What Happened to Childhood Innocence?
My precious children aren’t so young any longer. I am the father of a teenager and another who will be a teenager in less than a year. We are closer to driving in our future than we are to Kindergarten in our past. It really does come at you fast.
In the midst of that, we know our children have to grow up and mature. Each year (in fact, almost each day), they have to learn how to interact with and encounter deeper issues. Try as we might to protect them, we know they are coming.
But our culture wants the first, strongest, and coolest word in these issues, and they won’t stop until they have it.
The culture does not want your children to be innocent. They want to say you are cruel and close-minded if you do not kowtow to the “norms” of the day, and they will not rest until your children are inundated with messages that press the world’s agenda at every turn.
So, your kid turns on a favorite cartoon this week. Maybe it’s the beloved show “Arthur,” which is (remarkably) starting its 22nd season. And what message do they receive? That a gay wedding is fine, and the only thing a teacher “should never ever do” (in the words of one of the students) is dance. Marrying a gay partner, though? Totally fine. As one student says, “It’s a brand new world.” Your child’s innocence? Not part of the equation.
Or your young person is streaming a favorite cartoon; in fact, a reboot of a program you watched as a kid. But now, She-Ra has to have a gay couple in it, and it has to be just a “normal” part of the storyline. Your child’s innocence? They aren’t concerned with that.
And I know it is not only the LGBTQ+ agenda. The immodesty that is flaunted; the disrespect to all authority that is shown; the arrogance of evolutionary teachers; they all are constant in the drumbeat of what is shown to our children. And the innocence of your child? That’s what they want to strip away posthaste.
It is not just about keeping our children away from the culture. I just want to know: what happened to childhood innocence? When did our culture decide that they needed to come after little ones with issues that they simply are not ready for, but package it as the way things should be?
When I watch my children play outside with other children, it makes me smile. They are catching tadpoles with other little kids. They are running around having little “Nerf wars” for hours. They are making up games and scenarios and having the time of their lives. They aren’t thinking about the homosexual agenda, because they shouldn’t have to at this age.
When we read classic literature to them, they are transported to faraway places and their minds are able to conjure up wonderful and fanciful stories that are innocent and pure and just plain fun. They aren’t trying to figure out how to dress more immodestly, because that shouldn’t be in their thinking at this age.
When we read the Bible to them, they learn about a God who loves them so much more than any TV star or celebrity does. They learn about how to live a joy-filled life, but with restraint put in place by an Almighty Creator, and that will be best for them every day they live.
It is innocence, and it is the way it should be.
Hollywood, entertainment complex, “progressives,”….you come after my children all you want, but we have an “off” button on our TV and on our Internet. And it still works. (And we have a great outdoors for them to play in where your screens and messaging just do not reach.)
They are growing up. They will grow up.
But we will do our best to help them hold on to every last vestige of innocence for as long as we can.
They have their whole lives to deal with the smut of our world. I’d like them to keep the beautiful innocence of their childhood as long as they can.
“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)
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AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
