September 21, 2010 LifeSiteNews.com — According to Dr. Stephen Baskerville, professor of political science at Patrick Henry College and author of “Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family,” the government “is engaged in a direct assault on the family” that is causing its breakdown – which in turn allows government to reach into yet more areas of civil society under the pretext of solving the problems that the breakdown of the family creates

.LifeSiteNews: Last month, Governor David Paterson signed no-fault divorce into law in New York state; it was the last U.S. state to pass no-fault divorce laws. What are the effects of no-fault divorce on marriage?

Dr. Baskerville: No-fault divorce was deceptive from the beginning. Misleadingly, it was advertised as allowing divorce by mutual consent. What it in fact codified was unilateral and involuntary divorce. It not only allowed divorce to be imposed on an innocent spouse over his or her objections; it allowed the spouse breaking up the marriage and the court to force the innocent spouse to shoulder the burden of the consequences: The innocent spouse generally loses his children, his home and property, and his freedom for literally “no fault” of his own and for any failure to cooperate with the divorce. “No-fault” justice is a contradiction in terms and makes a mockery of the very concept of justice. For this reason, it has also seriously corrupted our judiciary.

LSN: How dangerous are lenient divorce laws compared to other threats to the family? Should people pay more attention to them than they currently do?

SB: Divorce is by far the greatest and most direct threat to the family, far more serious than same-sex marriage, which is a symptom of how debased marriage has already become, not a cause of it. Unlike cultural threats to the family, divorce is a government regime. It is not eroding the family; it is quite deliberately dismantling it. It is easily demonstrable that same-sex marriage would not even be an issue today were it not for the divorce revolution

.LSN: Are there any other often-ignored laws or cultural issues that work against the family?

via Full Interview with Dr. Baskerville: Government-Caused Family Breakdown Expands Government.

Received the following from ACFC concerning attempts to research how divorces resulted in custody and child support.  Very interesting how cagey judges are about this kind of research.

Out of Tennessee comes this interesting information forwarded by William Fain as a preliminary look at the work product of one family court judge.  As many of you are aware we spent a good deal of the first part of this year supporting our allies in colleagues in Tennessee as they worked diligently to get a parental equality in divorce law passed.  For the historical record on these battles, including testimony and news coverage click here.

The report is an analysis of 105 cases pulled at random from a Bradley county judge’s case load.  Read the report.

As an aside, ACFC spent three days in Charleston, West Virginia this past summer with three law school interns attempting to conduct similar analysis.  The information needed was not available via the court’s computer system.  The records supervisor suggested we ask the chief judge to grant us permission to review the full records.  We met with all the judges of the local family court during the lunch hour, explained to them what we were researching and requested their consent to review the files in depth.

Four times during the meeting consent to review was granted.  We indicated we were not interested in any personal litigant identifier information and would supply the court with a copy of our report.  The chief judge indicated he would send a written note up to the clerk instructing her to provide full case files.  On returning to the records office after lunch we provided the list of files we wished to examine.  The records supervisor told us the judges had changed their minds and permission to research the records was denied.   At this point, the interns have returned to school, we’ll see if access will be granted via a freedom of information act request.

Family court judges are divided, he said, with some thinking it recognises the increasingly important role of fathers, while others believe it is too disruptive for children.

“Shared residence orders are not a panacea,” he said, adding that court-imposed solutions “rarely satisfy anybody”.

“I remain of the view that the separated parent’s role in the lives of his or her children retains the same degree of importance as when the parents were living together, even if the opportunities to manifest the qualities which an absent parent can bring to his children may be limited.”

Craig Pickering, of Families Need Fathers, welcomed the speech, saying: “Generally speaking, children do better in every way if they have two parents in their lives, and the children of separated families are no exception.”

via Divorcing parents ‘damage children in legal war’ – Home News, UK – The Independent.

Dr. Baskerville claimed that the government promotes family breakdown through “a panoply of destructive laws” linked to divorce.

“Unlike cultural threats to the family, divorce is a government regime,” he stated. “It is not eroding the family; it is quite deliberately dismantling it.”

For instance, he said that no-fault divorce laws are a more serious threat to the family than same-sex “marriage,” which he called “a symptom of how debased marriage has already become, not a cause of it.”

No-fault divorce was signed into law in New York State by Governor David Paterson last month; New York was the last U.S. state to pass such a law.

No-fault divorce, explained Dr. Baskerville, codifies “unilateral and involuntary divorce” and thereby permits the spouse breaking up the marriage and the divorce court to “force the innocent spouse to shoulder the burden of the consequences.”

“The innocent spouse generally loses his children, his home and property, and his freedom for literally ‘no fault’ of his own and for any failure to cooperate with the divorce.”

via Author: No-Fault Divorce A Greater Threat To Marriage Than Gay ‘Marriage’ – The Philadelphia Bulletin.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-h-glazer/lets-get-rid-of-mommy-and_b_709404.html

When it comes to childcare, it really is up to women to allow men into what has previously been their domain and a great place to start is to get rid of the moniker "Mommy and Me." So, if you are connected with such a class, consider getting the name changed to one that is more welcoming, like "Toddler Time" or "Toddler and Me" — names that include not only dads but grandparents and other caregivers as well. It’s small changes like this that, over the long run, will help alter attitudes and perceptions about our roles as men and women in our society.

Dana H. Glazer is the award-winning director of the feature length documentary The Evolution of Dad. To learn more about the project, please visit www.evolutionofdad.com.