Honest News Reporting

My wife and I were both shocked to see a local television news channel run a story last night about how marriage is portrayed on TV.  It was our local news here in Portland and they did a study of sex on mainstream television.  They found out that steamy sex acts were shown between couples who were not married 4 times more than married couples.  They also concluded that most television shows depicted marriage as boring.  They even tried to reach some of the major networks regarding this and none of them had any comment.  The news station concluded that this constant flood of images and the way marriage was portrayed is having a negative influence on our culture.  “It makes young people wonder why to get married in the first place.” 

My wife and I both nearly fell off the couch!  We don’t watch much news in the first place, but then to see something actually TRUE and meaningful on the news, well, we were impressed.

Here is the proof that television philosophy like this affects children: 54% of teenagers today agree with the statement, “Having a baby without being married is a worthwhile lifestyle or not affecting anyone else,” compared to only 37% in 1976.  Former President Bill Clinton made the following statement: “The real source of the welfare problem is the inordinate number of out-of-wedlock births in this country.”

The truth is that Marital Status is the strongest predictor of father presence/father absence.  Compared to children born within marriage, children born to cohabitating parents are three times more likely to experience father absence, and children born to unmarried, non-cohabitating parents are four times as likely to have an absent father.

So, we had better get back to teaching our children the value’s of commitment, marriage and family if we want to solve our out-of-control welfare problem, poverty, drug abuse, violent crime, lack of education, suicides, behavioral problems, etc.  ALL of these have close ties to father absence.

In an analysis of data from both waves of the National Survey of Families and Households, a national  sample of over 13,000 households was conducted, it was found that the most important determinant of whether a father lived with his children was marital status at the time of the child’s birth. Fully 80% of men who were married to the child’s mother at the child’s birth were living with all of their biological children, compared to only 22.6% of men who were not.

According to a Gallup Poll, 85% of Americans say that “the number of children being born to single parents” is either a “serious” or “critical” social problem.

Former Vice President, Al Gore had this to say, “Promoting responsible fatherhood is the critical next phase of welfare reform and one of the most important things we can do to reduce child poverty.”

Robert Sampson had this to say in Race Specific consequences of Family structure and Crime, “Family structure is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, predictor of variations of urban violence across the United States… all else equal, in cities where family disruption is high, the rate of violence is also high.”

I could go on and on, but I encourage you to read the statistics section of our www.dadsworld.com website.  Dads matter.  Dadsworld.com is committed to strengthening families by promoting involved Dads.

I invite you to go to our forum to comment on these topics and many others!

Have a great day!

Tags: , al gore, bill clinton, dad, dadsworld.com, local news, marital status, marriage, mom, out of wedlock pregnancy, poverty, single parent, television, welfare, welfare reform