False Charges of Child Abuse

Kate Pitrone at Postmodern Conservative criticizes the Obama for America campaign’s creepy “Future Children Project” ad in a post provocatively titled ” Child Abuse .” Jonah Goldberg makes a similar  judgment , writing that the ad constitutes “soft abuse of children.”

Pitrone and Goldberg would seem to believe that having one’s children appear in a political ad for a particular candidate constitutes, or at least resembles, child abuse. Now, this shows a lack of consideration of what child abuse actually looks like (harm, potential harm, or the threat of harm to children, per the CDC), but it also raises some deeper questions: Is it child abuse to allow or encourage one’s child to pray the Our Father? Say the creed? Pledge allegiance? Do any or all of the above on national TV or in a web ad?

Some European jurists already view raising children with Christian moral views as potentially abusive , while elsewhere the ancient religious practice of circumcision is being relabeled “molestation.” We need not agree that Christ is Lord, that God keeps his covenant with the Jewish people—-or, for that matter, that Obama should be reelected—-to recognize that raising one’s children according to these views, even encouraging them to proclaim them publicly, is nothing resembling abuse.