The many forms of child abuse: Where are the adults?
My daily perusal of numerous articles and news stories has led me once again to ponder in bewilderment how and why America can become such a child-neglecting, child-abusing culture in such an astonishingly short time period.
First, I read that perhaps three in 10 of our nation’s students in grades K-12 are “chronically absent” from school (approximately 18 school days per year). High-poverty school districts have 36% absenteeism and low-poverty districts run 21% absenteeism.
For adults in society to allow this scandal to continue reveals a callous indifference to the welfare of the nation’s children that would have been unimaginable a generation ago.
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Without adequate education, these children have no prospect of being productive members of society, and developing their individual potential is very slim indeed. I believe God distributes talent equally among various groups of human beings, but it is not developed equally in our society, and the imbalance is accelerating, not declining. And that is a human tragedy and a national moral disgrace.
Next, I watched Megyn Kelly quite correctly rip into MSNBC host Joy Reid (the clueless one) for defending lewd, inappropriate and sexually explicit materials being placed in the hands of children in public schools. In her “Reidout,” Ms. Reid excoriated “Moms for Liberty” co-founder, the appropriately named Tiffany Justice, for trying to protect children from such materials.
Justice pointed out the fact that her organization was not trying to keep a book from being published. She and her organization were engaged in trying to protect underage children from exposure to material emphasizing such things as sex toys, same-sex activity and rape of children by adults. Justice explained, “Americans used to understand that there is a thing called age-appropriate content.”
Justice went on to explain, “Our goal … is to protect the innocence of our children and to promote age-appropriate content in schools. We have every right to be concerned and to demand that our children are not exposed to explicit and inappropriate materials.”
And then, just when I thought I had experienced enough depressing news for the day, a colleague sent me the most alarming and depressing video I have seen within living memory. Just this week a new Amazon Prime animated series about Heaven and Hell called "Hazbin Hotel" where the devil is actually “the good guy” premiered.
This perverted gem has Heaven inhabited by “beings of pure light” (the Angels). However, one of their number, Lucifer, is a “dreamer” with “fantastical ideas” for all creation. He is considered a “troublemaker” by the other angels.
So the elders of Heaven began to expand the universe and created Adam and “Lilith.” Lilith rebelled against Adam’s domineering ways and left Adam. Lucifer found Lilith and her ways fetching, they fell deeply in love and wanted to share the “magic of free will with humanity.”
Lucifer and Lilith tempted Eve, Adam’s new wife, with the “fruit of knowledge” and she succumbed to the temptation. Through this act, evil entered the world and the elders of Heaven cast Lucifer and Lilith into a deep dark pit.
Lucifer is despondent and “lost his will to dream.” However, according to Amazon, Lilith continues to dream and inspire demonkind. Her daughter, the “Princess of Hell,” vows to carry on her mother’s work of liberating the world from Heaven’s grip.
I know. I did not believe it either until I actually saw it with my own eyes.
How did we get to the place where this kind of spiritual arsenic is being made available to children?
Upon reflection, I believe it starts when a society’s adults surrender to subjectivity in every area of knowledge. We older Americans have lived through the most comprehensive overturn of cultural values and mores (not brought about by military conquest) in recorded human history. When we think of the stable Judeo-Christian values of post-World War II America and we look at America today, we see the paganization of our country.
Over a generation ago, George Gilder observed that every civilization was merely one generation from paganism (Visible Man, 1978; Wealth and Poverty, 1981; Men and Marriage, 1986) if the civilization’s values are not passed on to the next generation.
Even earlier than that, C.S. Lewis warned of the consequences of not passing on Western civilization’s basic values to the next generation. Lamenting a new textbook being proposed for English schoolboys and its abject moral relativism, Lewis observes:
“We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.” - C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1943)
The Woodstock generation gave us the sexual revolution and a tsunami of moral relativism and now these pagan ideas have borne their bitter fruit with the morally bankrupt seeking to bankrupt our children. How much longer will we tolerate this under the umbrella of “open-mindedness”?
Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
