One of the most serious errors our society is committing is the sexualization of children. Moreso even than war or racism, this sin will bring about the downfall of our civilization. And why? Because sexualizing children erases the foundation of all human development, all human identity, all human happiness - innocence. Without the experience of childhood innocence and wonder, it becomes impossible to understand or cope with adulthood's guilt. The experience of sinlessness is essential to overcoming sin. Without it, sin will triumph, and if it triumphs in enough human hearts, society will eventually collapse under its weight.
I think this is one of the reasons why secularists wish to efface the notions of sin and guilt and shame, for they wish to rationalize the societal mistreatment of the very young, and this requires altering the essential condition of youth - innocence. Whether this means teaching them about sex and alternative lifestyles in grade school, exposing them to gratuitous violence, providing them with heinous role modeling, or aborting them in the womb, the forces of secularism must destroy the idea of innocence in order to impose their guilt-ridden view of themselves and the world.
Innocence is everywhere and continually under attack in our society. We see this assault every day in the media, in clothing styles, in every form of advertising and entertainment, and in the role models that are foisted upon the young by those who are pursuing a profit or an agenda driven by guilt. I find myself stunned nearly to the point of paralysis by the images of children which fight for attention in popular culture. They are crass and shameless, corrupt and brainless, and I do not see how any childhood is able to survive them intact.
And yet some do, and they are a source of wonder to me. Just yesterday, I watched in delight the Halloween costume parade at my little boy's school, and listened to the children's laughter and expressions of glee, and the bubbling sense of wonder which arose from their tiny spirits. And that wonder, in turn, evoked in me the remembrance of my own innocence, long ago lost in my consciousness, but which remains as a final ribbon of resistance to a worldly sorrow that often threatens to overwhelm me. Where would I be (where would any of us be) without that primal memory of pure goodness surviving in our souls? Long since sunk under the suffocating weight of this withering world, I think.
