Pursuing Holiness

Via Slashdot:

Facebook has reached an agreement with the attorneys general of 49 states and the District of Columbia to develop and enhance controls to protect minors from inappropriate content. This follows a similar commitment from MySpace several months ago.

So the government has intervened again to rescue children from their parent’s care. And to some extent it is unfortunately justified, because all too many parents permit their children to have what amounts to an apartment instead of a room. I know people whose children’s rooms include cable television and a DVD player, a phone, a computer with internet, and a dorm refrigerator. If they had their own bathroom, there would be no need to interact with their families at all. And for many teens, that’s the status quo.

When the church abandoned marriage (the divorce and cohabitation rates for Christians are about the same as for nonChristians) there was nothing to stop homosexual activists from making a persuasive case for same sex marriage. If it’s nothing more than a legal contract for two adults who want to shack up, why not open it up to everybody?

The fact that so many parents (including Christians) have essentially abandoned their children in place, opens the door for more government intervention into what was exclusively parental responsibility. By abandon in place, I mean that although the parents and children still live together, the essential nature of the relationship has changed. Parents drop their kids off at youth group and pick them up. They drop them off at the mall and pick them up. They provide shelter, clothes and food, and make sure kids get to soccer practice and piano lessons on time. Kids spend hours in their rooms surfing the internet and avoiding their families. They seek the “wisdom” of their friends when they have a problem because that’s who they spend time with, know and trust - not their parents.

Until our society re-engages with our families, we can look forward to more and more encroachment by the government into areas that we used to provide for. And after they’re done taking over the parental responsibilities we’ve abandoned, it will be quite easy for the government to take our parental rights.

Photo credit: ro_nya.

written by Laura