Granted.

Still chivalry is doing the right thing for the right reason no matter what. Furthermore, we have hope of improvement. A virtuous man is likely to have a positive effect on a vicious woman, but I grant you that that is not always the case.

There certainly those wives who want their husbands to be responsible for everything and then complain about everything.

I think we should also have hope that chivalry might begin in youth. It would be a good thing to learn mutual respect before tying the knot.

Without question, it seems to me, a man unafraid of leading and using his authority, who is still self-sacrificing and honorable is a great man–and necessary.

It takes two to tango, Padre. I know more than one woman who finds her identity and her power in a posture of, oh, let’s call it Domestic Emotional Terrorism. As U2 put it so succinctly: “You ask me to enter, then you make me crawl.” I pity and pray for the husbands (and children) on the receiving end of this type of hypocritical (and hyper-critical) tyranny. It, too, seems quite endemic — especially among the holier-than-thou wives of humble Christian men.

Fatherlessness is an epidemic. We ignore IT at a child’s supreme peril.

I am not ignoring or neglecting other important influences, but those influences would be even more profitable in the presence of a father.

I never suggested that authority and provision are exclusively the domain of fathers, but they are characteristically so. Sometimes a generalization is generally true.

Furthermore, I am not segregating anything by asserting that there are real positive differences between a mother and a father. Respecting those differences and capitalizing on them brings order and balance.

I know many women who are eager for their husbands to lead the family and take the principal responsibility for maintaining order in the household. They are quite capable and unafraid to lead, and do, but they are content to have a real leader for a husband, as long as he is an honorable man.

They are not “inviting certain failure.” They are actually rearing well-rounded, independent and successful children.

To assume that guidance, control, reasonable expectations and “the means” (whatever they may be) are the sole responsibilities of fathers is patently absurd. It would be equally absurd to say that comfort, moral support, unconditional love, etc. are sole responsibilities of mothers.

ALL adults active in a child’s life are, to one degree or another, parenting. To segregate specific aspects of nurturing and rearing to one individual is to invite certain failure.

In addition to loss of one parent or the other from divorce, death, incarceration and other forced or voluntary separations, a parent may otherwise neglect or fail in various ways. Historically, these gaps have been filled by others in the child’s life: other relatives, close family friends, community members, etc. We ignore or neglect these important influences at the CHILD’s peril.