Children pay the price of their parents sin. Sins of selfishness, sloth, sexual immorality, drunkenness, drug abuse, neglect–I could go on–have a profound effect on children, all negative. Good news comes out of this study of families, religious instruction and the social benefits to kids. The results are no surprise to Christians, and are worth citing and discussing.
Two researchers studied children ages 6-17 and the effect of the two parents in the home and regular church attendance on social ills of children. They found that
An intact two-parent family and regular church attendance are each associated with fewer problem behaviors, more positive social development, and fewer parental concerns about the child’s learning and achievement. Taken together, the two home-environment factors have an additive relationship with child well-being. That is, children who live in an intact family and attend religious services regularly generally come out best on child development measures, while children who do neither come out worst.
They controlled for social class, childhood poverty, family income, low parent education and minority status and found they two parent family and regular religious attendance continued to be a benefit, even taking these negative factors into account. Several other studies have found similar findings. Basically, children in a home where mom and dad are married and attend church do better in every parameter that can be measured.
These findings fly in the face of social science dogma that race, poverty, social class and income are the only things that matter. When Christians lobby in the public square for policies that would encourage and protect the intact family and encourage religious participation and cite data and studies showing the benefits, the liberal social scientists (liberal social scientist–sorry about the redundancy) say the studies are not valid, as those studied made more money, or were white, or had more education.
Social “scientists” are a bit like the pro-aborts. They view anyone who opposes their party line as a religious nut, a stupid, head-in-the-sand ignoramous who ignores the obvious benefits and necessity of our current social welfare system and education system. The current system that keeps the poor, poor. Keeps the uneducated, uneducated. Keeps the minorities on the plantation (urban ghettos). Keeps religious ideas and morals out of the education and the public square. Keeps families broken by usurping the father’s role with a government check. The system that encourages out-of-wedlock births.
The current system is not defensible, in my opinion. (What to take its place? That would be a whole other discussion.)
So, thank you Family Research Council and Drs. Nicholas Zill and Philip Fletcher for your good work. I’m thankful the the truth keeps bubbling to the surface.
