Katy Faust | November 13, 2024 | SHARE: 
There’s a group of people who are under assault in this country and
have been for decades – but have not been properly recognized as such.
It’s not women. It’s not minorities. It’s not immigrants. It’s not Christians.
It’s children.
Every facet of child rights and well-being is being threatened.
Those threats can be seen in every area of our politics, especially social issues.
So, let’s take a look at exactly how children are being victimized today.
LIFE.
Children have a right to life. From the moment of conception, they are members of the human race with human rights that deserve to be respected and protected.
But that right has been opposed by abortion advocates and the abortion industry- resulting in over 600,000 little lives lost in each of the last 10 years in the U.S., and possibly over 65 million lives since 1973.
It’s also under assault from in vitro fertilization (IVF) which, because of the high number of surplus embryos created, has been reported to have resulted in hundreds of thousands of more little lives lost in recent years than those who have died from abortion. You read that right. The baby making industry is responsible for more loss of life every year than the baby taking industry.
FAMILY.
Children have a right to their mother and father. This natural right complements and reinforces parental rights to their own children.
A child’s mother and father grant him or her their biological identity, the gender complementarity that maximizes child development, and (statistically) the safest environment for child-rearing.
Marriage is the only institution that unites the two people to whom children have a natural right- their mother and father. The redefinition of marriage through no fault divorce and same-sex marriage have made mothers and fathers culturally and legally optional in the life of children, resulting in mental and emotional harms to the next generation.
Adoption is now seen by some as a means for same-sex couples to “get kids,” rather than an institution which seeks to restore what children have lost – a mother and father.
IVF also allows children to be separated from, and sold by, their biological mother or father at the moment of conception via sperm and egg “donation” and surrogacy. This buying and selling subjects children to identity struggles, riskier household composition, lower levels of trust and attachment, and higher rates of substance abuse.
BODY.
Children have a right to bodily integrity. They deserve toreach adulthood with bodies that are surgically and chemically un-altered.
But because of dangerous gender ideology, some children are being told that they are born in the wrong body. They are given “treatments” which promise to turn boys into girls, or girls into boys, but actually turn healthy children into life-long customers of pharmaceuticals and cosmetic surgeons.
Because children’s bodies are vulnerable, they deserve privacy and protection in sex-specific locker-rooms and bathrooms. Children’s bodies also need physical activity, competition, and sports. Children have a right to sex-specific fair play in the pool, on the field, and at the track. But those spaces are being turned over to boys and even grown men who claim the “right” to compete against, undress in front of, and shower with women and girls in the name of “equality.”
MIND.
Children have a right to innocence. They are not miniature adults with the ability to choose and process mature content. Their minds must be protected from violent, graphic, and sexual content.
Children’s innocence should not be violated in the name of “comprehensive sexual education.” Government should not fund or endorse schools or curriculum that confuses or sexualizes children.
Children should not be exposed to hyper sexualized caricatures of women during library drag queen story hours.
Extremely disturbing and violent pornography is being delivered, unrestricted, into the pockets of American children via smartphones. Few measures by tech platforms or government have been erected to protect them.
Historic Child Defenders
Children are undeniably under attack. What’s worse is they can’t defend themselves.
The only people powerful enough to protect them are adults. The problem is, in every one of these cases, it’s adults who are doing the attacking. It’s adults who are ending the unwanted pregnancy, divorcing a faithful spouse, cashing in on billion-dollar porn profits, validating their sexual identity through inappropriate content, or breaking women’s track records with times that wouldn’t have registered in the male semi-finals. Adults are elevating their own desires at the expense of the rights, needs, and well-being of children.
That means if children are to have a champion, it needs to be a population of adults motivated by something outside of their own self interests.
There is such a population.
It’s a group of people who worship a God who, unlike any other (so called) deity, took on flesh and became an infant Himself. (John 1:1-14) Who taught that to enter His kingdom, we must become like a child. Who bid little children come to Him directly. (Matthew 18:1-5) And who warned of severe punishment for anyone who might cause children to stumble. (Matthew 18:6) Those child-dignifying realities and teachings have made Christians consistent champions of children for the last 2000 years. This is a mandate that was tested early in the life of
the church.
Christianity was birthed into a pagan society that victimized children in every way a child can be victimized. Children’s right to life was snuffed out through abortion and “exposure” aka, infanticide. Because of rampant sexual abuse and extra-marital relations, many children grew up without fathers. Children were used and abused through domestic servitude and as sexual objects. Children were treated as commodities to be bought and sold. Children were surgically mutilated as eunuchs to serve in wealthy households.
But the early church took the admonitions of Christ seriously. They refused to “expose” their children, even if they were disabled, premature, or… female. They rescued, breast-fed, and adopted infants that had been tossed aside. They confined all sexual relationships between only husband and wife, so children were raised by both their mother and father. Christians didn’t sell their children, and they didn’t mutilate them. Children were no longer regarded as objects of sexual use but treasures to be protected.
The early Christian approach to children was so drastically different from their Roman counterparts that some sociologists posit that Christianity “invented” childhood.
Today’s Child Defender
The assault on children today is, quite simply, the result of a re-paganization of our culture. Christian influence in the legal, cultural, and technological space has attenuated to such a degree that old forms of child victimization have re-emerged.
The only hope for children today is for Christians to rediscover their child protection roots and defend children from every threat.
We need to understand that these are not political issues but a manifestation of our true and undefiled religion before God. (James 1:27) We must support policies that incentivize adults to conform to child rights. And we must oppose policies that elevate the desires of adults over the rights, needs, and well-being of children.
According to both the teachings and the example of our Lord and Savior, a just society does not force the weak to sacrifice for the strong. (John 13:34; Ephesians 1:7 and 5:2) In the Bible, it’s always the other way around. The strong are to protect the weak. And when it comes to the cultural, economic, and national issues that garner attention during election seasons, it is always the adults who are strong and children who are weak.
As I explain in my just published book, Pro-Child Politics, every political issue can and should be viewed through the lens of child protection. We need to understand how children are harmed when we get culture, economics and national issues wrong. And why a posture of child-protection helps us to get it right.
Children are under attack. Adults, especially Christian adults, must step up to their defense.
Katy Faust is the Founder and President of Them Before Us and the author of three books, including her most recent, Pro-Child Politics: Why Every Cultural, Economic, and National Issue Is a Matter of Justice for Children.
