ISSUE: Fatherhood

OUR VIEW: President’s role as father illustrates responsibility

President Barack Obama faces very many pressing issues. He is under fire for his approach on the economy, health care, foreign affairs and more. The unity he promised seems difficult to find in the nation’s capital.

Where the president is building unity is with a focus on responsible fatherhood, traditionally seen as a priority of conservatives but of no less important to all, whether liberal, conservative or whatever.

The issue has been divisive in the past, even as research shows the estimated 24 million children growing up with absent fathers — a disproportionate number of them African-American — are at higher risk regarding poverty, crime and other social problems.

While conservatives have emphasized fatherhood and individual responsibility, liberals have traditionally emphasized government solutions. And some on the left have worried that focusing on fatherhood undermines emphasis on assisting single mothers.

The divide appears to be narrowing, in part because of the example being set by Obama himself.

“This is a watershed moment, to say the least,” Roland Warren, president of the National Fatherhood Initiative, told The Associated Press. “With President Obama — the first African-American husband and father in the White House — there’s a unique opportunity here to draw attention to the issue.”

Obama has demonstrated his interest in fatherhood issues.

He is a past co-sponsor of a fatherhood bill. Many of its provisions are aimed at removing barriers that deter noncustodial fathers from providing financial support to their children.

Obama also has designated responsible fatherhood as one of the four priorities of his faith-based advisory council, a politically diverse group of religious and civic leaders.

“This could be the real signature issue of this council,” Jim Wallis, founder of the liberal Christian social-justice network Sojourners, told The AP. “If we’re going to pursue this — and we must — you need to break up the left-right culture-wars polarities.”

Among the conservative council members sensing new opportunities on fatherhood is the Rev. Frank Page, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“... I am encouraged to see our president stressing personal responsibility of fathers,” Page said. “I’m an evangelical, not a member of his party, but I have to say congratulations — what an encouragement it is to see the way he fathers his two daughters.

“It’s a good time to approach this issue,” Page said. “I think we may get behind some of the divisiveness that may have erupted in the past.”

Consider that the nation spends billions on the problems created by the absence or irresponsibility of fathers. Addressing the problems legislatively makes sense, but a close-knit first family with young children in the White House may do more for fatherhood than any government effort.

As the old saying goes: Any man can father children, but it takes a real man to be a father.

President Obama illustrates daily that he is a real father.

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