Is anyone bothered by this?
Is there no parent out there who is even remotely concerned that a special-interest group- any special-interest group- has contact with their children without their knowledge or consent? Is there anyone out there annoyed at this particular special-interest group?
I wouldn't care what special-interest group was out there, even an anti-smoking one, talking to my children. If I don't know about it and certainly if I didn't approve of it, I would hopping mad if they even looked at my kids, let alone tried to inundate them with a particular brand of rhetoric. If you are not the parent, butt out.
Parents have to be especially vigilant and not let others raise their children for them.
With regards to the special-interest group in question- what? Worried that the opposite is taking effect? Boo-hoo.
2 comments:
Yes, I totally agree with you, 110%. No way do I ever want ANY group involved with my children without my consent and my express invitation. The trouble here is that, for example, many Christians--both individuals as well as groups--tend to think that believing the Gospel gives them free reign to act as they wish to. It doesn't. As a Christian I STILL expect other Christians to respect me and my personal views and, when I have chidlren, to respect the place of my husband and myself in the rearing, teaching, discipline, and mentoring of our OWN CHILDREN. Don't try to do my job for me. Don't think you can teach my children about Christian moral principles better than I can. Don't think you can protect my children from negative societal influences better than I can. Don't think you have an automatic right to parent my children in my absence, such as in school. Yeah, I find this news story troubling.
This is sort of off-topic but still related: it reminds me of all the stories that were coming out a few years ago during the big priest molestatation firestorm. One of *the* most common threads among all these stories of different victims in different parts of the country, were involving situations where the parents were allowing the children unlimited and unsupervised access to these priests. Now, the thing is 9 times out of 10 the priests our kids will be around are not going to be deviant pedophiles. They are going to be wonderful men who would never hurt anyone let alone a child. That *still* doesn't make it okay for parents to hand over their kids to priests without question. Priests have a *spiritual* fatherhood over us, not a biological one! We should not be letting our children spend nights away with priests. We should not be letting priests buy our children gifts or give them money. We should not be letting priests go upstairs to tuck our children into bed when they come over for dinner. (That was an actual occurence with one of the victims I read about--while hios mother cleaned up the dishes from dinner the priest would go upstairs "to say goodnight" and molest the boy there. With the mother downstairs!!) And we should never, ever, ever make our children think that priests are above reproach. If a priest touches my child or says inappropriate things I want my child to feel confident that he/she can tell me that. The problem--like in the article you posted about the anti-gay group--is that a lot of parents allow other to co-parent with them. They would feel guilty if they said, "Thanks, but no thanks", because they are cowards.
In this instance, the parents were the ones intervening, as is their place, not the others.
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