new church life: march/april 2016
children, but they can’t help but be influenced by false ideas, false reasoning
and harmful attitudes that make it harder for them to find and stay on “the
strait and narrow” path of life. How can they “know the truth” which will make
them free in a culture that sees truth as each individual’s personal construct?
This state of things has made the job of parents today even more difficult.
They are faced with having to answer questions about things they wish their
children had never heard of, and can’t imagine how to talk to a child about;
things they know are wrong but the wrongness of which they would be hard
pressed to explain to a child – such as abortion, homosexuality, and now the
transgender issue.
The inappropriateness and extreme difficulty of speaking to children
about such matters means that most of what they hear about them (which is
a lot) comes from the shameless world of popular entertainment, the “values
free education” offered by public schools, or advocacy groups dedicated to
promoting a “new normal.”
“What’s wrong with it?” the child asks. And it is very likely that the idea has
already been instilled in the child’s mind that there is nothing wrong with it,
and that anyone who says so is judgmental, mean-spirited and bigoted. So it’s a
loaded question, especially if it comes from one in the “Ishmael rational” state
of mind in which adolescents often are – just looking for harsh judgmentalism
that they can . . . judge harshly.
The difficulty parents face is just a more intense version of the dilemma all
those who value traditional mo rality face: either keep silent, and thus appear
to give tacit approval to things they know are wrong and harmful, or have a big
scarlet letter H for “Hater” placed upon them. We’ve come full circle: society
used to condemn adultery, now it condemns those who condemn adultery.
The irony is that things once considered unmentionable, but which
are now talked about constantly, still cannot be freely discussed, for several
reasons. Partly it is because there is a natural and proper reluctance to speak
explicitly about unpleasant subjects. How can you discuss a topic like abortion,
for instance, with a child; or, for that matter, with an adult who refuses to
consider it as anything other than a “right,” and automatically condemns any
proposed limitation upon it as representing a “war on women”? How can
society ever arrive at clarity on the rightness or wrongness of something that
is only spoken of in euphemisms and vague generalities such as “reproductive
health”?
Furthermore, many (or most) people have friends or family members who
are or have been involved in a disorder, and they love those people, and love
and value their good qualities, and do not want to appear to condemn them,
or add to their troubles. In fact, no one of good will wants to add to the pain of
anyone who is laboring under the burden of a disorder.
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