There is a line that used to be obvious.

Children are off limits. Whatever adults choose to do among themselves – whatever content they consume, whatever lifestyle they live, whatever identity they claim – the children are not the audience. They are not the market. They are not the experiment. They are not the canvas.

That line has been moved so gradually that a lot of people did not notice it happening. But it has been moved. And now we are having arguments we should never have to have.

We are debating whether drag shows are appropriate entertainment for toddlers. We are watching school libraries stock books with explicit sexual content that would be illegal to show a minor in any other context. We are seeing elementary school curricula introduce sexual identity concepts to children who have not yet learned long division. We are watching corporations that sell children’s products embed sexual messaging into their marketing and then call anyone who objects a bigot.

I am the one objecting. Loudly.

Children are not small adults. Their minds are forming. Their understanding of the world, of themselves, of relationships, of what is normal – all of it is being built in real time from the material they are given. What you hand a child in those years becomes architecture. It shapes how they think and what they expect and what they consider acceptable for the rest of their lives.

The people pushing this content into children’s spaces know that. That is not an accident. You do not accidentally put sexually explicit books in elementary school libraries. You do not accidentally introduce gender identity ideology to six year olds. These are deliberate decisions made by people who understand exactly what they are doing.

Jesus was not ambiguous about those who harm children. The millstone language was not a metaphor for mild disapproval. It was the strongest warning He issued in the Gospels. He knew that children are the most vulnerable targets and that anyone who exploits that vulnerability answers to a standard the rest of us do not.

Protecting children is not extremism. It is not hate. It is not bigotry. It is the most basic responsibility any civilized society owes its youngest members.

The line needs to be put back. And every parent, pastor, school board member, and elected official who calls themselves a Christian needs to be the one standing on it.

 

 

Stephon Rudd

 

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