cover thee eyes!

In many cases Christian parents do whatever is in their power to shield their child from the dangers "out there." The child is only allowed to watch Christian cartoons, read Christian story books and listen to Christian songs. It is important to raise a child in safe surroundings because their first years are when they are shaped most profoundly as a human. One of the problems of overprotecting a child is that they will not know how to cope with the world outside of mommy, daddy, and Veggie Tales.

As a child grows it is important to expose them slowly to the good, and yes the bad of this world. The key is that the parent should come along side the child and explain to them what they are seeing/hearing and how to deal with it. David Bedsole raises the issue in Understanding Evangelical Media that if we protect young people and condemn the media for it's "secular" content then the bible could just as easily be condemned. Take the story of David and Goliath...what a lovely children's story. Young David confronts the giant, kills him with one stone to the forehead, and then saws off his head. According to the regulations Christians have put on media this story should be rated R and no God-fearing Christian would go to an R-rated movie.

So what is my point? My point is that it is unhealthy to keep the difficult, sometimes disturbing, real issues-media away from children and young people. It is so common to see young Christian people leave home after graduating high school and fall flat on their face. They don't know how to cope...they have never been taught how. The better method is to expose children, adolescents, etc, to the real issues of this world as they are cognitively ready and teach them how to understand, how to process and how to react to what they are seeing/hearing.

But what can I say...I am only 22 and most definitely not a parent, so I probably still need to work a lot on my theory.