David P. Gushees well-presented thoughts should stop any thinking Christ
dead in his or her tracks: “When scholars write the history of the late
20th century Western world, the major story may well be our systematic and unjust
sacrificing of the needs, interests and rights of children on the altar of the
needs, interests and (supposedly more important) rights of adults.”
David P. Gushees well-presented thoughts should stop any thinking Christ
dead in his or her tracks: “When scholars write the history of the late
20th century Western world, the major story may well be our systematic and unjust
sacrificing of the needs, interests and rights of children on the altar of the
needs, interests and (supposedly more important) rights of adults.”
Gushee, the Graves Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy and senior fellow
with the Carl F.H. Henry Center for Christian Leadership at Union University,
Jackson, Tenn., claims that “when push comes to shove when the interests
and demands of adults clash with those of children with alarming frequency we
choose the interests of adults.”
Gushee presses his point with several examples. He begins by pointing to abortion
on demand. He says the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision established the
priority of adult interests over a childs very survival. “Although
the ruling attempts to place a calculated value on a developing unborn child
both in its rhetoric and through its “trimester” scheme, the broadly
defined emotional health of a mother can legally override the interests
of a fetus leading to the horror of late-term and live-birth
abortions.”
Gushee also points to “the quest for adult romantic happiness” as
another example of placing the interests of adults above those of children.
“The mass practice of divorce, out-of-wedlock birth and cohabitation have
all shattered our understood ways of best caring for and raising children.”
The professor backs this case by pointing out the “bizarre experience
of multiple and often overlapping families and households” many children
face rather than having the security of living with their biological parents
as one family. “Life within these emotionally chaotic households clearly
lacks the security and stability for which children have a proven need.”
He also points to adults deciding to be single parents because they want a
child but not a marriage. Also, what Gushee calls the “boyfriend problem”
is involved when divorced adults introduce unrelated men and women into their
own homes as cohabitating lovers. Living in proximity with children they do
not love but sometimes come to desire sexually, these live-in strangers (primarily
but not exclusively men) are responsible for a vastly disproportionate share
of child physical and sexual abuse.”
Gushee also points to recent headlines of child pornography as an explicit
case where even adult prurient interests overshadow the welfare of children
for some.
Then, he even mentioned beauty pageants for toddlers, “especially those
that emphasize the sexuality of preadolescent children. Do they establish a
life of healthy competition leading to rewards for well-balanced young women,
or are they a subtle form of acting-out for underachieving parents,
perhaps even a form of sexual abuse? Who is there to protect a two- or three-year-old
girl who couldnt possibly know the difference?”
Professor Gushee makes powerful sense. Our society may be substituting things,
manufactured experiences such as in theme parks, video-game laden pizza places,
well-equipped play grounds and overstuffed toy boxes for what they need most
emotional and physical security. We may be striving to provide the best of educational
experiences while robbing them of the invaluable security that demands self-discipline
and commitment on the parts of involved adults.
Gushee reminds us, “The Bible demands that the powerful stand up for the
powerless, that those who have a voice speak up for those who do not . . . Adults
used to sacrifice for children. Now, often, children are sacrificed for adults
. . . This child sacrifice is the gravest moral outrage of our time.”
Well-said, Professor Gushee, and hopefully well-taken.