By Trevor Thomas. On this Father’s Day, we celebrate a dying role. With all of the problems currently plaguing our culture — crime, violence, promiscuity, poverty, divorce, drug abuse, and so on — the one thing that we as a nation could do to remedy such things most quickly would be to return fathers to their families.

You’ve almost certainly heard the sad statistics when it comes to fatherhood in America. However, the stats continue to shock: as a recent Drudge headline noted, 60% of all families in Richmond, VA are led by single parents, with the vast majority being fatherless. For black families in Richmond, a staggering 84% are led by single parents.

The numbers are similar in dozens of large cities (pop. 50,000+) all across America. From Savannah to Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Hartford; Buffalo; Cleveland; Cincinnati; St. Louis; Milwaukee; and Detroit, more than half of all families are led by single parents, with the numbers for minorities — especially blacks — being significantly higher.

The demographics have been trending this way for decades. This demands an answer to the question: why? Why are so many American dads not married to and in the home with the mothers of their children?

There are two scenarios to consider: the dads who divorce and the dads who never marry. Increasingly, the latter is more common. In December of 2011, Pew Research revealed that, according to U.S. Census data, “[b]arely half of all adults in the United States — a record low — are currently married, and the median age at first marriage has never been higher for brides (26.5 years) and grooms (28.7)[.] … In 1960, 72% of all adults ages 18 and older were married; today just 51% are.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Remember the Wonder of Men

By Karin Agness. This Sunday, one group of kids across the country will be giving their fathers ties, sports gear, homemade art, or some other tokens to express their appreciation on Father’s Day. Unfortunately, there will be another group of kids for whom the holiday is a painful reminder that they don’t have a relationship with their fathers.

Why do a growing portion of kids in America have no active father in their lives to celebrate this weekend?

According to Dr. Helen Smith in her new book, Men on Strike: Why Men are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream — and Why it Matters, one reason is that society is stacking the deck against men, causing many to go “on strike” from traditional responsibilities. These men aren’t just lazy, but instead are making choices based on incentives.

Smith writes, “Most men are not acting irresponsibly because they are immature or because they want to harm women; they are acting rationally in response to the lack of incentives today’s society offers them to be responsible fathers, husbands and providers.”

Smith argues that feminism has gone too far, creating a feminized world of female privilege, where men no longer are treated as equals. She cites examples of men opting out of college, marriage, and fatherhood. Read more from this story HERE.