Children need a mother and a father. New research from Penn State University reinforces this timeless truth. In their work, researchers found that children who interacted positively with their father had better long-term health outcomes. While several factors may contribute to these healthier children, one thing is certain — children who experience both a loving mother and father have a far greater opportunity to be healthy and successful.

This is how God designed the family: a mother and a father united as one in the creation of offspring. Marriage and family are the first human institutions — the bedrock of society — yet that foundation has steadily crumbled over the decades. What was once considered normal — the intact nuclear family — is now treated by some as a luxury or a privilege.

Today, the sad and sobering reality is that many children are growing up without the love of a father. According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, U.S. Census Bureau data show that roughly 18 million children live in fatherless homes. Of the more than 70 million children in America today, it is staggering to realize that over 25 percent do not have a father in their lives to guide them, correct them, encourage them… to love them.

This is not just a demographic trend. It is a blaring, flashing-lights warning of civilizational decline.

Fatherlessness and Social Breakdown

The absence of fathers does not remain contained within individual homes — it ripples outward into entire communities. Across multiple studies, fatherlessness is consistently identified as one of the strongest predictors of criminal behavior and social instability.

Children raised without fathers are far more likely to experience poverty, struggle academically, and engage in delinquent behavior. They are significantly more likely to be incarcerated. Communities with high rates of father absence experience higher levels of violence and social disorder. The proportion of fatherless families is one of the strongest indicators of violent crime in a community.

When fathers disappear, social stability weakens.

Marriage and Family Are God’s Idea

None of this should surprise us, because marriage and family are not human inventions. They are God’s idea — foundational institutions established by Him from the beginning of creation.

The Bible opens not with government, but with a wedding. God created man and woman and declared that the two would become one flesh. Marriage is a covenant — not a contract — intended to endure for life. It is a unique union between one man and one woman, established by God Himself.

Within that covenant, God designed sexual union — sacred, exclusive, and life-giving. It is to be experienced only within marriage. Any sexual expression outside the marriage covenant is sin because it departs from God’s good design.

Marriage exists not only for companionship, but also for fruitfulness. God commanded the first couple to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Children are blessings entrusted to parents, who are commanded to raise them in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

By assigning distinct and complementary roles to husband, wife, and children, God established the family. Husbands bear responsibility for loving leadership and sacrificial care. Wives serve as helpers and partners. Together they form a structure in which families can thrive (Ephesians 5:21–33).

Marriage Reflects the Gospel

Today’s godless culture wants us to believe that marriage exists to fulfill personal desires. Scripture teaches that marriage exists to reflect covenant love and to sanctify us by confronting and eradicating selfishness.

Marriage is an other-centered union in which husband and wife serve one another, raise godly offspring, and bless others while depending daily on God’s grace and mercy. This is why the Apostle Paul connects marriage to Christ and the Church. Christ loved sacrificially. He gave Himself fully. He served rather than demanded.

Biblical marriage reflects that same selfless love.

When we expect marriage to provide ultimate identity, happiness, or self-serving fulfillment, we corrupt and pervert God’s design. But when we understand marriage as He intended — a fruitful union marked by service, grace, patience, and faithfulness — it becomes a place of stability, growth, and blessing.

Thriving marriages are not built on self-absorbed ambitions. They are built on covenant commitment — two people faithfully serving one another, complementing one another, and strengthening one another to accomplish what God has called them to do.

Children Flourish Under God’s Family Design

God designed children to be raised by both a mother and a father because mothers and fathers contribute differently — yet complementarily — to development.

Mothers nurture life in uniquely powerful ways. Fathers provide structure, identity, and guidance. Together they create an environment that fosters emotional, physical, and spiritual growth.

This is not merely theology. It is observable reality confirmed by research, experience, and history.

God’s design works.

The Wisdom of God’s Order

For generations, societies recognized a simple pattern that leads to stability and flourishing:

• Finish school.
• Get a job.
• Marry.
• Then have children.

This “success sequence” reflects moral wisdom rooted in God’s design for responsibility, covenant commitment, and ordered living.

When followed, poverty declines and families flourish. When abandoned, instability grows.

God’s design is not outdated. It is timeless.

Government Cannot Replace Family

When families weaken, governments expand. But government cannot replace what God instituted. No policy can replicate a father’s presence. No program can produce covenant love. No institution can manufacture belonging.

Government can manage outcomes, but it cannot nurture eternal souls. It can distribute resources, but it cannot form godly character. The more the family breaks down, the more the state grows — and the less stable society becomes.

Even political philosophy recognizes this distinction. The English philosopher John Locke made a crucial observation that remains profoundly relevant today: parental authority and political authority are fundamentally different in origin, scope, and purpose.

Paternal power — the authority parents exercise over their children — is natural, temporary, and limited. It exists for the care, protection, and upbringing of children until they reach maturity and independence. It does not extend to absolute control over life, death, or property. Its purpose is formation, not domination.

Political power, by contrast, arises from consent. It exists through social contract and is designed to protect the life, liberty, and property of free and equal adults. Government is not a parent. Citizens are not children.

Locke strongly rejected the idea that the state functions like a father ruling over dependents. He warned that this confusion is dangerous because it has historically been used to justify absolute rule and unchecked authority.

In other words, parents care for dependent children. Governments protect the rights of free adults. These are not interchangeable roles.

The family is not a model for the state — and the state is certainly no substitute for the family.

God created the family to form persons. Government exists to protect persons. When government attempts to replace what only families can provide, both institutions are distorted — and society suffers the consequences.

Strong families reduce the need for expansive government. Weak families invite it. And when the state attempts to do what only parents can do, it inevitably fails — because no bureaucratic system can replicate covenant love, moral formation, or faithful presence.

A Call to Stand Firm

The erosion of marriage and family is not inevitable. But resisting the cultural trends require a biblically literate culture willing to act with faith and courage. Christians must uphold and model what God has declared good. We must honor marriage, strengthen families, encourage faithful fatherhood, and raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

The renewal of society will not begin primarily in legislatures. It will begin in homes — where husbands love sacrificially, wives partner faithfully, and parents disciple intentionally.

God has shown us what is right and good. The question is whether we will submit to His plan. Will we advocate for the truth in the public square? Will we ignore the consequences of godless worldviews for our neighbors? Or will we stand firm, speak truth, and point people to Scripture as the remedy for sin and society’s deepest ills?