A Fatherless Generation

How the attack on the family has led to today’s societal breakdown

Sir Gareth Southgate, giving the Richard Dimbleby lecture, broadcast last week, said that Britain has a crisis of fatherless boys. He was quoting a report from the Centre for Social Justice which said that suicide was the leading cause of death among young men below the age of 50. Southgate said that young men are spending too much time gaming, gambling and watching pornography. They lack purpose and ambition in life and above all they lack positive male role models. He said that we have an “epidemic of fatherlessness” with 2.5 million children in the UK having no father in their home. He said that “boys are more likely to own a smart phone than to have a dad in their home.”

The central issue affecting this generation

It is good to hear men in prominent positions in public life speaking about these problems in society and Southgate’s remarks have drawn a lot of comment. His own answer was for the provision of more male role models in schools and sports associations, and there have been many similar comments. But I have yet to hear any prominent politician or social commentator or church leader speak about the central issue of family breakdown that lies at the heart of the whole issue of fatherlessness.  The breakdown of family and marriage is the central issue affecting a whole generation of children.

I have been warning about the consequences of family breakdown since 1980 when I published a book called ‘Towards the Dawn’ with the subtitle ‘What’s going to happen to Britain?’   In the book I outlined the forces of social change that were driving the nation towards inevitable social disintegration unless there were major changes in society.  I noted the particular importance of the family for the socialisation of children and passing on the values of society from one generation to the next, thus enabling children to find their place in society, to maximise their potential and to achieve personal objectives. The family gives love, support and security, and it helps with character formation. This all provides a firm foundation for adult life by ensuring health and well-being in childhood and adolescence.

It is the lack of a secure loving family with a mother and father ...that is the primary cause of the vast amount of mental health problems we see today. 

It is the lack of a secure loving family with a mother and father in a happy marriage in the lives of so many children and young people today that is the primary cause of the vast amount of mental health problems we see today.

The family under attack

The family, as the central social institution, provides the linchpin in society giving stability and continuity, hence it has been particularly under attack.  I recalled the publication of a manifesto of change published in 1972 by a small group of homosexual activists in which they stated that their objective was the destruction of the traditional family which they saw as the source of their suffering.

I laughed at such a ridiculous objective.  But in the next ten years they sought to infiltrate the Civil Service.  By the end of the 1980s and early 1990s they had a representative in every department in Whitehall who sought opportunities to influence every Bill and Green paper or White paper that crossed their desk. They particularly targeted the family. Hence we have had a raft of legislation regarding marriage and divorce, including legalising homosexual marriage through to gender recognition, together with the inclusion of concepts embedded into children’s education. Single parenthood has been also normalised, despite the challenges it raises.

The main source of today’s social problems

All this legislation together with television programmes designed to show that homosexuality is the ‘new normal’ have combined to destroy family life to such an extent that we now have a whole generation of young parents who have no firm set of personal or social values to pass on to their children. This is the one of the key reasons why we have such a wide range of social problems in Britain today. These social problems are threatening to bankrupt the nation through the enormous Welfare bill supporting those with mental health problems, as highlighted by our government’s attempt to reduce disability payments. The 3 million being supported by Welfare payments include half a million young people who have gone straight from school onto welfare support without ever having worked.

I recalled the publication of a manifesto of change published in 1972 by a small group of homosexual activists in which they stated that their objective was the destruction of the traditional family.

Of course, family breakdown is not the only driving force in bringing us to the present situation in Britain. There are many different factors that have contributed to the major forces of change that had been sweeping through the nation for the past 40 or 50 years, but the spiritual factors that have undermined the social and personal values of the nation are often overlooked by secularists and this is why they have been highlighted in this article.

Why do we never hear any prophetic voice from the church telling the nation what is really at the heart of all the problems we are facing?   We have turned our backs upon God and the truth that God has placed marriage in the very centre of his creation; and when we despise truth, we sign the death warrant on our whole way of life – our civilisation. When will human beings learn that God has given us a clear revelation of truth through the teaching of Jesus and it is a the whole word of God that leads to health, happiness and prosperity?  Will the faithful remnant of believers in Britain arise to declare the truth and save the nation – before it is too late?