One Man At A Time

Tony Woodlief spotlights the weakness of the "we need more jobs and more education" answer to the crumbling social blights seen across America today:

Does anyone really think that the hundreds of thousands of children born in the worst urban areas without fathers in their lives are deprived of this
necessity because these men can't find work? Is it the presence of a job that
makes a man live up to his responsibilities? Is it a college degree?

No, it's moral backbone, and there's no program that will implant one
where it is absent. And so the cycle is now in a self-fueling frenzy — boys grow
up without men to guide them, and girls grow up desperate for male attention,
and when they meet, a new crop of neglected children is produced.

Better jobs wouldn't hurt, nor better schools, nor perhaps even
programs designed to promote responsible parenting. But this madness will end
one life at a time, one man at a time, each willing to set aside his excuses and
enter the daily grind that is parenting.

I'm still sorting out, in my own life, what it means to be a man. But
I'm certain that you can't be one if you're not willing to care for your
children. You can kill the enemy in war, score forty points a game, become CEO
of your company — but none of it will make you a man. There are a great many
fathers in our country, but significantly fewer men. And given an illegitimacy
rate nationwide that is approaching 40 percent, and one closer to 90 percent in
the inner cities, this ought to be a topic every pastor covers on a regular
basis.

'Nuff said.