Today headlines flash news about the war in Iraq, but unfortunatley 51% of all children in America go to sleep with out the voice of their father in their homes. Many people are aware of the physical battle in the world, but who is fighting for the family values and the fathers raising the next generation? Ed Tandy-McGlasson a former Professional footbal player in the NFL is now the Pastor of the Church, The Stadium Vineyard of Anahiem, and declares that he is fighting for fathers by simply telling fathers, sons, and daughters what it is that they are missing in their lives, and explains why they spend thier lives performing various acts to seek their fathers aproval.
Before Ed was born, his father, Ed Tandy, died in a fatal plane accident when his Furry III Jet malfunctioned on a test run in Monteray Bay California. In attempts to save the civilians lives, who were on the beach, he took his jet into the ocean, leaving Ed an orphan. His mother later married a sub-marine commander of the U.S. Navy, Dan McGlasson. Dan raised Ed, as a step father, and one day he changed his life forever. Ed was 14 when his dad was leaving on one of his excursions when he realized that he had the car keys left inside his pocket to their VW Bug. Ed’s mother refused to drive a stick so Dan threw Ed the keys and said over the whole crowd, „“Ed! Today you are a MAN! Drive your Mother home.“ That public declaration in his life changed in forever from a little boy into a man.
Ed says that today people live to hear these words from their fathers, “I believe in you“. These simple words are lacking in most people’s lives today. So, the reprocusion’s of this reality is that people are looking else where to find the love, comfort, and acceptence that they never got from their fathers. “David Poenoe argues that the absence of strong paternal presence at home is the primary force behind the most disturbing problems that plague American society: crime and delinquency, premature sexuality and out-of wedlock births, poor educational achievment, addiction and alienation among adolescence, and poverty for women and children (The politics of fatherlessness in America by Cynthis R. Daniel).“ People turn to relationships, work, success, money, fame, drugs, alcohol, and other addictions to try and satisfy the missing love of the father in their lives. Also, “Fatherlessness results in (…) life without emotional, moral, or economic support of father (The politics of fatherlessness in America by Cynthis R. Daniel).“ Ed says in America, people are living their lives earn approval rather then living from the approval of the father. What would the difference be in the world if people lived from the love of their father rather then living to receive or sustain it?
Statistics about fathers from http://fathersforlife.org/divorce/chldrndiv.htm:
• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes.
o [U. S. D.H.H.S. Bureau of the Census]
• 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes.
• 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes.
o [Center for Disease Control]
• 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes.
o [Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 14 p. 403-26]
• 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
o [National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools]
• 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions come from fatherless homes
o [U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept., 1988]
• 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.
o [Fulton County Georgia Jail Populations and Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992]
• Nearly 2 of every 5 children in America do not live with their fathers.
o [US News and World Report, February 27, 1995, p.39]
What does this mean? Children from fatherless homes are:
• 4.6 times more likely to commit suicide,
• 6.6 times to become teenaged mothers (if they are girls, of course),
• 24.3 times more likely to run away,
• 15.3 times more likely to have behavioral disorders,
• 6.3 times more likely to be in a state-operated institutions,
• 10.8 times more likely to commit rape,
• 6.6 times more likely to drop out of school,
• 15.3 times more likely to end up in prison while a teenager.
The Statistcis are terifying. Ed claims that God put this on his heart because God’s heart is broken over the lack of fathers in his people’s lives. In 2005 Ed wrote a book called, The Difference a Father Makes which equips Dads how to on make a difference in the lives of their children and how to get the blessing if your father is not in your life anymore. Ed believes that no one is hopeless and that all can receive the blessing of the father. Through Ed Tandy-McGlasson’s non-profit ministry thousands of people have heard for the first time in thiers lives that their dads love and believe in them.
