Great controversial article

Warning: another soapbox post -

We are in the middle of getting ready for a Harry Potter birthday party tonight for Grace's 10th birthday, but I had to take some time to post this.  I had never heard of Phil Mushnick until yesterday.  I was hearing all this buzz on talk radio about Adrian Peterson and the article that Phil Mushnick wrote about him - read it here.  When I read the article myself, I decided I couldn't agree with him more.  I give him credit for writing about this issue that a lot of people don't have the guts to confront in such a public way. 

I have never enjoyed any professional sports really, but in the past 3-5 years that feeling has gone from a simple disregard to almost a passionate loathing.  There is something very basically wrong with supposedly gifted athletes making more money than people who choose to help save lives for a living (obviously this career could cover many different jobs).  Not only that, our country idolizes them as well.  There is no good, honorable, or reasonable explanation for it. 

There is an issue that runs so much deeper though, like Mushnick alluded to.  So many people in this country are very willing to become parents but with no intention of having a family.  Some estimates show that 60 percent of children born in the 90's have no father for a significant part of their early lives.  With 40 percent of marriages ending in divorce, this surely can't help that 60 percent statistic.  How many children are born out of wedlock?  30 percent.  These statistics are easy to find - for those that seek truth and not excuses.

Pope John Paul II spoke to the Pontifical Council for the Family in June of 1999 and his message revolved around fatherhood.

     "For some time now the family institution has been under repeated attack. These attacks are all the more dangerous and insidious since they ignore the irreplaceable value of the family based on marriage. They have reached the point of proposing false alternatives to the family and of calling for legislative recognition of them. But when laws, which should be at the service of the family, a fundamental good for society, turn against it, they acquire alarming destructive power."

You can read the entire piece here.  The breakdown of the family has had such far reaching effects, we will probably never realize it fully.  On the other hand, there are some very obvious things caused by this breakdown, but, in this culture of relativism, we want to excuse it away and further promote entitlement. 

Even still, we have to stay positive and remain hopeful.  In the words of St. Padre Pio, pray, hope and don't worry. 

I will read more of Phil Mushnick and see what other interesting things he has had to say.