First, some disturbing facts: Inner-city families often look like puzzles with pieces missing--7 out of 10 African-American children are born outside an intact family. In the absence of caring families, kids seek adoption by gangs, pimps and drug dealers. Family relationships are torn apart by the new masters of drugs and violence. By age 10 or 11, most children have seen enough of their friends and family members die that they cannot imagine themselves living to the ripe old age of 21! Desperate for love and to fit in, young girls become pregnant and end up raising their children alone. When their children fail, grandparents raise their grandchildren, or older siblings try to raise younger siblings. One at a time, these issues alone cause serious wrinkles in the fabric of society--but they, themselves, are not the ultimate problem. There are forces at work to end the family, as we know it, perhaps even beginning with the African-American family, which has survived through faith in God and which has been instrumental in preserving the Christian faith in America as a whole.
