Devlin, Sundance and Kids.

The news for the past two weeks has been full of headlines involving children. We heard the miraculous news of the recovery of two kidnapped boys followed by the not-so-miraculous news of a child rape scene in a movie shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

In the first case, the exhilaration of finding the two kidnapped boys alive quickly gave way to speculation on the failure of Shawn Hornbeck to escape from his captor, Mike Devlin, despite apparently numerous opportunities. I can't imagine how the boys would feel if they saw themselves on TV being criticized for not running away if they had the chance. Can't we agree that it is highly likely that they were under some form of duress; threats of harm to themselves or their families? At the very least shouldn't we be compelled to give these children the benefit of the doubt that all is not what it seems to be from an adult perspective? Maybe something else is at work here. Perhaps the 24 hour news cycle is driving some decision-making in our country's newsrooms.

In the second case, there is a scene in a movie starring child actress Dakota Fanning alluding to the fact that she is being raped. The phrase 'alluding to' is intentional as the scene was partially described on the radio during a review show that I was listening to on my drive home. What really got me thinking was the editorial content of the show responding to the negative reation by so-called "conservative groups" on the movie's content. The Host said, "How can anyone criticize a movie that they haven't even seen?". The response from the critic, "Exactly. And this stuff REALLY happens.". As for the Host's remark, I don't think that it is necessary to actually see something to know that it is inherently evil. Can any of us actually see what lurks in the hearts of men? No, but evil it can surely be. And for the Critic's remark, we are all aware that this stuff really happens. And if the point of the remark was that by showing the scene, the revulsion would deter this behavor, I sincerely hope that this was the intention. In our world, I believe it is far, far more likely that the scene was either a publicity-seeking gambit or - may it not be so - catering to the segment of our society drawn to pedophilia. In either case, it again seems that an adult motive is at work, soundly quashing any regard for the child actress.

Can we stem the tide of pushing the adult world into our children's world? Using an analogy in our high tech lives, I believe we need to build a firewall to protect the innocence and wonder of childhood. Their minds are so fragile. They do not have the time and experience aquired in a lifetime by adults for reasoning or for developing any of our defensive and coping mechanisms. I do not think it was an accident that God chose to bring Christ into this world as an infant. It must have been a part of His plan to allow Christ to fully understand the journey that each one of us takes in determing our path between good and evil. May it always be so that each one of our children can develop free from the cares of the adult world.