Families and Ferguson

Tragedy strikes people of all races, ethnicities, creeds, nationalities, and socioeconomic levels. The consequences of sin are far-reaching and deeply embedded in us and in the world. While there’s no cure for this disease—even the forgiven suffer from it on this side of heaven—there are ways to dampen its impact.

Rather than rattling on about “white privilege” and “injustice” in the aftermath of the Ferguson decision, Christians should share the gospel of Jesus Christ, as God commissioned us to do, and stress the importance of traditional values such as the intact family.

Traditional values at least provide some protection. God’s design for the family—a dynamic, complementary male-female union joined together in the sacred covenant of marriage for the rearing of children—provides the best foundation for nurturing responsible human beings. Sin mars what it touches, and not even the family is immune. But we should strive to give children the best start in life.

Although illegitimacy has grown among all groups, black children are disproportionately affected. According to census data, more than half of the country’s black children grow up without their biological father living in the home. They see men come and go in their mother’s life, but most of those men do not love them the way a biological father would. Fatherlessness doesn’t cause crime, but there’s a relationship between the two.

Generally, children are physically and psychologically safer living with their biological mother and father. They’re better off economically. They perform better in school. They get into less trouble. Children who grow up in female-headed households are at a higher risk of physical and sexual abuse from the men their mother sleeps with or other predatory males. They perform worse in school and get into more trouble. They face a higher risk of having out-of-wedlock pregnancies and are more likely to get kicked out of school and end up in prison.

Christians, consider the idea that social decay has little to do with “racism,” structural or otherwise. Are you raising your children to pass blame on to someone else, or do you teach them to face their responsibilities and bear the consequences of their actions? Just as God will judge individuals, so should we.

That’s how Christians should lead the after-Ferguson discussion, not parroting liberal lines and bending over backward so as not to appear “racist” or feeling guilty about something you didn’t do. Do not become paternal and treat black people like children with a lower sense of morality or culpability. Don’t co-opt the culture. Co-opt the one who holds you and all of us accountable for the sins we commit.

As the Apostle Paul wrote:

“… we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences” (2 Corinthians 5:9-11, NKJV).