Every day the numbers get worse. If you need evidence as to why we feel so strongly about what we are doing take a look at this:

 

• There are 72,000,000 children under 18. Tonight, 33 percent of them will go to bed in a home without a biological father.

 

• 33 percent of all children are born out of wedlock.

 

• Fatherless children are 5 times as likely to live in poverty, repeat a grade, and have emotional problems

 

• 40 percent of first marriages end in divorce, affecting one million children each year. Divorce rates for second and third marriages are higher.

 

• As many as 70% of men have actively sought out pornography this year

 

• for every ten men in the church

  • 9 will have children who leave the church

  • 8 will not find their jobs satisfying

  • will pay the monthly minimum on their credit cards

  • 5 will have a major problem with pornography

  • 4 will get divorced ? affecting one million children each year

  • Only one will have a biblical worldview

  • All ten will struggle to balance work and family

 

Source: No Man Left Behind, Patrick Morley

• Sexual activity. In a study of 700 adolescents, researchers found that "compared to families with two natural parents living in the home, adolescents from single-parent families have been found to engage in greater and earlier sexual activity."?Source: Carol W. Metzler, et al. "The Social Context for Risky Sexual Behavior Among Adolescents," Journal of Behavioral Medicine 17 (1994).

 

• A myriad of maladies. Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality.? Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health, Washington, DC, 1993.

 

• Drinking problems. Teenagers living in single-parent households are more likely to abuse alcohol and at an earlier age compared to children reared in two-parent households? Source: Terry E. Duncan, Susan C. Duncan and Hyman Hops, "The Effects of Family Cohesiveness and Peer Encouragement on the Development of Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Cohort-Sequential Approach to the Analysis of Longitudinal Data," Journal of Studies on Alcohol 55 (1994).

 

• Drug Use: "...the absence of the father in the home affects significantly the behavior of adolescents and results in the greater use of alcohol and marijuana."? Source: Deane Scott Berman, "Risk Factors Leading to Adolescent Substance Abuse," Adolescence 30 (1995).

 

• Deadly predictions. A family structure index -- a composite index based on the annual rate of children involved in divorce and the percentage of families with children present that are female-headed -- is a strong predictor of suicide among young adult and adolescent white males.? Source: Patricia L. McCall and Kenneth C. Land, "Trends in White Male Adolescent, Young-Adult and Elderly Suicide: Are There Common Underlying Structural Factors?" Social Science Research 23, 1994.