Father’s Day is a day that has been set aside to honor those who fulfill this vital role in the nurture and training of children. While mothers are certainly engaged in this work as well, the Bible emphasizes the responsibility the father plays in a child’s upbringing: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
President Obama issued a proclamation in honor of Father’s Day. In it he spoke of the important nurturing role the father plays.
“Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a step father, a grandfather, or caring guardian.” [Link to proclamation on White House website]
The ideal environment for the raising of children is a father and mother who are committed to each other and to the proper raising of the children. Unfortunately, this ideal is not always reality and those left to raise the children must do the best they can. One or both parents may pass away, leaving the children to the remaining parent, a grandparent, or in some other arrangement. One parent may forsake their spouse and family and leave the forsaken spouse with the sole responsibility to care for the children. A parent may die, the surviving spouse remarries, and the step parent must try to fill the role that has been left for them. We do not live in a perfect world, so these things happen.
But the two-father family arrangement that President Obama acknowledged is different. It does not come about through death or desertion, but by two individuals together willfully rejecting God’s design of both the home and sexuality (Genesis 2:24; Romans 1:26-27). This type of union cannot produce children on its own. They must depend on children being placed in their custody.
Through his proclamation, Barack Obama attempted to further normalize the homosexual lifestyle, in addition to giving his approval for same-sex couples adopting children. While it is important that children are raised in a loving and nurturing environment, it is also important that they are raised in a wholesome environment. A homosexual union is no more wholesome than a polygamous marriage. I wonder why Obama didn’t mention “a father and two mothers” in his list of nurturing families. Probably because he doesn’t need their votes.
