The treatment of children is a defining issue for our generation: abortion, trans surgeries, and sexual abuse.

From The Federalist. The American ruling class and its apparatchiks are increasingly post-Christian. This is bad in all kinds of ways, but it does highlight the differences between Christianity and the ethos of our exploitative and incompetent elites. A telling example was recently provided by Kat Tenbarge, a tech and culture reporter for NBC News, who opened a rambling Twitter thread by declaring:

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Kids frequently go to concerts with female pop stars who wear sexy outfits, perform suggestive dances, and sing lyrics about sex — the kids sing along, wear their merch, and copy their mannerisms. This is never seen as a problem but equivalent drag performances are. … The problem has never been kids exposed to sex or suggestiveness. …

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This “culture reporter” has apparently never met a social conservative. Despite Tenbarge’s (perhaps feigned) ignorance, millions of us object to all of this sexualization of children, and we work hard to shield our children from it. But the decades the left spent denouncing us as scolding, prudish killjoys were memory-holed as soon as this history inconvenienced the latest talking point. …

The people trying to hold the line now are mostly the same people who have been doing so for decades, and though they have rarely been victorious, they have often been vindicated. The abolition of long-standing sexual mores and obligations was supposed to make people freer and happier. But sexual liberation has brought misery, along with continued inequality and exploitation. The sexual revolution gave us less bliss and far more loneliness, suffering, and fatherlessness than promised. Even liberal feminists such as Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times are acknowledging the problems the sexual revolution has created, especially for women. …

Thus, though Christian belief and community are not necessary to apprehend truths about morality and human flourishing, they are often essential to helping people live by them. Christian virtue cannot be long sustained without belief. A culture of kindness and solidarity cannot be built upon the subjective whims of expressive individualism. For example, in the age of ultrasound, there is no denying the violence of abortion, but it is mostly Christians who have been willing to accept the limitations, from sex to economics, that it takes to protect developing human lives.

Christianity provides both moral and relational resources to resist pleasant-seeming temptations and apparently expedient evils. Of course, even the best Christians and churches are imperfect, and there are always false teachers and treacherous leaders, but these failures and betrayals should not dissuade Christians from proclaiming the truth regarding marriage, family, and sexuality. However, congregations that hope to retain their witness amid a hostile culture need to discipline their members lest the sort of slanders peddled by the likes of Tenbarge become true.

For Christianity to be a light shining in the darkness, Christians must distinguish between light and dark in doctrine and practice. It is no kindness to tell people, whether in or out of the church, that they are perfect the way they are and have nothing to repent of. Mercy presumes righteous judgment. We all know that this world is unjust, and if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we are part of the problem. …

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(Excerpt from The Federalist. Photo Credit: Getty Images)