The Father in the Media Vs. the Father in Theology

The view of fathers today in theology is attempting to change the view the media has recently taken. The churches views are working more towards what was seen in the 1950’s and 1960’s, that fathers are heads of and leaders of the family.

In the November 1999 ELCA Newsletter, Master Builders (available online at www.elca.org), Ken Canfield, president of the National Center for Fathering, and a well-known evangelical speaker, “outlined the 4 ‘I can’s’ of fatherhood: involvement, consistency, awareness and nurture.”

Maria Hussein, in “Fatherhood: A Sacrifice and a Trial” (http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa5/articles/fatherhood.html), shares the Islamic view of fatherhood. She states that “we have to keep striving to be worthy of our family's trust by keeping our households focused on serving Allah alone.” This comment is based in scripture, when Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son to Allah, and the son went unquestioningly.

The Jewish view of fatherhood is expressed in the book Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions by Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, “The Jewish father must ensure the viability of his child’s future. He is obligated to teach his child the Torah, teach him/her a trade, and even provide his child with swimming lessons.”

These portrayals of fatherhood differ from today’s media versions in that the father is again the head of the family and is very much in charge of his child’s life. This view of fatherhood has been gaining on the mass media’s view since the early years of the new millennium. The message that a father should be in charge of the family, or at least a large part of it, is, I think, more widely accepted now, like it was in the 1950’s. The media, with the continued spread of theology’s view, will need to accept it or be viewed as outdated and loose credibility.