Depression and Liberalism
If you missed it, the September Lutheran Witness is all on Apologetics. That is, defending the faith you have. Peter tells us to always be prepared to make a defense of our faith. The whole issue looks at the defense of various faith positions and that such defense is necessary so that people hear an accurate and truthful witness of Christ as He reveals himself in Holy Scripture.
One of the interesting pieces in this issue talks about the fact that teenage girls who have a liberal world view tend to suffer from more depression than teenage girls with a conservative world view. The leftist folks try to defend this by suggesting that this is because the conservatives are so mean to these liberal young ladies. However, we know from Scripture and common sense that children reared without solid parameters struggle mightily in life. In “The Strong-Willed Child,” James Dobson likens a strong-willed child to a night watchman who walks through the town at night and tries all the doors. He is not hoping that he will find one unlocked. He is hoping that everything will be locked up tight. A child is similar. She wants to know that all the parameters are secure so that she feels safe. If she finds walls down and doors unlocked, it causes her to fear and sometimes panic. Who’s in charge?
A child raised with a conservative, traditional world view tends to feel safer and more protected. Even when they wander off into the dangerous lands from time to time, they know what is right and what is wrong and as the Bible says in Proverbs 22:6,
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” In general, children reared with strict (but not harsh) parameters feel safer and less depressed. The liberal left often thinks they are helping children by allowing them to explore everything for themselves and make all their own decisions but this is daunting and scary for a child. A child cannot fathom some of the silliness that goes on with asking what gender they are or whether they prefer Christianity or Buddhism. A child is not able to comprehend such questions so they begin to feel ill-at-ease and eventually depressed.
Imagine when you were getting ready to start Middle School if your parents had told you that you can go if you want and you can go wherever you want but that it was all up to you to decide and discover where you’re going and how you’re getting there. No parent in his right mind would do that to a child getting ready to enter Middle School and yet, this same child is being taught by some leftist people to question what gender they are, what their religious views might be, whether or not they agree with traditional morals, whether they should eat meat or not, and many other things that children of that age have no capability of deciding. I’m reminded of a 13-year-old youth who loudly professed that she was vegetarian. She professed this while she was eating chicken nuggets. When the strange juxtaposition was pointed out to her she said, “yeah but chicken nuggets are different.”
It turns out that chicken nuggets are meat, no matter what you tell yourself, just like you are either born male or female no matter what you tell yourself. Encouraging children to call black white and white black does not help them. It only further confuses them and hurts them. Don’t be afraid to lay down God’s law. God’s parameters help us to live a joyful, God-pleasing life. We will not get it right every time and that is what repentance and forgiveness is for, but without any rules, depression looms ahead of us and sooner or later we will break without God’s Law to strengthen us.
