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AN UNMARRIED HUSBAND: UNWELCOME REALITY
Divorced From Reality
Date published: 3/29/2009

PURCELLVILLE

--The decline of the family now affects virtually every American and seriously threatens not only social order but freedom and constitutional government. G.K. Chesterton once observed that the family checks government power. He was writing about divorce: Despite other threats to the family, divorce remains the most serious.

Americans would be shocked if they knew what goes on in the name of divorce. Divorce today licenses unprecedented government intrusion, including the power to seize children, loot family savings, and incarcerate parents without trial.

The full implications of the "no-fault" revolution have never been publicly debated. Divorce today seldom involves two people simply parting ways; 80 percent of divorces are unilateral. Under "no-fault," divorce becomes a power grab by one spouse, assisted by judicial officials who profit from the ensuing litigation: judges, lawyers, psychotherapists, and social workers. Involuntary divorce involves government agents forcibly removing innocent people from their homes, seizing their property, and separating them from their children. It requires long-term supervision over private life by state functionaries, including police and jails.

The most serious consequences involve children. Invariably the first action in a divorce is to separate the children from one parent, usually the father. Even if he is innocent of any legal wrongdoing and does not agree to the divorce, the state seizes his children with no burden of proof to justify why. The burden of proof--and financial burden--falls on him to demonstrate why they should be returned.

A legally unimpeachable parent can thus be arrested for seeing his own children without government authorization. He can be arrested through additional judicial directives that apply to no one but him. He can be arrested for domestic violence or child abuse, even without evidence that he has committed any. He can be arrested for not paying child support, regardless of the amount demanded. He can even be arrested for not paying an attorney or psychotherapist. There is no formal charge, no jury, no trial, and no record.


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Stephen Baskerville is associate professor of government at Patrick Henry College and author of "Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family" (Cumberland House). This column is adapted from an article in the Jan.-Feb. issue of Touchstone magazine.



Date published: 3/29/2009



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Mr. Savage (posted by lawpropaganda , June 24, 2009 2:17 pm)    0 likes
While some of what you are saying "might" be true, it seems that you give us governmental system dribble in order to defend a system that has major flaws. The governement has gotten itself in the family business, where what they are interested in tracking is the money, not really the "best interest of the child". Experts do not live with these children everyday. Please do not protray yourself as the knight in shining armor whose responsible for "saving families". You profit from others misfortunes.

Abuse of a Dad in NY (posted by Hannahsdad , Apr. 9, 2009 3:53 pm)    0 likes
I have n in Queens Sup. Court New york with a Judge Sidney Strauss, He has kept me from my Child for a over a year , My wife said I was a drug abuser , I was kicked out of my home , The Judge says get a evaluation from a State Agency , which said said I am clean and have no drug issues , 4 months later I am told to get a hair follicle test , which comes back clean judge Strauss still does not let me see my child, Strauss tells me to enter a Drug program any way , and am denied. Still unable to see my Kid.

It is still InJustice (posted by NorbertH , Apr. 6, 2009 8:00 pm)    0 likes
Steven Baskerville's article "An Unmarried Husband: Unwelcome Reality" quite accurately describes the injustices that are perpetrated in divorce courts in the USA and many other countries. I find it strange that even though there are so many divorces no one seems to notice how unjust they are – especially to the men. Sadly, most men including legislators and judges believe that it is their duty to protect the poor woman and children at the cost of the men being divorced. Perhaps they do not realize they a

This is my experience in the UK (posted by JohnPine , Apr. 5, 2009 4:45 pm)    0 likes
My ex-wife abducted the children. I met them by chance and they willingly came home with me. This was treated by the court as abduction BY ME. Emergency services were alerted; eventually I was removed from my childhood home and it was sold without my consent. I have been to court 66 times. I am a Montessori teacher and in my work I have never had a complaint. I have not been able to see or communicate with any of my own children for one and a half years. I don't know their address, their doctors or schools.

Shared Parenting in Dissolution (posted by northgate99 , Apr. 5, 2009 12:18 pm)    0 likes
Children should not be divorced from their parents. Washhington State passed the Parenting Act Bill which was supposed to help parents in dissolution to be parents. A recent study from the courthouses shows there has been some progress. The initial study suggests that as many as half of parents in Washington State let the noncustodial parent see the children about 1/3rd of the time. This is better than every-other weekend and a couple of weeks in the summer. See The Other Parent http://toprights.org

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