The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a Christmas message focusing on how the incarnation ought to train us to think of children differently than our society does generally. Here's the concluding paragraph:
Christmas is a good time to think again about our attitudes to children
and about what happens to children in our societies. Christians who
recognise the infinite and all-powerful God in the vulnerability of a
newborn baby have every reason to ask hard questions about the ways in
which children come to be despised, exploited, even feared in our
world. We all suspect that in a time of economic crisis worldwide, it
will be the most vulnerable who are left to carry most of the human
cost. The Holy Child of Bethlehem demands of us that we resist this
with all our strength, for the sake of the one who, though he was rich,
for our sake became poor, became helpless with the helpless so that he
might exalt us all through his mercy and abundant grace.
and about what happens to children in our societies. Christians who
recognise the infinite and all-powerful God in the vulnerability of a
newborn baby have every reason to ask hard questions about the ways in
which children come to be despised, exploited, even feared in our
world. We all suspect that in a time of economic crisis worldwide, it
will be the most vulnerable who are left to carry most of the human
cost. The Holy Child of Bethlehem demands of us that we resist this
with all our strength, for the sake of the one who, though he was rich,
for our sake became poor, became helpless with the helpless so that he
might exalt us all through his mercy and abundant grace.
The whole message is actually fairly short and well worth your time. I continue to maintain that our attitude toward children (and, for that matter, the weak, poor, elderly, disabled, and mentally handicapped) is one of the main benchmarks for our maturity in Christ.
(ht)
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