Here is a thoughtful article by Friend of Ruth, Rev. Dr. Dale Kuehne. He starts with this example, to illustrate how morally unglued we are becoming:
I recently had a discussion with a Middle School student in which s/he shared that s/he was bi-sexual.
Having done a fair amount of research on sexual orientation, my reading of the scholarly literature tells me that a person won’t fully understand their sexual orientation until their late teens or early 20’s. Hence, I was surprised to hear such a discovery from someone of such a young age.
When I thanked the student for trusting me with such an intimate revelation, I asked how s/he had come to this self-understanding?
It seems that the Middle School at which s/he attends is divided into 3 cliques: Straight, Gay/Lesbian/Transgendered, and Bi. S/he determined that if you are “bi” you could get along with everyone.
As I questioned the child I realized s/he had little comprehension of sexual orientation, was not sexually active, and was not planning any sexual experiments.
Being a people pleaser I can understand why this child would embrace a sexual orientation that would allow them to better get along with their classmates. Yet I was troubled that the sexualization of their school was so acute as to lead a child to embrace a sexual identity in order to ”get along with everyone.”
The main thrust of the article is not about sexuality at all, but about the fact that we have no standards for judging good or bad choices. This child decided to be “bi” for purely social reasons, not rational reasons, not as the result of personal reflection on the self, but just to get along with others. Dr. Kuehne concludes:
To tell a child to make good choices without telling them the meaning of good is literally non-sense. It breeds insanity. For what is an insane person, but a person who cannot make sane moral judgments?
And when a child, so educated, makes a choice we deem to be bad and incarcerate them for it, I believe that child ought to have the right to sue us for moral malpractice.
And I believe we would be found guilty.
