During my long walk across America, I took a weekend detour and found myself in Music City, Nashville. Tennessee is my home state and I have always loved coming to Nashville. The neon lights of Broadway, the music pouring out of bars, voices spontaneously rising into song and of course those who stumble with too much whiskey in them.
Yet for some reason, as I spoke to people I met – from musicians and churchgoers to families and young people – I could sense a certain tension and uncertainty in their voices about the present and the future. Nashville is at a moral crossroads.
The markers of faith are everywhere in Nashville. I passed countless churches, the crosses high in the sky. Many artists sing about redemption and finding grace. There is still the local, traditional culture that has nurtured Nashville for so long. But there is a change taking place, a shift of sorts – the pressures coming from the wider national culture, influenced by non-traditional and postmodern forces.
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You hear it in the songs: pop crossovers, party anthems that glorify hookup culture and its excesses, lyrics that chase trends over timeless truths. When I hear, “It’s just a room key / You don’t have to lie to me / Can’t you just use me like I use you,” it leaves behind sadness and emptiness.
I know the consequences of fatherlessness all too well, which is why I walked across America to raise money for a community center designed to promote family values: education, jobs, courtship, marriage, child rearing, and responsible finances.
I’m not trying to be old-fashioned. Believe me, I’ve heard worse things from Chicago’s O-Block, home of drill rap and my church. With both pieces of music I get the same feeling of emptiness and soullessness. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen the consequences for those who live a hookup culture lifestyle, which never ends well and usually results in an unwanted baby or two. And then they come knocking on my door seeking salvation through Jesus Christ.
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On one of the corners I struck up a conversation with a local songwriter who had recognized me from Fox. He told me that the industry is all about “what sells.” That’s always been the case, but it’s now even more entrenched thanks to business leaders chasing money and clicking art.
The songwriter’s friend, a local pastor, said the same thing happened to families. He told me how his children, as well as the children from his church, were bombarded with ideological messages about their skin color, their gender identity and even about their parents. He felt that their education was in jeopardy.
Both men were in their mid-twenties, and what surprised me was that they had both grown up without fathers. Yes, the warnings we heard about thirty years ago are now a reality before my eyes. The black community has long dealt with fatherlessness and has carried that stigma for decades. But it’s no secret that fatherlessness has been increasing at an alarming rate among all races and ethnicities.
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On the South Side of Chicago, far too many children are growing up without fathers to guide them and without strong models of masculinity rooted in responsibility and faith. The streets fill the void with gangs, revenge and music that glorifies all the wrong things in life – lyrics I can’t even print here.
I know the consequences of fatherlessness all too well, which is why I walked across America to raise money for a community center designed to promote family values: education, jobs, courtship, marriage, child rearing, and responsible finances.
But if you peel back the layers, you will easily see that the causes of fatherlessness are the same everywhere: the breakdown of values and faith. Instant gratification before discipline.
In Nashville the decline may be more subtle than on the South Side, but there is the same emptiness where there should be purpose, the same moral confusion instead of clarity, and the same lostness of soul instead of the vibrancy of life.
Project HOOD founder and pastor Corey Brooks in November 2025.
This isn’t just Nashville or Chicago. America is at a crossroads. There are still many Americans living principled lives, as I have mentioned in other Rooftop Revelations, but there is still an underbelly, and this problem of fatherlessness is not going away anytime soon.
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The good news? Repayment is possible. The two young men I met—the songwriter and the pastor—found Christ and rebuilt their damaged families based on the shared values of God, family, and opportunity.
Nashville can reclaim its soul by doubling down on its faith heritage and allowing songs of truth to rise above the noise. Chicago can rise again by rebuilding fathers, restoring merit, and inviting God’s presence back into broken places. And America? We can turn the tide with one step, one prayer, and one restored life at a time.
CLICK HERE TO PASTOR COREY BROOKS
