Are fathers necessary?

For all of recorded history, the need to explain why fathers are necessary would have been regarded as,

well, unnecessary.

It would have been like explaining why water or air is necessary.

But we live at a time in which the obvious is routinely denied.

There have been articles in the most prestigious journals denying the importance of fathers,

the Atlantic magazine, for example, published an article titled,

Our Father's Necessary, A Paternal Contribution May Not Be, As Essential As We Think.

The New York Times published a discussion among five intellectuals titled,

What are Fathers For?

One of them Hannah Rosen, an editor at New York Magazine, opened her response by stating,

I'm not sure whether a child needs a father.

I could give dozens of such examples, I'll just give one more huff post published a piece titled,

Fathers Are Not Needed.

Fortunately, this dismissal of the importance of fathers is not universal.

In a 2008 Fathers Day speech a few months before his election,

as president of the United States, Barack Obama said,

Fathers are critical to the foundation of each family.

That they are teachers and coaches, they are mentors and role models,

they are examples of success, and they are the men who constantly push us toward it.

What makes his comments particularly noteworthy is that Barack Obama grew up without a father.

Both boys and girls need fathers.

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