BIBLICAL FATHERHOOD
By EChamberlainMD ~
So, apparently good fatherhood is important.
Now, the very last verse of the Old Testament proclaims that one will come who will TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS TO THEIR CHILDREN AND CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS, lest god comes and smites the earth with a curse.
I would think that the last words of the Old Testament would mean something important for the New Testament.
But the first book of the New Testament gives us something else entirely. Early on in jesus' ministry, one of his disciples requests, "Let me first go bury my father." But, in heretical contrast to the Old Testament's last sentiment, jesus delivers this cold eulogy: "Let the dead bury their dead." (Matthew 8)
Who says that kind of thing?
And, yet, just two chapters further on (Matthew 10), jesus says he has "come to set a man at variance AGAINST HIS FATHER."
This is the same jesus who had just used father-son family values to tell people to confidently ask god the father for things, saying, "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father...?" (Matthew 7)
And what about that touching father-son reunion in the Prodigal Son story jesus told of?
Well, not long afterward (Hebrews 12), the apostles, influenced by jesus for three years, tell god's people who are turning to him that if they're not scourged by god, then they are "BASTARDS and not sons." Who calls a returning, repentant child a bastard? Manifestly, this heavenly father is not Ozzie Nelson, Andy Griffith, Mike Brady, Mr. Cunningham, or Bill Cosby, and certainly not my all-time favorite TV father, Phil Dunphy (from "Modern Family"). If Phil's son asked for a fish, he'd be riding Flipper before the next tide came in.
The Old Testament shows us what the fathers of the faith taught jesus and his disciples about fatherhood. Here are the headlines, taken directly from the writings of their heavenly father--
JUST AND RIGHTEOUS Father Offers VIRGIN DaughterS To Be Raped By Mob.
JUST AND RIGHTEOUS DRUNKEN Father HAS SEX WITH DAUGHTERS.
FATHER OF FAITH THROWS SON OUT TO WANDER IN WILDERNESS.
Father OF FAITH Nearly Kills Son In Sacrificial Obedience To Voice Of God.
FATHERS PERMITTED TO SELL OFF DAUGHTERS AS SERVANTS AND SLAVES.
(Exodus 21)
FATHERS COMMANDED TO KILL CHILD WHO CURSES HIS FATHER OR MOTHER.
FATHERS COMMANDED TO KILL CHILD WHO IS DISOBEDIENT.
Father Makes Vow To God AND SACRIFICES Daughter.
The bible warns that "in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be... disobedient to parents... without NATURAL AFFECTION."
But isn't that cold lack of natural affection exactly what the bible is guilty of?
IF YOU'RE ASKING WHO KILLED THEM
Eddie Chamberlain
Buried in the bullet casings
Between the lines of chalk line tracings
In that place dead men come down on things,
Round and round the sirens chasing
Far behind the bullets racing
Face to face with what consequence it brings,
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
The guns report, the pistols chatter,
The language of a splatter pattern,
The echoes of a spent and empty shell.
No one matters when dead men battle.
They spill out like a spreading shadow
That covers secrets dead men never tell.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
In obituary epitaphs,
In backpage buried paragraphs,
Another John Doe Junior, a cold case report.
No longer than life cut in half,
The M.E. writes the final draft,
No pulse, no breath, no time left, no day in court.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
Born into this funeral parlor,
Orphan children soon will father
Another round of drive-by life under the gun.
On corners squashed and lined in squallor
Mourners pinch for dime or dollar
And flinch with every target practice run.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
The public house of ill-repute,
Of politician prostitutes,
Pregnant with its full-term fiscal fraud,
Gives birth to death and destitute
In slums that poison and pollute
Where crud and crust and crumbs are sold and bought.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
The choirs rehearse their funeral hymn.
The fires of sacred candles dim.
Here now, every funeral a Father's Day.
Before the final verse begins,
Another shiny hearse rolls in.
The Father says his polished solemn sermon anyway.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
"Virtually every major social pathology -- violent crime, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and suicide -- is strongly associated with fatherlessness. A majority of prisoners, juvenile detention inmates, high school dropouts, pregnant teenagers, adolescent murderers, and rapists all come from fatherless homes. The likelihood that a young male will engage in criminal activity doubles if he is raised without a father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high concentration of single-parent families. An estimated 70% of the juveniles in state reform institutions grew up without fathers. After taking into account race, socioeconomic status, sex, age, and ability, teenagers from single-parent households are 1.7 times more likely to drop out of high school than teenagers living with both biological parents." (Reference: ncpa.org/pub/st267)
So, apparently good fatherhood is important.
Now, the very last verse of the Old Testament proclaims that one will come who will TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS TO THEIR CHILDREN AND CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS, lest god comes and smites the earth with a curse.
I would think that the last words of the Old Testament would mean something important for the New Testament.
But the first book of the New Testament gives us something else entirely. Early on in jesus' ministry, one of his disciples requests, "Let me first go bury my father." But, in heretical contrast to the Old Testament's last sentiment, jesus delivers this cold eulogy: "Let the dead bury their dead." (Matthew 8)
Who says that kind of thing?
And, yet, just two chapters further on (Matthew 10), jesus says he has "come to set a man at variance AGAINST HIS FATHER."
This is the same jesus who had just used father-son family values to tell people to confidently ask god the father for things, saying, "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father...?" (Matthew 7)
And what about that touching father-son reunion in the Prodigal Son story jesus told of?
Well, not long afterward (Hebrews 12), the apostles, influenced by jesus for three years, tell god's people who are turning to him that if they're not scourged by god, then they are "BASTARDS and not sons." Who calls a returning, repentant child a bastard? Manifestly, this heavenly father is not Ozzie Nelson, Andy Griffith, Mike Brady, Mr. Cunningham, or Bill Cosby, and certainly not my all-time favorite TV father, Phil Dunphy (from "Modern Family"). If Phil's son asked for a fish, he'd be riding Flipper before the next tide came in.
The Old Testament shows us what the fathers of the faith taught jesus and his disciples about fatherhood. Here are the headlines, taken directly from the writings of their heavenly father--
JUST AND RIGHTEOUS Father Offers VIRGIN DaughterS To Be Raped By Mob.
"I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out to you and you do to them as is good in your eyes." (Genesis 19)
JUST AND RIGHTEOUS DRUNKEN Father HAS SEX WITH DAUGHTERS.
"Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father." (Genesis 19)
FATHER OF FAITH THROWS SON OUT TO WANDER IN WILDERNESS.
"Sarah... said unto Abraham, Cast out this... son... And God said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in your sight because of the lad... in all that Sarah has said to you, hearken unto her voice... And Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave it to Hagar and the child and sent her away... in the wilderness." (Genesis 21)
Father OF FAITH Nearly Kills Son In Sacrificial Obedience To Voice Of God.
"Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son." (Genesis 22)
FATHERS PERMITTED TO SELL OFF DAUGHTERS AS SERVANTS AND SLAVES.
(Exodus 21)
FATHERS COMMANDED TO KILL CHILD WHO CURSES HIS FATHER OR MOTHER.
"For every one that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 20)
FATHERS COMMANDED TO KILL CHILD WHO IS DISOBEDIENT.
"His father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town... Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death..." (Deuteronomy 21)
Father Makes Vow To God AND SACRIFICES Daughter.
"Then the spirit of the lord came upon Jephthah... And Jephthah vowed a vow to the lord and said, If you will without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoever comes forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace.. shall surely be the lord's and I will offer it up for a burnt offering... And Jephthah came to his house and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child...and... her father... did with her according to his vow..." (Judges 11)
The bible warns that "in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be... disobedient to parents... without NATURAL AFFECTION."
But isn't that cold lack of natural affection exactly what the bible is guilty of?
IF YOU'RE ASKING WHO KILLED THEM
Eddie Chamberlain
Buried in the bullet casings
Between the lines of chalk line tracings
In that place dead men come down on things,
Round and round the sirens chasing
Far behind the bullets racing
Face to face with what consequence it brings,
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
The guns report, the pistols chatter,
The language of a splatter pattern,
The echoes of a spent and empty shell.
No one matters when dead men battle.
They spill out like a spreading shadow
That covers secrets dead men never tell.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
In obituary epitaphs,
In backpage buried paragraphs,
Another John Doe Junior, a cold case report.
No longer than life cut in half,
The M.E. writes the final draft,
No pulse, no breath, no time left, no day in court.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
Born into this funeral parlor,
Orphan children soon will father
Another round of drive-by life under the gun.
On corners squashed and lined in squallor
Mourners pinch for dime or dollar
And flinch with every target practice run.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
The public house of ill-repute,
Of politician prostitutes,
Pregnant with its full-term fiscal fraud,
Gives birth to death and destitute
In slums that poison and pollute
Where crud and crust and crumbs are sold and bought.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
The choirs rehearse their funeral hymn.
The fires of sacred candles dim.
Here now, every funeral a Father's Day.
Before the final verse begins,
Another shiny hearse rolls in.
The Father says his polished solemn sermon anyway.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
If you're asking who killed them:
The fathers of fatherless children.
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