How Old is Old Enough?

 

May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace. Psalm 144:11-12

 

This week there has been quite a hullabaloo about a video posted on Facebook by two young abolitionists. (You can read about it here.)

They were outside of a high school in Pennsylvania trying to educate students about the holocaust of abortion and speak the truth of the gospel as it is related. They held graphic signs of what abortion looks like. Full disclosure: I did not see what signs they were holding. I am taking the word of some irate commenters on the Facebook thread. However, abortion abolitionists have been known to get people’s attention by holding graphic images.

How old is old enough to see such signs and hear the truth about abortion?

When our own children were in public school, at the young age of nine, the local “Aids Network” came into our sons third grade class. They discussed how AIDS was spreading – with very few, if any, details left out. They discussed sexual intercourse and sexually transmitted diseases.

As the parents, we knew the AIDS network had been invited but had no idea the depth of information they would discuss.

With that behind us, when we were presented a permission slip for our daughter to participate in a class using new material from the Red Cross, we asked to review it. The materials assumed that most urban girls would lose their virginity by the age of 13.

We did not allow our daughter to participate in that class because we did not want her to have that assumption, for herself or her friends.  Other parents and the school administration thought we were being too strict.

I admit that when I first heard that abolitionists were going to high schools with these signs, I was appalled. What I know, that seems to be lost on most of the people on that Facebook thread, is that the abolitionists are reasonable people. I approached one I know and told her what I thought about exposing teens to those awful signs. I asked why they would not start on college campuses.

She very lovingly explained to me that college is too late. By the time they get to college most public school students know about sex and abortion. Many of them have already had one or know someone who has.

I knew from our experience, that she was right. I have not questioned it since.

The young man behind this video camera was truly trying to love his neighbor by warning the students of the evil of abortion and pointing them to the Good News of Jesus Christ. That seems like a productive use of his time to me.

This year has been full of public protests that included graphic symbols (think pink vagina hats worn by women and their daughters). These have been applauded by the media. Why then, does this young man get accused of some heinous crime because he publicly protests the evil of the death of thousands of babies in our culture?

Or, isn’t it the babies? Is it the name of Jesus Christ that is so offensive? One is about death and one is about life.

How old is old enough to hear the truth about both?