From Nashville to Chicago's South Side, fatherlessness haunts America
On my long walk across America, I took a weekend detour and found myself in Music City, Nashville. Tennessee is my home state, and I’ve always loved coming to Nashville. The neon lights of Broadway, the music pouring out from bars, voices rising spontaneously in song and, of course, those stumbling with too much whiskey in them.
Yet, for some reason, as I talked to folks I met — from musicians and churchgoers to families and the young — I could sense a certain tension and uncertainty in their voices about the present and the future. Nashville is at a moral crossroads.
The markers of faith are everywhere in Nashville. I passed by countless churches, the crosses standing tall in the sky. Many artists sing of redemption and finding grace. There is still the local, traditional culture that has fueled Nashville for so long. But there is a change, a shift of sorts, happening — the pressure that comes from the larger national culture, influenced by nontraditional and postmodern forces.
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You can hear it in the songs: pop crossovers, party anthems that glorify hookup culture and its excesses, lyrics that chase trends over timeless truths. When I hear, "It’s just a room key / You ain’t gotta lie to me / Can’t you just use me like I’m using you," it leaves sadness and emptiness in its wake.
I’m not trying to be old-fashioned. Believe me, I’ve heard worse come out of O-Block in Chicago, which is home to drill rap and my church. I get the same feeling of emptiness and soullessness from both pieces of music. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen the consequences for those who live a hookup-culture lifestyle, which never ends well and usually results in an unwanted baby or two. And they then come knocking on my door seeking salvation through Jesus Christ.
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On one of the corners, I fell into conversation with a local songwriter who had recognized me from Fox. He told me the industry is about "what sells." It has always been that way, but it is more entrenched now due to corporate executives who chase money and clicks over art.
The songwriter’s friend, a local pastor, said the same thing was happening to families. He told me how his kids, as well as the kids from his church, were being bombarded with ideological messages about their skin color, their gender identity and even about their parents. He felt that their education was being compromised.
Both men were in their mid-20s, and what surprised me was that they had both grown up without fathers. Yep, those warnings we heard about 30 or so years ago are now realities before my eyes. The Black community has long dealt with fatherlessness and has borne that stigma for decades. But it is no secret that fatherlessness has been rising across all races and ethnicities at alarming rates.
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On the South Side of Chicago, far too many kids grow up without dads to guide them and without strong models of manhood rooted in responsibility and faith. The streets fill the void with gangs, revenge and music that glorifies all the wrong things in life — lyrics that I can’t even print here.
I know the consequences of fatherlessness all too well, and that’s why I’ve been walking across America to raise funds for a community center designed to promote family values: education, jobs, courtship, marriage, child-rearing and responsible finances.
But when you peel back the layers, you will easily see that the causes of fatherlessness are the same everywhere: the breakdown of values and faith. Instant gratification before discipline.
In Nashville, the decline may be subtler than on the South Side, but there is the same emptiness where purpose should be, the same moral confusion instead of clarity and the same lostness of soul instead of the vivacity of life.
This isn’t just Nashville or Chicago. America is at a crossroads. There are still many Americans living the principled life, as I’ve mentioned in other Rooftop Revelations, but there is still an underbelly, and this problem of fatherlessness isn’t going away anytime soon.
The good news? Redemption is possible. Those two young men I met — the songwriter and the pastor — found Christ and rebuilt their damaged families on the shared values of God, family and opportunity.
Nashville can reclaim its soul by doubling down on its faith heritage, letting songs of truth rise above the noise. Chicago can rise by rebuilding fathers, restoring merit and inviting God’s presence back into broken places. And America? We can turn the tide one step, one prayer, one restored life at a time.