Don’t teach children to love

Undoubtedly, we are living in a generation that conducts its affairs by how it feels and not by reasonable action or prudence. The nuclear family has been the most affected by this foolish behavior – more specifically parenting.

Ever since Dr. Spock’s pernicious doctrine of “child-centeredness” was ingrained into the mentality of our culture decades ago, parenting has lost its way in the West. Progenitors are no longer the authority figures and the vessels of knowledge for their children. As Spock and his disciples used terms such as “abusive” and “unloving” to denigratingly describe sound parenting, parents allowed themselves to be convinced that proper rearing wasn’t working and a new methodology was needed to raise children.

Fast forward to the contemporary era; one would think that parents would look back at the trail of young lives secular humanism has destroyed and repudiate what passes off as “parenting advice”. No such reflection and change has occurred. Modern fathers and mothers continue to implement these failed concepts, expecting different results and yet the outcome is always the same – irreverent, unloving, self-consumed adolescents.

To make matters worse, Christian parents, who should discern better than their worldly counterparts, have decided to forgo the Biblical counsel on family matters in exchange for the secular pattern.

Consider that a personal acquaintance, a pastor, linked to the following message, embedded in a video, on his Facebook wall:

“‘Give your uncle a kiss! Don’t forget to hug your grandmother!’ Say ‘No’ to forced affection. Children will choose who and when to demonstrate their affection and adults should respect their decisions. Obligating them to hug and kiss those they wish not to show affection to teaches them to lie because they do so without having felt it. They also learn that they are not the owners of their own bodies and that any adult can force them to do things that they do not wish to do. It’s their body, it’s their choice!”

As I mentioned previously, our generation conducts its affairs and adopts beliefs according to emotionalism. Hence, the video wherein the message is contained includes images of saddened and upset children and slow music which makes the mood bleak. It’s the prototypical fashion in which the modern generation of malcontents and reprobates anesthetize the public to their injurious dogmas. Additionally, since much of the public hasn’t trained themselves to steel their hearts and use their heads, the message goes largely unchecked.

However, it is a good thing that your humble servant is predisposed to help shutting down irrational emotionalism and using Christian logic. Let’s get to scrutinizing, shall we?

Firstly, take notice of the term “forced affection”. Similar to how Benjamin Spock maliciously rebranded corporal punishment as “abuse”, now these psychobabbling detesters of discipline are reusing his slanderous methodology in order to denigrate teaching kids to love unconditionally.

Anyone that has raised children knows that kids are not models of decency and morality when they are born. Even the best behaved children can display characteristics similar to Damien from The Omen. Those are the inclinations parents seek to stamp out for the benefit of their children whilst nurturing the good qualities they display. Yet, therein lies one shortcoming of the messaging of the video – it rejects the Biblical concept of Original Sin and that all men are birthed into sin because of the fall. (Psalms 51:5) It also promotes the humanist fallacy that men are essentially good even though the Bible proves otherwise. (Matthew 7:11)

Hence, it is with these truths in mind that God advises parents to correct the “foolishness” attached to a child’s heart by the rod (Proverbs 22:15; 23:13-14) and that it is necessary to raise them in the training and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4) Part of that training is to teach children that they must demonstrate affection to all. This is because children can be manipulative and crafty, pretending to care for others when all they want is to extract some benefit from those they flatter.

When parents teach a child to showcase love for all, they are training them to love their neighbor as themselves without regard for what they can get in return – a negation of selfishness. Teaching children to love all doesn’t make them liars, as the video asserts. All the opposite is true. If one doesn’t train children to be selfless, they’ll become liars in order to take advantage of others.

Let’s examine this issue of waiting for a child to “feel” something. I’m sure there are plenty of instances where the reader hasn’t “felt” and inclination to do something. Yet, we do those things out of a sense of responsibility to God and our families. Inherently, we also know that fulfilling those duties benefits those around us and ourselves. Yet, we didn’t learn this of our own accord.

Our parents and other family members inculcated this sense of responsibility in us. They taught us self-control, discipline and that our feelings could deceive us on more than a few occasions. Therefore, better to adhere to basic principles and impose our will on our emotions than allowing them to dictate our course of action.

Contradicting this truth, the video implicitly asserts that children will develop a sense of responsibility and altruism on their own accord, without parental guidance. This is an ignorant and unrealistic expectation based on what we’ve already mentioned. Leave children to their own devices and they’ll be known as the neighborhood devils in no time!

Lastly, the quip of children being the masters of their own bodies sounds awful familiar to me – it is the same demagogic phrase used by the feminazis to defend abortion. This is curious and ironic at the same time. These irrational, brute beats don’t extend the same consideration to the very children they seek to exempt from parental authority when those very same children are in their mother’s wombs. Suddenly, with this change of scenario, the child no longer has control of his or her body. The mother decides if the unborn baby lives or dies because she “controls her own body”.

In conclusion, after pondering who could have written this vicious diatribe, I’ve been illuminated as to who is the culprit. I’ve determined that a disrespectful, spoilt rotten 12-year-old composed and published this video. How couldn’t it have been, considering the message promotes permissiveness and stupidity? Too bad many parents are just as irresponsible and accept the message as if it were Solomonian wisdom.