Father's House Blog

Exactly one hundred years ago the first ever Father’s Day was celebrated. The story of the first Father’s Day is well known. A woman in Washington called Sonora Smart Dodd had the idea while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in1909. Having been raised by her father, William Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her dad to know how special he was to her. He had been born in June so she decided to celebrate the first Father's Day on the 19th of June, 1910. So it was the idea of Father’s Day was conceived and born, exactly one hundred years ago this weekend. To be sure it wasn’t until the 1950s that Father’s Day was formally ratified in the USA by Congress. But the genesis of Father’s Day was 1910, and this weekend is the centenary of both its conception and its inception.

And yet you’d hardly believe it! There has been absolutely no mention of this centenary in the Press. The BBC Four channel is running a few programmes on fatherhood the week after Father’s Day but other than that the media seems to have completely missed this great opportunity to promote the cause of fatherhood and to address the devastating disease of fatherlessness in the UK and throughout the world today. All this is yet further proof of the tragic demise of fathers and it should give us cause to pause and reflect. Fatherlessness (or what some more enlightened politicians are now calling ‘father absence’) is the no 1 challenge to our country and one of the biggest drivers of poverty, criminal behaviour, sexual problems, teenage depression, addiction, and so on.

I believe it’s time for people to start celebrating fathers and fatherhood. Not at the expense of mothers and motherhood, nor to the detriment of the heroic work of many single parent mums, but simply to redress the balance. Christians especially need to wake up and begin to affirm that dads are equally important as mums. In addition we need to contend for the rights of children, that it’s a fundamental right for every child to be brought up by a loving father. We need to fight for justice for loving and broken-hearted dads who have been denied ‘contact’ with their children by the family law courts of our country. We need to fly the flag for greater paternity leave. In short, we need to start getting passionate about issues of EQUALITY and JUSTICE for fathers and fatherhood!

It will not have escaped your notice that we are experiencing a massive transition in the political arena in the UK. We have a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government in which collaborative leadership is going to have to be exercised at a wholly new level. In this transition we have experienced endings and we will experience beginnings at some point in the future, after we have passed through the stage author William Bridges calls ‘the neutral zone’.

What, then, are we seeing as we journey through change?

As far as endings are concerned, it was noteworthy to me how Gordon Brown (the outgoing Prime Minister) finished his time in office. His final speech outside no 10 Downing Street was marked by an extraordinary dignity. Gordon Brown concluded his memorable address by thanking all his staff. Then he closed by thanking his family with these very moving words:

"Above all, I want to thank Sarah for her unwavering support as well as her love, and for her own service to our country.

"I thank my sons John and Fraser for the love and joy they bring to our lives.

"And as I leave the second most important job I could ever hold, I cherish even more the first - as a husband and father.

"Thank you and goodbye."

As Gordon Brown left no 10, one of the last things he did was to tell the nation that there is a job that’s more important even than being a prime minister – being a husband and a dad to his two sons. That was a hugely significant moment.

And what do we see as we move towards new beginnings? Well, we’re not there yet. The Coalition Government has only just begun and we are still in the wilderness between endings and new beginnings. Testing times are ahead. Mention of an ‘era of austerity’ is on many lips. It may be a while before we get out of the desert landscape of the neutral zone. But there have been one or two signs of hope. The new Prime Minister David Cameron has said some interesting and hopeful things too. Having formally accepted the Queen’s invitation to form a new government he stood outside no 10 Downing Street where Gordon Brown had spoken. He gave a speech outlining his intentions to build a more responsible society, adding “I want us to build a society with stronger families and stronger communities and I want a political system that people can trust and look up to once again”. Whether this directly impacts the causes of fatherhood and fatherlessness only time will tell. But we can hope and we can, as Christians, pray and work towards a society where dads can take their place again.

This weekend it’s the centenary of the genesis of Father’s Day – a day for honouring and thanking dads. The Bible is very clear about the importance of honouring fathers. One of the Ten Commandments says,

Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.  Exodus 4.12

Notice the correlation between honouring dads and mums and living a long life in the land. There is a cause-and-effect dynamic here. The greater a nation honours their dads and mums, the greater the peace and prosperity in the land. The less this happens, the more the land is cursed by the debilitating plague of fatherlessness (Malachi 4.6).

For the sake of the nations, it’s surely the hour to start celebrating fatherhood.

And what better time than this weekend, when we remember how a grateful daughter had the idea of creating a Father’s Day to go alongside Mother’s Day in the USA.


For the BBC series go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/features/fatherhood-season/

Mark will be preaching in London this Father’s Day at Westminster Chapel
http://www.westminsterchapel.org.uk/servicesandlocation/comingup.php