Consumerism Part 2, "Key Words: Father, Hero, Presence, Unchanging"

Consumerism Part 2, "Key Words: Father, Hero, Presence, Unchanging"

You're about to see me kick a dead horse. This next post will address one of the most annoying commericals out there today. I should say that it annoys ME at least. These commericals are actually quite popular. Verizon Wireless does this mock interview of an ESPN-type reporter, make-believing that the individual being interviewed has achieved a kind of heroic accomplishment. When, in fact all the person did was check sports scores on their phone while simultaneously doing something else. In most of these commericals I breathe easy but there's one in particular that gets my goat. In this commercial, the "hero" is a father who was checking his phone during a child's recital. The reporter questions the "hero" as to how the "hero" was able to check his phone during the recital. The response is something like, "it was very difficult but I'm experienced, we've had several recitals this year." What's the message there? A harmless commercial? No. What's the message? Is the message about the brilliance of technology and the superiority of Verizon's product? That may be the intent but the underlying premise is an ugly message.

The message implies that it's acceptable, even valued, for a father to disengage from the child's activity in order to check on a sports fact. Am I making too much of this? I wish others would make more of it considering the alarming loss of present fathers in our society; http://www.fatherhood.gov/ reports the following statistics from the "National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse":

*24 million children (34 percent) live absent their biological father.

*Nearly 20 million children (27 percent) live in single-parent homes.

*Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents.

*Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.

*Studies on parent-child relationships and child wellbeing show that father love is an important factor in predicting the social, emotional, and cognitive development and functioning of children and young adults.

To be fair, the father in this commercial is present. But how present? Does PRESENCE only refer to the physical manifestation of the father or the hero? Or does PRESENCE mean much more? My friend Bryan is one of the most PRESENT Father's I've seen. He spends both quality and quantity time with his son. He looks his son in the eyes when answering or asking questions. He keeps promises to his son, whether large or small. He honors and respects his wife in a way that is impressionable to the child. I could go on but I believe those words define a present father.

We should not accept a Fathering-model which exhibits a father who is able to "check-out" mentally from something that is as important as a child or what the child is doing; in this scenario, a recital. Furthermore, it shouldn't be glorified. The glorification of misfit fathers in our available media is strange to me. Examples would be Peter from "The Family Guy" or Homer from "The Simpsons" or Ray from "Everybody Loves Raymond." I could go on with the mis-definition of masculinity and fathering that is ubiquitous on our televisions. What messages are males receiving from this? What is being modeled to the children, to the wives? What is being accepted as ordinary and tolerable from the Dads in these shows and these commericals.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible (James 1:17-18) says this, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created." I wish THIS was glorified in our culture. I especially love how it describes God, the Father, as unchanging not like the shifting shadows of our world. I pray that we all have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts that discern the messages that overwhelm us by sneaking through the artifical light of consumerist mentality.