In the aftermath of the unthinkable tragedy which occurred this past week when NFL star Adrian Peterson’s 2-year-old son was assaulted and killed by his mother’s boyfriend, Delight in Truth is once again considering the national tragedy of children born out-of-wedlock. Up to 40% of children born in the US today are born outside of marriage, and the percent rises to 72 in the case of black children.
There is a new term in social work describing the relationship between unmarried, divorced, or non-cohabitating parents.
Co-parenting.
The family unit is no longer a unit in a large segment of homes. In those cases children no longer get the necessary father-mother-child interaction that is a God ordained family structure.
So the children suffer on multiple levels. Decreased performance in school, emotional problems, and abuse. And death.
Single parent homes have become the norm, and gay couples raising children are on the rise. But fresh data out of Canada just dropped a bomb on the idea that children do just as well in gay households as in traditional families. The large study reveals that children raised by gay couples were only 65% as likely to graduate from high school compared with their traditional counterparts. This differential continued when appropriate controls were run for level of income, poverty, and other variables.
The death of Peterson’s toddler shook up the national scene this weekend because as we know America worships football and large numbers of fans were exposed to the terrible news.
Delight in Truth will now make the unpopular and painful claim that this child’s death was a direct result of living in a broken home without everyday access to the love and protection of a father.
The progressives will not like this, but it is the truth. Such brutality would not have occurred in a loving marriage where the children are celebrated as a gift from God.
Is there child abuse in homes with a father and mother? Yes, but this is another topic for another article.
They went to Jesus and asked him about couples splitting up and how they should go about that process. He simply said: “it was not this way from the beginning.” God ordained the family to be a unit, and tragedies like this one are a consequence of man rebelling against God’s principles. Again and again.
Please keep the parents and relatives of this toddler in prayer during this difficult time.
Photo: USA Today
Delight in Truth 
I hadn’t heard this tragic story, Delight.
I live in the “Bible Belt” and we are having the same issues. With the shutdown of the government, some our DHS workers have been furloughed and the system is already running shorthanded. This has put more a strain on Christians trying to help with supervised visitations like we do at Change Point.
I was fortunate to be raised by Christian parents. My kids have also had the same blessing. The numbers you quote are not surprising to me. I won’t go into detail here, but somewhere on my blog I tell the story about the tragic decision the State Supreme Court made in my state a few years ago. The people voted against homosexual couples having the right to adopt or foster children. One judge ruled the new law as unconstitutional and the State Supreme Court agreed with the judge with a 7-0 vote. It is nothing less than judicial tyranny.
I agree completely with your unpopular and painful claim.
God did, indeed, ordain the family to be a unit, Unfortunately, it seems that fewer people care about God’s ways.
I will pray with you for those who loved and cared for this child.
Chris, thx for your thoughts. You know, we are in the minority with our position. We are often called bigots, uniformed, intolerant, mean, etc. On the contrary Christians support these unfortunate folks and many Christians end up being Foster parents.
Since I have small children myself, I shutter at the thought of this tragedy.
Hey Chris.
Your comment reminded me of a verse in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
As we see severe persecution around the world, we need to be in prayer for our brothers and sisters who suffer daily in ungodly places. I know I don’t pray enough for them. Sadly, I think judgment is coming on our nation. It will be the result of terrible decisions like the ones made in 1962 and 1973. Those decisions and many others have led us to incidents like the one you have featured here. The severity of judgment will, I think, be somewhat in proportion to our support of Israel. Israel does not trust our current President and I don’t blame them.
May God have mercy on us…
Reblogged this on Wings of the Wind and commented:
My friend, Delight, has shared a story that needs to be heard. I completely agree with his assessment of the situation in which America’s families find themselves. May God have mercy on us…
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Oh how awful! I agree with you – the tragedies of fatherless homes is unmistakable 😦
It’s such a tragedy, and one which could have been avoided.
My husband was married previously to an ungodly woman who kicked him out of the house and took everything he had, after he had ‘serviced’ her and given her a child. She then made sure he was unable to see the child regularly (he strenuously fought this every step of the way), and has poisoned his little girl against him in the attempt to make her not want to see her father. Forward many years later and my husband’s beautiful daughter as a very young teen is promiscuous, rebellious, and lost. Only now has his ex-wife admitted she was wrong and has finally allowed consistent contact between father and daughter. We are now slowly picking up the broken pieces of his daughter’s life, and trying to model Jesus’ love and mercy to her. Jesus can make all things new.
Our loving, but broken family is the classic example of what goes wrong when there is no father around, or when the father is denied access to his children by a heartless mother. Who is being punished? The children. This situation is such a travesty and confirms how far from God’s plan we have ventured. Any time we move away from God’s good and perfect will for our lives, there is brokenness, pain and devastation. Thanks for posting this; it’s a timely message.
Welcome here and God bless you. Wow, heartbreaking story you shared… I pray that our God who regenerates the most difficult of hearts will indeed make your step daughter a new creation.