Children Are Beautiful

I was surprised to see negative comments on the Post’s web page concerning the birth of a child on the way to the hospital. It seems some people object to this being baby number seven for the family. I was also surprised to hear that a woman who prayed for the Octuplets (eight siblings) that were born was later criticized for the prayer, due to objections that the mother abused the system and eight was too many. When did this country become so anti children and lose its compassion?

Yes, every family should be able to care for their own and no one has the right to have children and expect the rest of society to pay for them, but in the local case I doubt if the writers are knowledgeable of the family situation. In the latter case, the mother may be wrong but the children themselves are innocent and should be welcomed. As far as that goes, even the mother deserves our prayers as do all sinners. (Since, as far as I know, none of us are saints that means we all deserve prayers.) As Christians we hold no person to be beyond God’s love and Grace and need to recognize that even those whose actions we despise still remain our brothers and sisters and are never beyond hope.

It is not like we are being overrun with children. Our population growth has largely stagnated to barely break even status. One self righteous commenter declared that the world is already overpopulated and called the local family “breeders” as if this is some great crime instead of a diminutive way for the Gay community to refer to heterosexuals. I guess the writer did not stop to think that his very existence is due to “breeders” getting together and if he thinks the world is already overpopulated, why is he not standing in line as a volunteer to leave it? Does he think he will live forever and that these new babies will somehow cause him harm?

I like to hope that we have not become so selfish as to look upon newborn infants as only a liability. Children are the hope of the future and each should be cherished. We still live in a free country and if a family can afford a bunch of children, then we should support them and cherish them all. If they cannot afford children then we need to fix society to make it affordable for families to have children and to take away incentives for those who cannot support children to have them anyway. The doctor who gave a woman on welfare the fertility drugs and care to have eight babies should be investigated and laws can be enacted to ensure that such actions are not rewarded but penalized.

The reason for couples and those with children to receive tax credits used to be to encourage families to have children, something that is part of that “it takes a village” mentality that is beneficial to children. Unfortunately this has now been high jacked as a “right” that all should have whether or not they are married or even have had children! What was once a way of society sharing the burden has now become a selfish right claimed by many! Meanwhile the welfare state encourages unwed mothers to have children and rewards them for the more they have.

All of this points to us needing to get our act together before we start condemning others and especially before we start looking at children as being unwanted. We need to align our society so that right behavior is rewarded and reckless behavior is discouraged. If we make so it is profitable to have children if you can’t afford them, then we are most at fault. At the same time we should be encouraging loving, intact and successful families to have children. Any society that does not welcome all of its children and wish them the best for the future is doomed to self destruction. Who are we to judge what that baby will someday become? Are we so enamored with our own selves that we hold no room in our hearts for new life?

We will be judged as we judge. Those who look at the newest citizen of Paradise as a burden that should not have happened and those who see prayer for eight siblings as something wrong should be aware. Make sure you know the situation before you condemn it and fix the system before you condemn the individual who abides by its rules. Also, find some compassion for others because someday you will hope to receive it from others.

Father Steven Foppiano