Men of the church

via GodSpy

Men of the church
Barbara Kay, National Post
Published: Saturday, February 24, 2007

are habitat, schools and friendships the only significant factors in guiding children into their full human estate? Hardly. Children's spiritual and moral development -- the formation of bedrock cultural values --is equally important. And thereby hangs a tale.

A statistical report from Switzerland in 2000, "The Demographic Characteristics of the Linguistic and Religious Groups in Switzerland," reviewed the results of a 1994 survey of Swiss religious practice, and arrives at a fascinating conclusion about the impact of mothers' vs. fathers' church attendance on the future religious observance of their children.

The detailed survey indicated that if the father attended church regularly, and the mother was non-practising, then 44% of their children became regular church-goers. But if the mother attended regularly, and the father was non-practising, then only two per cent of their children became regular church attenders.

Even when the father was an irregular attender and the mother non-practising, a full 25% of their children became regular attenders, while if a mother was a regular attender and the father irregular, only three per cent of the children became regular attenders.

In short, if a father does not attend church, it won't matter how dedicated the mother is in her observance, only one child in 50 will become a regular attender. But if a father is even somewhat observant, then regardless of the mother's practice, at least one child in three will become a regular church-goer. The disparity is too stunningly wide to be culturally insignificant.

A survey can offer only so much support, especially when grace cannot be measured. Nonetheless, fathers do have an important role to play with respect to moral and religious formation of children, one that cannot simply be filled by the mother, and "grace builds upon nature." There is something about the natural dynamic between a father and his children that is different from that between the mother and her children. (And the correlation between bad experiences and atheism has been noted by various psychologists, including Paul Vitz and Armand Nicholi.) Whether one likes it or not, patriarchy is "natural," the structure of authority in most societies. (And not typically, as the radical feminists would maintain, through force and violence, but through the dynamic interplay between men and women.) What matters is that it is good patriarchy, ordered to virtue and the common good at all levels, rather bad patriarchy, which is an exercise in vice and tyranny.

More on Dr. Vitz
NYU page
Institute for the Psychological Sciences page
St. Michael's Institute
Paul C. Vitz Resource Page
The Neuwaldegg Institute - Lecturers: Dr. Paul C. Vitz
The Veritas Forum