Genesis of child abuse

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Apparently, the genesis of child abuse began in Genesis – where the perfect man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, together gifted to their offspring a slew of impediments such as brittle bone disease, cleft lip, autism, Down’s syndrome, cleft palate, skin infection, sore throat, and an endless list of disabilities. (Romans 5:12)

Advancing further from that original child abuse, men and women have devised several ingenious ways to further ill treat their young. For instance, they confidently misapply Matthew 19:14 by arguing that ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me’, is approving of child torture. Conversely, they have soft pedalled scriptures against sparing the rod and spoiling the child – which obviously has resulted in a whirlwind of moral lack of direction and growing depravity (Proverbs 23:24).

Actually, “suffer”, in the instance mentioned above, could easily be replaced with “let” without giving an endorsement to a cycle of child torture. Moving further into the gloom of child abuse, several women who have had the privilege of becoming pregnant have also chosen to freely subject their unborn to the toxins of their smoking addiction or to the harmful effects of alcohol. They happily discard child protection and safety in favour of adult rights and emotional liberty. That’s the real pain – when helpless children must compete against full-grown men and women for rights.

This egregious ill treatment is epitomised in no clearer form than in the abortion escape route – where a pregnant mom, at the turn of her desires or fancy, can be allowed to invade and trespass on the miraculous development of an helpless child. Even if you’re normally averse to biblical recommendations, who would object that doing to others as you would have them do to you is the mark of human civility in a real society? (Matthew 7:12)

HOMER SYLVESTER

Mount Vernon

New York