and convicted for child abuse when all they are trying to do is teach their children the necessary lessons of life, one could as well ask, “Who needs fathers these days?” Today, Father's Day, it would not be out of place for us to remind ourselves that in spite of all the changes in society, the father remains a very essential figure in the ideal Christian family. This is not a global condemnation of single motherhood since we know that many woman are forced into single motherhood by circumstances beyond their control. But we would like to remind ourselves today that the ideal Christian family remains that of father, mother and child. Pastor Benson has two little kids: Andy, who is five years old, and Charlie, who is four. Benson tries to be a good father to his little boys. He is a handsome young man even though he is as bald as a vulture. One day, the whole family is busy preparing to honour a wedding invitation. Benson goes and shaves himself and goes on to dress up. He comes out a few minutes later and what does he see? Little Andy has gotten hold of his father's electric shaver and shaved a big express way right down the middle of his head. Benson is furious. He says, “Andy! Didn’t I tell you never to play with my shaver. Now you are going to get a spanking you will never forget!” He was just about to administer the spanking when Andy looks up at him and says, “Wait till you see Charlie!” Benson and his wife are simply horrified when they go into the washroom and see their little four-year-old boy with all of the hair gone, looking like a little skinned rabbit. By this time, Benson is really furious. He grabs up Andy and says, “Now you are really going to get it.” Just as he lifts his hand and starts to bring it down, Andy looks up at him with tears in his eyes and said, “But Daddy! We were just trying to be like you!” Well, Andy did not get a spanking, instead he got a hug. So, who needs fathers these days? Children do. We should have a universal declaration of children’s rights saying that every child has a right to have a mother and a father. This is what people often forget when they discuss divorce. They tend to look only at the interests of the man and the woman. But I think that the party that is most hurt by a divorce is often not the man or the woman but the kids. Kids need fathers just as they need mothers. They need their fathers as role models as much as they need their mothers. A father’s love is different than a mother’s love, and the child needs both in the same way that our bodies need both proteins and carbohydrates in order to achieve a balanced growth. The crisis of fatherhood in the family contributes to the crisis of faith in our society today. Even though God is pure spirit and therefore cannot be male or female, the Bible usually presents God to us in the image of father. Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer to call God “Our Father.” Since we go from the known to the unknown, it stands to reason to say that the experience we have of our earthly fathers affects how we visualise our heavenly father. The crisis of faith in many young people today could be related to early life experiences in which the experience of a good and loving father figure was missing. Let us pray for all fathers today that they may be more faithful to their duties in the family. Let us pray God to give them the moral strength and the economic wherewithal they need to become good role models that their children can always look up to. And for all kids who lost their fathers through divorce or death, let us pray that the heavenly Father of us all may show Himself to be their father in such a tangible way so as to fill the vacuum left by the absence of a visible father.

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