Whole communities are growing up without fathers or male role models. Bringing up a family in the best of circumstances is not easy. To try to do it by placing the entire burden on women - 91% of single-parent families in Britain are headed by the mother, according to census data - is practically absurd and morally indefensible.
Interpretation
The absence of fathers affects families negatively, and it's unfair to place all parenting responsibilities on mothers.
In this quote, Jonathan Sacks highlights the importance of fathers and male role models in families, particularly in the context of single-parent households. He underscores the challenges faced by mothers who must carry the weight of parenting alone, pointing out that relying solely on them is both unreasonable and morally wrong, given the significant number of families lacking male participation in child-rearing.
In practice
In a speech about family structures, this quote can highlight the need for community support for single mothers.
Stabilizing the euro is one thing, healing the culture that surrounds it is another. A world in which material values are everything and spiritual values nothing is neither a stable state nor a good society. The time has come for us to recover the Judeo-Christian ethic of human dignity in the image of God.
Governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens. That needs another kind of change agent.
Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.
Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories.
Find people not to envy but to admire. Do not the profitable but the admirable deed. Live by ideals.
Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be the head of a large business, football manager or prime minister, but rather: bus driver.
We have a number of difficulties facing our nation, but I believe fatherlessness is right at the top of the list.
I would have been a terrible mother because I'm basically a very selfish human being. Not that that has stopped most people going off and having children.
I grew up in a family that nearly lost everything, but I ended up in the United States Senate because I grew up in an America that invested in kids like me and built a real future for us.
My grandfather was a persuasive man who made friends with people at every level of influence. In order to fight against our tribe's termination, he went to newspapers and politicians and urged them to advocate for our tribe in Washington. He also supported his family through the Depression as a truck farmer.
I cannot however help repeating Piety, because I think it indispensible. Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security.
The man the world knew as Billy Graham was always 'Daddy' to me. I was well into my teens before I fully comprehended that my father had a household name and a worldwide ministry.
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