France censors positive portrayal of Down syndrome

Each week, The World and Everything in It features a “Culture Friday” segment, in which Executive Producer Nick Eicher discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of this week’s conversation.

A French appeals panel this week upheld a ban on a video of children with Down syndrome, calling it inappropriate for television and saying it was “likely to disturb the consciences of women who had lawfully made different personal life choices.” The video, released in 2014 to mark World Down Syndrome Day, talks about the difficulties, hopes, and dreams of children with Down syndrome. The overall message: Their lives are certainly worth living.

Live Action News reports France has one of the highest abortion rates in the world—86 percent—for babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb.

“Abortion is one of the great hidden evils of our generation. It has been for quite a long time. Anytime that lid gets taken off, you see this reaction, as if somehow people who are exposing the evil are the bad guys,” John Stonestreet said of the French reaction to the video. “This is among the more disgusting examples of that.”

Society has systematically silenced discussion of the negative effects of the sexual revolution, Stonestreet said.

“What we want to do is completely remove anything that will make us feel guilty for making decisions according to the sexual revolution,” Stonestreet said. But Christians can fight back by bringing to light the barbarism of abortion, including the way it snuffs out the lives of children like those shown in the video.

“If the decisions that are being made are ending lives that are worthy of love and care and value, then those things need to be exposed and those people need to be made uncomfortable,” Stonestreet said.

Listen to “Culture Friday” on the Nov. 25 edition of The World and Everything in It.