Raising Children in an Insane World

Raising Children in an Insane World: Do you ever wonder how things in our culture/country have drifted so far from our Judeo-Christian heritage? Do you ever struggle to know how best to prepare your children for the moral anarchy that is all around us? What is going on out there? 

For many of us, we have successfully avoided being plunged into the cesspool of rebellion against God that characterizes so much of our current society. We have our cultural bubble firmly in place, controlling all things that enter our homes through the multiple portals of the computer/television/radio and even podcasts. We select wisely only things that edify us and our children. That is part of the role of husband and wife, mother and father–to guard our gardens unlike our first father Adam who allowed evil to steal our first parents away from a warm fellowship with God. 

But shouldn’t we at least know what is happening in the culture outside of our homes and our school; the culture that our children will be stepping into sooner than we might wish? How can we learn in such a way that our soul is not soiled by the perversion around us? 

I got a dose of reality last Friday at the 4Tucson Government Breakfast that featured Bernadette Gruber, formerly of 4Tucson Educational Domain.  She spoke on how Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in our schools indoctrinates our children with harmful ideology. The details were gruesome. 

One of the most striking things is how terms are redefined to obscure the actions of some of the forces behind this push to move sex ed into the elementary classrooms. We are told that the “Family Life” Curriculum is Abstinence-based. Sounds good, right? 

Abstinence once meant — to avoid doing something, to stop a negative behavior if you had started. It was often coupled with God’s sage advice — abstain from all sexual activity until marriage. But this word has been emptied of virtually all meaning. Abstinence is now defined as: avoiding sexual activity OR choosing when, how and with whom one would like to have sex. Children in this program are taught how to derive sexual pleasure from a bizarre array of practices, how to ask for this from others, and how to give consent when asked. 

And then the promoters of this program are stumped that CSE does not meet its stated goals of preventing pregnancy and STIs/STDs and promoting successful condom usage. CSE is introduced to children as young as 6!

On top of that, CSE is used to push the agenda of gender fluidity and same sex attraction as normal behavior. Supposedly, this is due to the high rate of suicides among children identifying as LGBTQIA. But the statistics show that there is an even higher rate of suicide among those trapped into following those desires through sexual reassignment hormones and surgeries. The despair for many is huge. This is not a kindness nor loving in the long run. God’s plan and design is truly best for us.

But this is not the only point of craziness. In the UK, the criminal justice system is allowing male rapist to reidentify as women so that they can be sent to female prisons. Not only does this give them a less harsh prison environment, but it has proven to give them free rein to assault the female prisoners.

So how do we help our children? First thing is to look at Romans 1 when it is appropriate (probably around 5th or 6th grade, believe it or not). There, we see that the decline of a society and the people in the culture begins by denying the Creator. (Romans 1:18-25) Second, with my daughters I explained that when this happens, God turns people loose to do whatever they want, causing themselves harm because they now live outside of God’s good design.

I didn’t go into all of the details of what all the terms like sexual immorality mean at that time. I used analogies like trying to fly my car off of a cliff. They could quickly see that the car was not designed to fly and such foolishness would kill me. I would act oblivious. I would act like I believe I could really make it so — by driving faster, launching from a higher place or at a better angle. “That would work, right?” I’d insist. The girls would start going, “No, Daddy, no!” and I would get crazier in my suggestions and they would scream “No!” louder and louder until we’d be rolling on the floor laughing.

Then I would commend the girls for their good sense in realizing what many in our world today do not — things, including humans, work best when they follow its maker’s design. 

Last, and maybe the most important, is for us to teach grace toward others caught up in the lies du jour. I taught my girls that the non-Christians are not the enemy, they are victims of the Enemy: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers...” (2 Corinthians 4:4) We made it clear that we are to be kind and respectful, regardless of the level of their rebellion against God and His created order. Our goal was to build a redemptive relationship, a bridge across which those seeking may walk across to the Savior. 

Your partner in discipleship, Christopher

*Bernadette Gruber who recently left 4Tucson to champion the Protect Arizona Children Coalition is on the forefront in battling CSE. Most recently she led the charge in getting Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) to postpone the introduction of CSE into the curriculum. You may learn more on these topics at StopCSE.org. They have the video The War on Children that provides a more complete picture of what is destroying our culture and impacting our childrens’ peer group.