Asking the clergy what makes a father

Father's Day is June 17. While all fathers get to share the day, have all fathers worked equally hard to earn it? Our clergy weigh in.

Deacon Carl Fair, New Life Church Of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Long Beach:

We are all created equally. All men have the capacity to be a good father. Unfortunately, all men do not have the desire to be a good father, a godly father. There's a saying, "Any man can be a daddy, but not all men can be a father."

Being a father means being a provider, a strong force in the family. Fathers must teach their children to have respect for themselves, for their parents for other parents, for other children, for authority.

What you teach your child by example is important. You must be a father figure even when you think they're not looking. Realize that your future lives on in your children. Remember, you need to start praying before you have children, and continue forever after.

Cantor Richard Pilatsky, Temple Beth Elohim, Old Bethpage:

We read in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, "God created man in his own image . . . (Genesis 1:27)" As we read further, we are told that God created man, male and female; making it clear the term "man" refers to all humans.

A clear reading of this verse tells us that all people (dads included) are created equally. The Talmud (Niddah 20b) tells us that when a baby is in the womb, he is taught the entire Torah (laws). However, as soon as he is born, an angel comes and strikes him on his mouth, causing him to forget everything he has learned.

From this we can infer that every baby is born with a clear mind. However, that's where the equality stops. Each baby, as he or she grows, will learn from others, as well as acquire his or her own knowledge. How we grow and develop is a product of who our families are, and to what we are exposed to as we grow. Dads are all created equal, but from the moments after birth, that equality is replaced by experience. It is the choices we make in our lives that govern who we are and what we become.

The Rev. Rebecca Lynne Segers, Presbyterian Church of Sweet Hollow, Melville:

God creates us all with the capacity to be all God imagines us to be, but by the time men become fathers, they're traveling their individual paths with different hopes, dreams, plans, attitudes and yearnings. They each step into fatherhood with different abilities, and in different ways. They all have the potential to be the great fathers that God envisions and embodies, just as we each have the potential to be the person God imagines us to be when we were created (Colossians 3:12-17).

We don't teach people how to be parents. We spend more time teaching them other, less important things, than the very important job of being a parent. I believe the guiding prescription to being a good father is love, whether you're a strict parent or a lax parent, as long as the child knows he or she is loved. By lax, I don't mean not present, I mean someone who is not putting disciplinary rules in effect. If your primary objective is to make sure your child knows he or she is loved, then you will put in the time.