Could We Prove Our Culture is Healthy for Kids?

There’s nothing complicated about whether 14- or 15-year-old girls should be placed in marriages to men in their 40s or 50s. I think we can all say, “No way!” But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing complicated about the child custody battle unwinding in Texas. On one side, the state says it’s a simple child protection case, on the other hand much of what the state has done -- and is doing -- doesn’t feel like what we expect in a democracy.

After the judge continued state custody Friday night, one of the attorneys appointed by the state to represent the children said it would be “a tragedy” if parents lose custody of their children because of something that happened “three doors down” within the compound. For those parents who didn’t force their daughters into mismatched marriages, what is the essence of their crime other than membership in an unpopular religious group? Will the innocent have to prove their innocence?

Hopefully, children who need protection will receive it while the others will be restored -- along with their right to religious choice. A subtext in all this is a prevailing belief that raising children in the narrow world behind those walls is unhealthy by itself. These kids should be exposed to mainstream American culture. But is that in their interest? If you’ve raised kids in contemporary America you might wonder. What if we in the mainstream were forced to show some outside authority that our culture is healthy for children? Could we? Here’s a few factors we might need to explain away:

> TMZ. This is a television show in which supposed adults -- admirable members of our society -- degrade themselves by sneaking up on pathetic cultural “celebrities” for the purpose of dishing out humiliation. I’m sure other shows could be nominated for this hall of shame. And should I mention the violent simulation games we’ve fed a generation of children privileged to grow up outside that Texas compound.

> A culture of wanton death. Any shortage of examples? Abortion for convenience? A needless and murderous war in Iraq which so many love to embrace? A capital punishment system the rest of the world has banished. A love of weapons that empower crazies to create their own killing fields. And then there’s our prisons. More people behind bars than any other nation on earth, with a third of black men doing time at some point in their lives. Yea, let’s make sure these people in Texas don’t deny their children exposure to this wonderful world.

> A culture so materialistic that the very word “success” is defined by our financial portfolios. Don’t deny it. “He’s very successful,“ means he’s loaded. If Jesus walked our world spouting off on the spiritual kingdom he’d be soundly rejected, just like he was in his own day. We’d dance around his sayings like, “no man can serve two masters,” and when Jesus said “no, it means what it says,” we’d toss him out like a can full of rusty old nails we finally admitted we’d never use.

Maybe those people in Texas are the lucky ones. What if we were all threatened by child protective services if we didn’t change our world? Oh, I know it’s a pipedream, but the thought of it makes me want to hug a child.