Abstract
This paper presents the findings from an exploration of religious beliefs collected from narrative accounts from 16 Latter-day Saint (LDS or Mormon) fathers of children with special needs. Six themes were created to organize the narratives as a result of coding. The first three are not explicitly religious in nature: (1) choosing to care, (2) dealing with today's challenges, and (3) building love through play. The second three themes were explicitly religious: (4) having faith in God's purposes, (5) giving priesthood blessings, and (6) accepting help from the church. These themes are connected to the literature on special-needs children and are related to the conceptual ethic of generative fathering (Dollahite, Hawkins, & Brotherson, 1997).
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