TODAY is Father's Day, and we asked religious leaders from various denominations to share their views on the role of fathers in the family and their responsibility to their children as ordained by God.
Canon Judith Daniel of the St. Augustine Porus Cure of Churches:
"Fathers have to be there for their families and love them as God loved everyone. You cannot love anyone else if you do not love self and family first; everything else stems from love. Fathers are the chief steward of the family and if they love they will be thoughtful and responsible. There are too many irresponsible fathers in Jamaica."
Monsignor Richard Albert of Stella Maris Catholic Church:
"The role of father is analogous to the role of God the Father over the family. He is shepherd, protector and guide. Father should encompass the total human being: ready to sacrifice for his family. Today the greatest challenge is to find fathers who go against the culture which allows so many ungodly and negative things, now more than ever we need fathers to guide, reform and lead children into a sense of wholeness and morality."
Al Miller, Pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle:
"Fathers must understand that they play a pivotal and central role in the life of their families. They need to accept the responsibility understanding that father means source and they must be to the family and children, the source that supplies their spiritual, moral, economic, social and educational needs. The source cannot run away."
First Elder Vermont Murray of the Andrews Memorial Seventh-Day Adventist Church:
"I see father in his role as a man who is the head of the family who points his family to a higher being - the Creator God. Any father who cannot point his family in this direction has failed in his duty."
Rev. Dr. Burchell Taylor of Bethel Baptist Church:
"The church can help by putting parenting into proper perspective as an enormous God-given privilege and responsibility. This therefore ensures that there is shared responsibility by the partners who brought the children into the world. This ought to bring the father into the picture especially in the area of responsibility which is often undermined by a theory that places the woman in the home. Both parties are needed and both therefore have their rightful place in the home."
Rev. Oliver Daley of Ridgemount United Church:
"A very good example of a father is one who makes all members of his family feel protected and defended by his lifestyle of faithfulness and loyalty. Many children don't feel protected or defended by their father they feel vulnerable. If there's an example needed by the nation's children now, it is one of feeling that they are defended and protected by a conduct that undergirds stability and order in the home and inspires self-confidence and self-worth."
