The Spiritual Condition of America, Politics, Culture, and Current Events Analyzed Through the Lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. It's impossible to overstate the impact of family. the impact of one's mother and one's upbringing, but specifically the impact of a father. Hi, Alex McFarland here.
Welcome to the program. And we're going to be talking about fatherhood. And what the role is of a dad in a child's life, but really America's silent crisis, fatherhood. And as we record this program, it's near Father's Day. I'm just hours away from having come back from our first of eight summer youth camps.
We did a camp in Montana, and oh my goodness, every summer, nearly 2,000 teenagers throughout America that we have the privilege of interacting with and in hundreds of conferences and camps and special events. In the last really three decades, God has allowed our ministry to interact face to face with well over a half million American teenagers, many, many of whom have opened their heart to Christ to become believers. And we thank God for that. You know, three decades ago, three decades ago, I felt like America was in a crisis of fatherlessness. And here we are in the 21st century, and if anything, that hurt and that void and that crisis has only Exacerbated.
Now, the good news is Psalm twenty-seven: 10. and following It says, When father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take up my cause. I was in Montana this week and with kids and teenagers opening their heart to Christ, becoming believers. But when I talk with a young person, I'll say, you know, how's it going? Tell me your story.
You know, where are you in the journey? Invariably, it just seems like. Nine out of ten young people with whom we interact, they've got sad stories about dad walking out. And I'll share one of these stories later on in the program. But right now, I want to pivot to a very special friend that God's given us along the journey, Sean Tice.
He's got a great website, GodismyDad.com, spelled just like it sounds GodisMyDad.com. But when Sean Tice was just nine months old, his father threw his tiny, fragile body across the room in a drunken rage. But today, Sean's traveling the country helping others, helping young people and people of all ages for whom fatherlessness is a heartbreaking reality in their life. And he's helping people process and work through this pain, but even better yet, helping people know the faithful Father, the Heavenly Father. Through putting their faith in Jesus Christ.
But what an honor to talk about this very important issue. Shantice, welcome to our program, and thank you for the work you're doing. Thanks for having me on, Alex. I'm excited to be here. Yeah.
Well, before we go too far, I mean, I want to queue it up and have you introduce yourself to listeners and your story and how God raised you up to do the ministry about fatherlessness, the ministry that you do, Sean. Yeah, you shared a little bit about my story. My dad came home in a drunken rage that night and threw me to the cops across the room. And thankfully, that policeman caught me and God protected me through that. But then my birth dad packed up his things and got on a bus from our small town of Pennsylvania, went back to his hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, and never came back.
And I started what I call that day the fatherless journey. And God brought me through all those different things that you face growing up without a dad. It wasn't easy. It was hard. I had a single mom.
I had an older brother, an older sister, and we all kind of went through it. My dad never paid child support, never helped out. And I'm not, you know, I want people to feel bad for me, but I just want to show them that God brought me through that through mentors and different people that poured into my life. And that's why I'm able to talk to you now because of what God did there. And through that, through some of the mentors that I had, I decided that I felt like I wanted to be a pastor.
And so I went to school to be a youth pastor. And then through that, I started this ministry. It was Life Factors Ministry. Ministries, and eventually we kind of changed the name a little bit to God is my dad. And so, just excited to be able to share it with you.
Well, God bless the work you're doing. You know, we have some very, very beloved mutual friends like Dr. Elmer Towns of Liberty University, who Was one of the mentors in my grad program. We've interviewed him many times. Dr.
Towns gives a hearty endorsement for you and your work. And then, of course, Lauren Green of Fox News. We recorded with Fox News yesterday and Lauren Green, and she'll be with me next summer at the Cove, the Billy Graham Center in Asheville, North Carolina. But Lauren Green says, quote, that she highly recommends Sean Tice and his ministry to minister to families and fatherless individuals. And so you're doing great work, Sean, and a lot of people acknowledge that, myself included.
But try to help people, if you would, understand the magnitude of this problem in our culture and really what is the outcome usually when a child or a teen grows up. with an absent father. Or even a semi-present father who's abusive?
Well, we tried to explain it in many ways. I've spoken in over 200 churches on this issue. And really, to bring it down to earth, help people understand what's going on with it is look at it as a scale. Look at a kid's life. You know, their life is when their mom and dad's present, they are, you know, they're functioning, their life's in balance.
But when you remove one of the mom or the dad out of their life or both, the life goes off balance. And so that's what we're seeing in our culture and our society. These kids are walking around, teenagers, young adults, and they're walking around with that, with their life unbalanced. And we're wondering why. Why are they committing crime?
Why are they going down the path of dropping out of high school or having premarital relations or going down the path of homosexuality sometimes or whatever it might be, committing suicide? Why are they doing that? Because their life's off balance. And so we help people understand what's going on with that and then help them realize that if you come into their life and bring Christ into their life, their life can come back into balance. And so we're seeing all kinds of things coming from this.
Their life goes off balance with Christ. Crime, you know, 85% of youth in prisons grew up in fatherless homes. Fodless boys and girls are twice as likely to drop out of high school, twice as likely to end up in jail, four times as likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. The issues such as abortion, people wonder why there's so much of that going on.
Well, there's a statistic that says 71% of pregnant teenage girls come from fatherless homes. And when I saw that number, that was devastating because it's like, man, these girls just need hope. They need encouragement. And so that's what's happening in our nation is these kids are just struggling. They need hope.
They need help. And the church can be a part of that. Indeed, and I think we must be a part of that because the Bible tells us for believers that we are to care for the widows and the fatherless. And, do you know, I'll say this, church, regarding ministry to evangelize and mentor, and frankly, just to love on fatherless young people, to show them love and time. I mean, you don't have to be a PhD.
You don't need a lot of money. You just need a heart that just unconditionally cares for these hurting young people. The ministry opportunity is just beyond measure, isn't it? It's so true. They're there.
The Bible tells us, like you said, it's a pure religious practice for all of us to visit the fatherless. James 127 has the answer in two words to visit them. If we would just spend time visiting them and spending time with the people that are in our circle of influence, the difference we could make in this cultural struggle that we have. Indeed.
Well, we've got a break coming up. We're talking with Sean Tice. I want you to give your website, Sean, and what will people find there? GodisMyDad.com. We have resources for churches and families, and we also have resources for fatherless families to help them and encourage them.
So churches can use it to reach the families around them. And then also the fatherless families can go there. There's a single moms page. There's a fatherless page. We also have a free God is My Dad app on the Apple and Google Play Store.
But there's all kinds of stuff to help them on their journey, videos, free devotionals, and stuff like that. Folks, stay tuned. The Bible tells us that fatherlessness, though it's a reality, Psalm 68, verse 5, that God is the protector of the fatherless and the widows, and a holy, righteous, perfect God. He sees, he understands, he cares. He intervenes.
Stay tuned. We're back after this with more on this edition of the program. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics.
Teaching in more than 2,200 churches around the world, schools, and college campuses, Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith, while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, The Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert. To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event, Visit alexmacfarland.com or you can contact us directly by emailing booking at alexmcfarland.com.
He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here on this Father's Day weekend in America. We're talking with Sean Tice.
And you know, Sean, we were just in front of about 130 teenagers. Great, great camp. But I was talking with some kids just this week. and I knew they were right on the cusp of opening their heart to the gospel and putting their faith in Jesus. There were some tears and some questions, and I just said to this group, about a half a dozen teenagers.
And while only about two of them were talking, I kind of felt like. The others related because they were kind of nodding their heads. I said, You have felt abandoned. and you're having trouble. Trusting that God will be there for you.
and you're trying to give yourself permission. 'Cause you don't want your heart to get broken one more time. Is that right? These girls nodded. And I said, I can promise you.
Your heavenly Father will never leave or forsake you. That's Hebrews chapter 13. And I can't speak for how humans have ever been there or not been there for you. But the Lord Jesus Christ, you can put your heart in his hands, and it is safely there in his love because Jesus will never abandon you. That's a message that will land in this culture, isn't it, Sean?
Oh, yes, yeah. I mean, I've spoken, I've done team camps as well. We also do a public school assembly, and we go into public schools, and we can't share the message of the gospel because we do a full assembly, but you can share the story of forgiveness and struggles that they face. And there's so many kids that are hurting. When I share my story of my dad throwing me to the cops and how I was protected and stuff, you can hear a pin drop in a room full of 800 middle school students because there's so many kids that are hurting and struggling through that.
And they need the truth. They need to know. Psalm 68, 5 is one of my favorite verses. It's a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation. He's a protector of widows in God's holy habitation where God dwells.
He's a father to the fatherless, and so kids need to know that God does not like their earthly dad. God is, he's not going to abandon them, he's not going to become incarcerated, he's not going to abuse them. Maybe he's passed away. God, God, some people, some kids get bitter at God because their dad's passed away or their mom's passed away. And helping them understand that God allowed it to happen for a reason, which is really hard to understand for a youth.
But helping them understand that they still have a purpose here on this earth and guiding them to that and helping them know that, hey, you can do something great for God. Despite what happened with your mom or dad, you can do something different. And so when they find that hope, the amazing things can come from it. Talk to us about, Sean, if you would, whether it be depression. substance abuse, drug use, self-harm.
Thoughts of suicide, gang involvement, all of these toxic trends that not only destroy so many young lives, but really, frankly, are weakening the very stability of our country.
So there are spiritual and cultural repercussions. But how much or to what degree does fatherlessness play into all of these negative trends that hurt so many lives? I mean, there are so many statistics out there. We could share multiple of them. And sometimes people also, before I dive into it, they think that it comes from a certain economic background, it comes from a certain race, but it's every neighborhood across the United States.
If the dad's not there, the kids are facing struggles. They're dealing with different things they face. But before I dive into covering the issues, there was one study out there that said a white teenage girl from an advantage background is five times more likely to become a teen mother if she grows up in a single mother household than if she grows up in a household with both biological parents. And just so people understand, just to kind of lay the foundation, it's every type of neighborhood, every type of background, each side of the train tracks, however you want to say it, no matter what they're facing. And so these kids they're dealing with, so guys are dealing with this issue where they didn't have a dad to teach them how to be a respectable person, how to respect themselves, how to respect a girl.
And so we're seeing with guys that they go down this path of committing crime, they go down this path of substance abuse, they try to cope with these methods. Even homosexuality. Dr. Joseph Niccolosi was a very famous psychologist in California, and he was quoted as saying, I've worked with thousands of homosexuals. I've never seen a homosexual who had a loving, respectful relationship with his father.
And so just showing us that the dad matters.
Now, that doesn't mean that every fatherless guy is going to become a homosexual. It's just the ones that went to him and said, hey, I want to overcome this. I don't want to have this type of lifestyle. They were able to heal through that. But also, the issue of, like I said, with teen pregnancy earlier, girls are looking for security when dads provide security.
And when dad's not there, they look for security through a boyfriend or a man that takes advantage of them. And we're seeing these things going on in every single one of our neighborhoods, like I said. Even education. Maybe you're thinking, well, how does it affect me as an individual listening to this?
Well, there's a study that said, and studies involving over 25,000 children using national representative data sets, children who lived with only one parent had lower grade point averages, lower college aspirations, poor attendance records, and higher dropout rates than students who lived with both parents. And so, even if they don't do good in school, they might not get a good job, they might rely on your tax dollars.
So, there's so many different ways. You know, even three out of four teenage suicides occur in a household where a parent has been absent. Many things happening, but it's not a hopeless situation. Yeah.
And you know, regarding homosexuality, I've done so much research, spoken in so many places on this, and I'm familiar with Dr. Niccolosi and a number of others studies out of UCLA Medical School. Virtually always of young men that gravitate toward the homosexual lifestyle, there was lack of bonding with the parent of the same sex. It's from mother that little girls learn femininity. It's from dad that little boys learn masculinity.
And, you know, I've told this, I've given what are called antecedent factors at many universities, and sometimes people get angry, but many, many times. Gay men and lesbian women have come up to me, especially about the part where there's like no relationship. or not anything positive, the parent of the same sex. Gay men come up and they'll they'll say, you just told my story. You know, raised by a single mother, virtually no relationship with my dad.
What relationship was there? It was very negative. And so, folks, I've said it many times, and Sean, I want you to comment if you would. If you want to contribute to the Great Commission, plus help save America, become a champion for family, be a champion for a godly, strong, You know, go the distance Christian home, a home where the children are being raised by both biological parents. Sean, I truly believe as goes the family, so goes the nation.
I completely agree with you on that. And I'm even myself, I'm a cycle breaker. I'm trying to provide a different home than what I had. Growing up, and I firmly believe when a kid grows up in a healthy environment, they have a way higher chance of being a successful individual. Obviously, the devil can take a child, even in a good home, and tempt them and ruin them.
You even see that in the Bible. the hi higher chance for kids to become successful and then go down the path of having a successful marriage themselves, having a successful career, following God. And so I believe that the the family is very important. The website is GodismyDad.com. I think it'll be a great encouragement to you.
I think it'll be a great inspiration for ministry. We've got to take a brief break. We're going to come back and talk more about the blessing of family, especially with a godly mother and father, especially the dad. More on this edition of the Alex McFarland Show. Please stay tuned.
Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Mike Segovia here, producer of the Alex McFarlane Show. Here's Alex talking about prayer. You know, folks, our nation needs a spiritual awakening so desperately.
We need the Holy Spirit of God to sweep across this nation, and prayer is the key. Please, if you would go to alexmacfarlan.com/slash united in prayer, we'll send you a weekly devotional. We'll help your family, your church start praying with power. Alexmcfarlan.com/slash united in prayer. Would you invest a financial contribution to see young people saved?
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He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. We're going to resume our conversation with Sean Tice. But before we do, I want to say thank you to all the people that pray for and support our ministries.
We're on the radio seven days a week. We're on the road speaking virtually every weekend, somewhere in the Western Hemisphere. And right now, there are a number of things going on, our camps, conferences, going to the Billy Graham Training Center in Western North Carolina, the Cove. But I want to especially ask you to be in prayer for Revive U.S. As we do this program, we're in the middle of in Western North Carolina, the first of a two-year tour, Revive U.S.
Then we're going to be in North Myrtle Beach at the end of June at the Greg Rolls Legacy Theater. We'll be in Texas in the month of July. Please, if you would, if you care about God, And country. And we do. We're passionate about it, especially young people.
Go to alexmcfarland.com. That's alexmacfarland.com. And I want to say a big thank you to all the people that pray for us. Every Tuesday, we put out a prayer bulletin. There's a part of our ministry called United in Prayer.
And you can sign up for a free prayer bulletin. Take about two to three minutes to read it. Every Tuesday, United in Prayer comes out. And look, we're in this together to know Christ, to make Him known, to be an influence for the gospel, to pray and intercede. A lot of things going on for everyone involved, for everyone praying for us, and for everyone making tax-deductible contributions.
On behalf of our staff and our board and the hundreds of thousands of people with whom we interact monthly, we sincerely thank you. Please get on board and let's save a nation.
Well, we're talking with some. Sean Tice of GodIsMyDad.com. And Sean, I appreciate the work you're doing. And I've got a little personal story I want to share. But before I do, give the listeners again.
a synopsis of all the work that you do.
So, our ministry started off with books. We have different devotionals that we've written: The Fatherless Journey for Guys, The Fatherless Journey for Girls, The Single Mom Journey. Those are available on Amazon. We also have devotionals on the University Bible app. You can go on the Bible app, search for God as My Dad, or search for Fodless.
And we have all kinds of devotionals on there. Subscribe to us there. But we do a lot of digital resources. We have a free mobile app on the Apple and Google Play Store. If you search for God as My Dad or on YouTube as well, I search for God as My Dad, all kinds of free videos to encourage fatherless families.
We've had multiple guests on there, different people like Stephen Kendrick. We've had John Cooper from Skillet, and just different people telling the fatherless, hey, you can make it, you can overcome. We have devotional videos for sections for grandparents raising grandkids, for single moms, for fatherless individuals. We also travel around and speak. We've been in over 200 churches.
We do public school assemblies. We speak at camps, conferences, youth attention centers, and pretty much wherever we can get in, either spreading the message of a Pope to the fatherless or encouraging people to get involved in doing something. about it. We also have an initiative where we're launching single mom ministries in churches all over the country. Right now we have about 20 going.
We're still clearly piloting the program, but we're trying to get our goal to eventually get one in every county of the United States. And what they are is a weekly support group for single moms. And so churches can launch those. We have the curriculum to help them with that. We also have a map of the ones that we have on our website now.
And churches can join our network that we have for A God is My Network to help people understand that there's churches out there that care about them.
So we're trying to help the local church. We're also trying to help the families with free resources and different things to help them as they go down the path of trying to overcome fatherlessness or as churches want to reach these families in their community. Amen. Brother, this so encourages me because my wife and I and our ministry, we've done a lot of events, publishing and broadcasting for all ages. But my heart is with young people really.
And Tell me if I'm right on this. You don't necessarily have to be articulate. You don't have to have a lot of money. But here's the four-letter word that will open the door for the impartation of Jesus and a biblical worldview, and that's T-I-M-E. time If you're willing to invest some time, you know what we've done, and I give God the glory.
But when I was a youth pastor and then later on, even as a seminary president, we would teach how to change a spare tire. And I would say, listen, come on out, and I'm going to show you how to change a spare tire. And that might sound so simple. But kids would show up, because I mean, that's a life skill.
Sooner or later, you're gonna need to know how to change the tire. And I would even, the 2.0, we would show how to check the oil. How to check the coolant and the windshield washer fluid. And then, like 3.0, guys don't really do this much anymore, but there was a day I would actually teach how to change the oil in your car. And you don't have to go spend $85, you can do it for about $20.
And just basic, simple things. My wife would teach how to reconcile a checkbook. Listen, I would have college students come, and I guess my point to all the people listening is: life is about loving the Lord and loving others. And we're just surrounded by a generation that is hungry to be loved. And when you're willing to invest some time.
They will open up to what you have to say. And that message that we want to share is the message of Jesus Christ. Time. It's pretty simple, isn't it, Sean? It is.
I wouldn't be talking to you right now if I didn't have people that took time with me. And so you're really resonating with me. They loved me and they took time to spent time with me to teach me. I had people teach me how to change oil in a car, just like you're talking about. And they gave me confidence as a young man that didn't have a dad.
And having men teach me, hey, this is how you do this or that. And that helped me. And I'm sitting with you now because they were willing to instill character and different skills. And then also ultimately talking about Christ with me. Amen.
You know, just a little personal story. My dad was a Christian. My dad, he's long since passed away. I don't want to trash my dad. He's dead and gone.
But he was a World War II vet and not a very, you know, warm, fuzzy kind of guy. And then in his sixties he went bankrupt. is very bitter. And it was not an easy season of my life. And he was always telling me I was stupid.
It didn't matter what I did. My dad would make me know how dumb I was, and he he always called me a dumb ape. He did, you know, and anyway, so I wrote my first book for Tyndale Publishers, and we had a publishers meeting. They said, We want to know all about your background. And I said, Well, you know, I grew up and I was very into cars.
And I wanted to meet Carol Shelby, who built the Ford Cobra. I knew everything about him. I met Carol Shelby, and he was very nice to me. And then I got into music, and I wanted to meet Brian Wilson. And Brian Wilson was so nice to me and allowed me to play with the Beach Boys on numerous occasions.
And Brian was my musical hero. And Brian ultimately gave his life to Christ. He did. And then I got saved, and my hero was Josh McDowell. Anyway, I'm telling this story and all of a sudden one of the marketing people for Tyndale blurted out and said, you sound like a guy in search of a dad.
And I was like forty years old and I was like Oh, my goodness, you're right And this person said, I'm sorry, and there were like a dozen people in the room. I said, No, you know, you're right. Because my dad was saved, I don't mean to belittle him, he's not here to defend himself. But My dad had a lot of pain. And I didn't understand it, but he liked to inflict that on me.
And at every possible, I was not going to college, I was horrible in school, and a lot of it, I was very fatherless, although I didn't really realize it. And then I found Jesus Christ. And there was a little tiny glimmer of hope in my heart that maybe I was supposed to do something with my life. And I ultimately did go to college and then grad school and got married. But I will say this, and I mean it with all my heart.
Had Macedonia Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. not come around me. I was 21 years old. I was very, very far down the wrong road. But this church and several older men they encouraged me, they mentored me.
They Constantly reaffirmed how Jesus had a plan for my life, Jesus had a plan for my life. And I married a Christian woman. Went to school. never ever made anything less than a bee again. And um Again, I know when you're talking about the absence of a dad.
or an abusive dad. and how there's no hope, there's no initiative. I know that. It's really true. And so I'm who I am thanks to a church with the love of Jesus in my life at a critical point.
And you and I, I guess we would agree. There's just millions out there that need the solid ground of Christianity that you found and that I found as well. Yes, you are so right. Thank you for sharing that story. I really, it's exciting to hear how God worked in your life.
And yeah, there's so many people that are just searching for that dad. That relationship, they just walk through this hopeless path. My dad actually grew up fatherless himself. And that's why he ultimately made me fatherless because he just couldn't get over his own childhood. And he tried to cope through drugs and alcohol.
And he's actually heavily involved in the porn industry in Las Vegas. And none of that ever brought him happiness. He needed to know that he had a father through God, through Jesus Christ. But he never would own that. And so owning that fact, so you may never have a person on this earth that's willing to invest in you and be a father figure, but God will fill that gap.
God will be your heavenly father. He wants that relationship with you, but you have to accept it through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Sean, would you pray, pray for the American family, and maybe even for the person listening, and they might have a heart that's deeply wounded? But Jesus loves them. And we always say this: Jesus is as close by as a prayer.
And that's really true.
So, just as you feel so led, Brother Sean, would you lead us? Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity to be with Alex today, Lord. I pray that you would just continue to strengthen both of us through our childhoods we overcame. But with all the people listening, all the people watching this, I pray that you would just help them as they navigate different things in their lives with their relationship with their earthly father or lack of relationship or with their mother or lack of relationship with their mother. I pray that you would just help them to claim you as their Heavenly Father.
Help them to fill the gaps of the struggles they had in their lives with not having a mom or a dad or both in their life. Lord, I pray that you'd help them to fill that with your scripture, with your word, with the truths of your word. I pray that they would ultimately accept Jesus Christ into their life and have a relationship with you through Jesus. Lord, I pray that you'd please just be with the ones listening to this right now that need to find some relationships, some Christians. I pray that you direct Christians into their lives to help them find fulfillment through you.
And I pray that they would find a local church, local churches that care about them and will help them with their journey, Lord. I thank you so much. For allowing us to talk about this issue, and I pray that you would just shine a light on this issue in our country. Lord, it's such an epidemic, but through Jesus, we can have a lighthouse shown throughout this country of the hope of the truth of the gospel. Lord, we love you, we give it to you.
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. The website GodismyDad.com.
And folks, remember, your Heavenly Father loves you, He's for you, and He will never leave you or forsake you. Alex McFarlane Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at alexmacfarlane.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YESGOD and the number 1.
That's 1-877-Y-E-S-G-O-D-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarlane Show.
