Martin Dufresne

Christian Party

----- Original Message -----
From: Martin Dufresne <martin@LAURENTIDES.NET
To: Multiple recipients of list CSOCWORK <CSOCWORK@pdomain.uwindsor.ca
Sent: August 2, 1999 9:19 AM
Subject: FATHERS MANIFESTO - what lies behind family law 'reform'

Part of the context for the so-called "fatherhood" laws and reforms being
pushed in every legislature of the 'civilized' world is a document called
The Fathers Manifesto, available on the Net and signed by thousands of
male-positive activists in the U.S.
It reads:

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FATHERS MANIFESTO

I) Marriage is a social contract for a woman to share her reproductive life with a man. It is the
only agreement by which a man can have a family and legitimate children. Enforcement of this
contract is vital to securing the interests of family and children.

II) The power of feminism to destroy families is exemplified by statements like: "I don't want to
lead the life that my mother had" or "most mother-women give up whatever ghost of a unique and
human self they may have when they 'marry' and raise children. " Thepresent feminist concept of
women's "independence" really means a government-enforced entitlement to be paid for the
rewards of being a mother, without the responsibilities that go with it: to men, to children
especially, and ultimately to the world at large.

III) To accommodate this "independence", the marriage contract is discarded by the woman and
not enforced by the courts allowing women who want only the benefits and not the responsibilities
of marriage to throw the father of her children out while keeping the fruits of his labor. No matter
how little she has contributed to their joint assets, no matter how unsupportive or unsympathetic
she has been as a wife, the man must continue to support his children without the benefits of his
marriage while his children lose the benefits of the two-parent family created by this contract. The
man who wants a family is powerless to prevent this.

IV) This creates and supports fatherlessness which is the industrial world's worst crisis, damaging
boys and girls alike and creating social pathologies which harm every citizen. Fatherless homes
absorb the majority of welfare spending and produce the majority of criminals. Most prisoners
behind bars grew up in fatherless homes.

V) Children have the right to be raised and cared for by fathers, and fathers have the right to
preserve their incomes and families. Enforcement of these rights will remove Incentives for divorce
and illegitimacy, eliminate fatherlessness, reduce violence, reduce welfare spending; remove
lawyers from family affairs, free police to fight real crimes, reduce the public debt incurred through
attempts to replace fathers with government, restore incentives and vitality to our economy,
reduce taxes, and enable healthier and happier children who grow up with a greater sense of
commitment to the society that raised them.

VI) THEREFORE WE THE UNDERSIGNED FATHERS AND FUTURE FATHERS
RESOLVE to oppose all attempts to replace paternal love with sole-maternal custody abetted by
government largesse. We resolve to fight anti-father bias by honorable, vigorous, and sustained
means. We commit ourselves to protecting the family and honoring fatherhood. We vow to
provide physical, legal, and emotional care to current and future children to remove all government
involvement from family matters by the establishment of the father as the head of the family, under
God.

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One site where the Manifesto can be found (and endorsed by male-supremacists) is at

Any legislator supporting any of the so-called "fatherhood" bills and legislative measures should be tipped to go look at that site to know the kind of ideology s/he is supporting.

martin dufresne
martin@laurentides.net

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"liz" comments:

When John Knight started blathering his "Father's Manifesto" around the
web in 1995, most of the FR groups publicly decried him as a radical
idiot. And then very quietly, wuite a number of them signed his petition
to repeal the Nineteenth Amendment (women's suffrage.) At this time, the
RR/FR drivel has gained such widespread acceptance that it's statistics
and distortions are continuously bandied about through the highest levels
of "mainstream" conservative and RR groups, as well as in the liberal
camps, which have readily embraced the father-exaltation National
Fatherhood Initiative propaganda.

For a look at what these guys look like when they're not posturing nicely
in public, see:

THE FATHER'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT: IN THEIR OWN WORDS
http://www.gate.net/~liz/fathers

And to see how this shakes out in the National Fatherhood Initiative,
which has been embraced by every legislature in the United States, and
even Al Gore, Clinton, etc., see:

LIZ RE: THE NATIONAL FATHERHOOD INITIATIVE
http://www.gate.net/~liz/liz/014.htm