The Dad Brigade Talks Families--and Elder Tad Callister

Recently, Elder Tad Callister--an emeritus general leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--released the following essay on the importance of families to society.   https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-05-22/tad-callister-fence-cliff-ambulance-strong-families-213923 As you can imagine, Twitter handled everything with thoughtfulness and grace (sarcasm there, in case you missed it). Some were offended, others were offended at the offense, and things deteriorated quickly. The editor of the outlet (The Church News edited by Sarah Jane Weaver) was also attacked by both left (how dare you allow this to be published!) and right (why aren't you defending Callister's remarks more forcefully? Why do you capitulate to the left?!)    By the way, for a good response to the controversy surrounding Sarah Jane Weaver, see here: https://publicsquaremag.org/uncategorized/the-mobs-come-from-both-sides/ I decided to dive into this issue with some friends of mine. It ended up being me and a bunch of fellow-dads, and we eventually got around to talking about families and fatherhood. Our goal was simply to discuss the matter from our perspective: no counterpunches. No picking fights. Just our take on what happened.    My genuine hope is that between extremes there can be a thoughtful take that people can resonate with.    By the way, if you disagree, that's great. Let us know. Engage with us. Debate and discuss.