During the interminable days of baseball’s All Star break came news of Louis Freeh’s report on Penn State’s involvement with the heinous crimes of assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. It seems that Joe Paterno, the once-beloved coach of the Nittany Lions, knew for years about Sandusky’s crimes and did little or nothing to stop them. Many have called for the NCAA to invoke the so-called death penalty on the school’s football program, but the loudest cries have come from those who want to “tear down that statue” of Paterno that stands outside of Beaver Stadium on campus; an empty and silly gesture, typical of those who strain at gnats and swallow camels.
In the wake of the Penn State mess, the unanimous war cry across the nation has been: “We have a moral responsibility to protect our kids; we must preserve the innocence of our children!” Are they kidding? Can they be serious? How can our children be innocent or protected in a country that, rather than defining deviancy down, has defined deviancy up; up to the level of not only acceptance, but approval.
In modern America, we are often lectured on certain aspects of Christianity that conform themselves to the liberal mindset; their favorite being: judge not lest ye be judged. As a consequence, we are constantly urged to forgive thieves, murderers, drug addicts and any manner of societal reprobates usually because their crimes are explained away as being “society’s fault.” But in the case of the real abuse of our children, this is most certainly the truth.
It is precisely those in power who are heaping the worst sort of abuse on our children; who are creating the perverse, sexual environment where “anything goes,” and steeping our children in its ways. For every Jerry Sandusky, there are thousands of liberal bureaucrats who have invaded our public education system to teach our kids about the functions of sexual organs long before these poor babes will develop them; to believe that any and all sexual practices are not only okay, but healthy — our own U.S. Surgeon General told them so — and to prepare them for what they think it truly means to be an American: a godless, dumbed-down, sexual performer.
And it’s hard not to assign some blame to their parents — although they have been raised a similar environment — who not only expose their kids to the foul air of modern Hollywood, but force them to wallow in it right alongside them. So twisted has our culture evolved, that to watch an old movie or TV show where a kindly old gent sits a child on his knee, now conjures up disturbing mental images in our kids. Can this have happened in only a generation or two? Sadly, it has.
What are the messages that our culture daily delivers to our kids? That they don’t need fathers to nurture and raise them; the idea that males are essentially useless to the family unit has proven not only dangerous to society — it is no coincidence that Sandusky chose as his victims, boys with no fathers in their homes — but criminal. That any brothers and sisters they might have had are too expensive or inconvenient, and will either be chemically destroyed or murdered in the womb because in today’s America, the family budget prioritizes toys for adults over the desire and care for children.
We are a nation of too many little girls painted up like trollops for “beauty” contests and taught the basics of the old bump-and-grind in “cheerleading” school; little boys who, by watching televised sports, learn bathroom humor and how to objectify women before they’re even potty trained.
And it’s no wonder, considering that our culture condones dads who spend hours surfing the Internet for porn and approves of moms who dress and act provocatively. What influence can this have on, say, a little boy who sits next to his mother at a lunch counter while all men present ogle at her skin-tight tights and low-cut leotard which leave nothing to the imagination? With what notions of women and motherhood will he grow up?
How can innocence survive in any of our citizens — let alone the youngest and most vulnerable — when our very laws now define classes of people based solely on their sexual proclivities? No, the innocence of our children cannot be preserved until it is restored.
If we really cared about our children we would stop teaching filth and perversion in our public schools by brainwashing them to believe it is good for Heather to have anything other than one Mommy and one Daddy who are married to each other. We would stop promoting the idea that free and unfettered sex is beneficial for them in any way and stop glorifying it on TV, using children as straight men for any number of unfunny and repulsive sexual jokes.
Sandusky and others who physically assault the bodies of our children are indeed monsters, but as the lynching parties assemble, let them broaden their gaze to include those who wound the innate innocence of our children’s souls.
