Two Parents? Who Needs 'Em!

Two Parents? Who Needs 'Em!
by Julie Foster

I am troubled. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University recently released a study on teen drug use. It focused on teens' relationships with their fathers and correlating drug use.

The Center concluded that teens in two-parent families who have fair or poor relationships with their fathers are 68 percent more likely to use drugs than those in the average two-parent family. However, children raised by single mothers were only 30 percent more likely to use drugs than teens in the average two-parent home.

Not being anything remotely close to a statistician, I will not call into question the methods of their study. But I will question its motives and the subsequent rhetorical effects.

Americans have been bombarded by propaganda aimed at the "American family." The idea of a two-parent home (defined as a married heterosexual couple and their children) has been systematically broken down.

This breakdown began with women leaving their roles as full-time moms and re-entering the work force before they have raised their children. It continued with single-mother homes as women, in their liberation, left their husbands to seek independence (from what, I'm still not sure). Now we have rampant teenage motherhood and are expected to validate homosexual "unions" which increasingly involve children as the homosexual couple seeks to adopt.

As if the last 40-odd years have not seen enough damage to the American Family, this new study appears which can be loosely interpreted to show that children are generally better off being raised by a single mom than with both parents.

A discerning eye reading the study can see that the latter generalization is not implied in the report. However, how has the media presented it? However, it does not take a loose interpretation to reach such a conclusion when reading about the American Psychological Association's latest study in the organization's June issue of American Psychologist magazine.

The article, entitled "Deconstructing the Essential Father," states, "Our data on gay fathering couples have convinced us that neither mother nor father is essential." Children require a "responsible, caretaking" adult, but "one, none, or both of these adults could be a father (or mother)." Here's the bit that really gets to me: they do not believe "that heterosexual marriage is the social context in which responsible fathering is most likely to occur."

I assure you that liberal politicians, special interest groups and the media will now use this study to convince Americans that children are better off being raised by a single mother and their day care providers than in a traditional household.

Just as these studies hit the national media, Assemblywoman Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) made an incredible statement. Migden is the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, the most powerful committee in the California State Legislature's lower house. One member of the committee asked how a bill in question would affect parents who pack lunches for their school-age children. Migden ballyhooed, "You mean the fathers that aren't drunk and hung over?"

Clearly, the assault on two-parent homes isn't trying to conceal itself.

I suppose it's worth mentioning at this point that Carole Migden is one of two openly lesbian members of the Legislature.

Yes, there is a movement among liberals in America to malign, discredit, and otherwise destroy the traditional American family. Why?

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." That's according to the Apostle Paul in his letter to a pastor named Timothy (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

The translation, for all you Bible-phobes out there: people want license to behave in any manner they choose. The concept of right and wrong is practically a myth. It changes with the social tide. The traditional, two-parent home with a married, heterosexual couple and their children is now becoming a myth.

So, I have reason to be troubled. This is no longer a case of "alternative lifestyles" being promoted. This is the elimination of a "mainstream lifestyle." The Libertarian in me says, "live and let live." And yet it is becoming increasingly clear that I am not being let to live.

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