In this report put out by the University of Cincinnati’s School of Planning, it is noted that, in Cincinnati, while “poverty and female headed households are not synonymous…over 70 percent of the families in poverty are headed by a female.”

The problem, of course, is not women; it’s men (or lack thereof). These statistics show that 70 percent of poverty stricken families have no male provider. Single mothers, then, are forced to both raise children and provide for their household. The implications of this are deeply saddening. Along with children who lack healthy parental influence—especially that of a father—comes increased crime and decreased probability that these children will be successful in school (and, consequently, in their future career). With a feeling of little or no hope for the future, young people turn to drugs, prostitution, and violence, as they oftentimes find such industries to be more lucrative than any alternative. What makes this worse, however, is that babies are still being born under such circumstances. In other words, the cycle continues; many young men grow up without a father’s example of responsibility, and many young women lack a good protector and male role model. The poverty continues from generation to generation; the disease only seems to worsen. One might begin to think that this system cannot be escaped.

What urban Cincinnati needs is some good fathers. I don’t know how this can actually be accomplished, quite frankly, but I know it must involve the work of the gospel breaking into people’s lives. Revival is needed; the Church needs to train and equip young men to be good fathers and husbands, instead of baby-daddies who bail out on their family. The only way that the addictions, the broken homes, and the violence can truly be stopped in our city is by gospel transformation. How then can we reach these people and proclaim to them the truth?