African-American Pastors Unite to Revive Marriage and Fatherhood

Group Issues "Call to Action" for the Black Church to Ignite New Social Movement
GERMANTOWN, Md., April 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An interdenominational group of African-American pastors has united to ignite a movement to renew marriage and fatherhood in the African-American community.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110426/DC88568LOGO)
The movement, led by 10 pastors in partnership with National Fatherhood Initiative, Urban Ministries, Inc., and The National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting, has been initiated by a "Call to Action," which educates and inspires the black church to address the declines in marriage and father involvement that plague the black community. Clergy around the country will be recruited to sign the Call to Action, indicating their desire to join the movement to reverse these destructive trends.
Since the 1960s, marriage and fatherhood have declined faster in the black community than in the rest of the population. In 1970, seven out of 10 African Americans between the ages of 20 and 54 were married; today, just four in 10 are (compared to nearly six in 10 in the general population). Today, one in three children in the country live apart from their biological fathers, but two of three African American children do.
Social science research over the past several decades has showed that children who live outside of a married, two-parent home face significantly greater risks across nearly every measure of child well-being: poverty, delinquency, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, school performance, and emotional and behavioral problems.
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