Religious Right Groups
Fatherhood Foundation
| Leadership: | Warwick Marsh, founder |
| Date formed: | 2002 |
| Area of operation: | Based in Wollongong, NSW, but Marsh frequently visits Canberra. |
| Estimated membership: | Small body of supporters, but Marsh is very much the central figure. |
| Finances: | Aims to raise $1,000,000 quickly and to turn this into $100,000,000 within ten years ‘through strategic fundraising and training’. Actively seeks ‘Sponsors’ and ‘Partners’, but does not give the impression of having very many. A ‘Gold Sponsor’ would donate $12,000 p.a., while ‘many people who support the Fatherhood Foundation give us $20 per month’. Advises corporations that tax-deductible advertising business sponsorships are available. Currently pursuing full tax deductibility for donations. |
| Main objectives: | ‘The Fatherhood Foundation is a charitable, non-profit incorporated association with a goal to inspire men to a greater level of excellence as fathers, by encouraging and educating them, thereby renewing and empowering families.’ Despite these laudable goals, public activities indicate strong Christian fundamentalist tendencies in all matters relating to the family. |
| Main activities: | Plans a wide range of activities, including educational media and television productions, seminars, public speaking tours by ‘overseas experts’ etc., but currently restricted by funding to media releases and infrequent conferences. |
| Links with other groups: | Marsh has been closely associated with the Australian Festival of Light for several years (listed as AFOL Advisory Committee member, 2002) and has been ‘consistently supported’ by bodies like the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL Newsletter, July 2003, 2). Marsh hopes to sponsor visits to Australia by American ‘experts on fathering’ such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family. |
| Publications: | Weekly email-newsletter (see FF website) |
| Sample quotes: | We are producing a fatherless generation through the effects of our permissive society. We are reaping a crop of crime, violence, suicide, depression, divorce and family breakdown because we have forgotten our Father in heaven … The Fatherhood Foundation believes that God called the family into existence in the Garden of Eden. Our Father in heaven conducted the first marriage service and provided the first honeymoon suite – the Garden of Eden. (Family World News, June 2003, 6) |
| 100,000 children are aborted in Australia every year. Australia has the highest rape rate in the world … There Is a big wound in Australia today: the man/woman wound. We need to redefine marriage. Marriage is a picture of God and the church … God wants men to be real men and to lead but they have to lead in love so leading is servanthood. (New Life, 20 Nov. 2003, 6) | |
| It is estimated that over one million children live without their fathers in Australia today. This is largely a result of the one-size-fits-all policy of the Family Law Court, which deems fathers as being incapable parents. (New Life, 4 Sept. 2003, 6) | |
| There’s been almost a judicial hatred of patriarchal figures. (Melbourne Age, 27 June 2003) | |
| Assessment: | Some of this information may surprise those who have only read the rather bland FF email-newsletter or heard Marsh speaking in major public forums. An ambitious organisation with solid Religious Right credentials and some Parliamentary allies. |
| Contact details: | P O Box 440 Wollongong, NSW 2520 www.fathersonline.org |
