Cliff Stearns: “this past weekend Washington witnessed the arrival of hundreds of thousands of men who joined together to proclaim their…”

“this past weekend Washington witnessed the arrival of hundreds of thousands of men who joined together to proclaim their commitment to God, family, and freedom. I am talking about the Promise Keepers. Although maligned by some folks, I applaud these individuals for looking into themselves and into others for self-improvement. I also commend them for highlighting the importance of the family. No single unit of any society is as important as a family. It lies at the core of building sound individuals by offering love, support, and guidance. I sympathize with the difficult plight of those single parents who are struggling to raise their children, but it is true that two-parent households provide the most maturing environments. Sadly, the traditional family structure is under assault. The dissolution of the American family is not merely a personal crisis, it imposes terrible consequences throughout our society. What is one of the greatest concerns of the American people? Obviously one of them is crime. Forty-three percent of all inmates grew up in a single-parent household. According to the Cato Institute, a 1 percentage point increase in births to single mothers appeared to increase the violent crime rate about 1.7 percent. The disturbing fact is that men from single-parent families are twice as likely to commit crimes compared with men from two-parent families.”