Losing Innocence

Illustration by Viktor Miller-Gausa

Ken Ham
President/CEO
Answers in Genesis

I remember when I was a young boy sitting in front of a radio my father built. It had glass valves that lit up when they were working, and we would listen to the news and other programs such as family-friendly dramas and, on Sunday morning, hymn singing. We would also listen to the Back to the Bible program with Theodore Epp (the founder of the Back to the Bible organization and its radio broadcast). I distinctly remember my parents telling me the morning of November 23, 1963, after listening to the news on this radio, that President Kennedy had been assassinated the day before in Dallas, Texas.

It wasn’t until I was in high school that television came to our town and we watched the news on a black and white TV. I remember watching the moon landing live in 1969 on this same TV when I was 17 and in my final year of high school.

When we listened to the news on radio or watched it on TV, I recall learning about events happening in other countries, including droughts and floods. We would hear about what was happening in the farming industry or some new invention coming to our area, such as a telephone on which you could dial a number instead of winding a handle to get an operator.

How the Culture Has Changed!

We still have radio and TV (though TV is now in color and even 3D). But now most of us—adults, teens, and children—also have smartphones and can listen to, watch, or read the news. In fact, we can even watch wars or revolutions happening in real time anywhere in the world.

Almost on a daily basis now, all ages will consistently hear news items I never heard growing up, including gender battles, LGBTQ rights, gay “marriage,” transgender athletes, pedophilia, abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, polyamory, sexual orientation, and polygamy.

When I was a child and teenager, no one would have even thought of discussing whether we should continue to restrict female restrooms to only those born as females. I didn’t see anyone who claimed to be “transgender” at school. In fact, I had never heard of a supposed “transgender” person.

Increasingly in public schools (by the way, most children attend government schools, including more than 90% from church homes), young children are being taught about supposed different sexual orientations other than attraction to the opposite sex. Young kids read books about kids growing up with two “mommies” or two “daddies” or other combinations. Children are being taught about pedophilia in California schools. Young kids go to libraries to be entertained by drag queens, and some children younger than 10 years old are becoming drag queens to entertain adults!

There was an innocence about previous generations that is increasingly being lost. The older generations were brought up in a much more Christianized culture in which this innocence was protected. There used to be a recognition that children needed to mature in their thinking and understanding so they would be prepared for adulthood.

Because my parents were Christians, they trained us as children using the principles from God’s Word. For example:

1. “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). The verb translated train originally meant “to put something into the mouth, to give to be tasted,” just as nurses give infants food which they have crushed or blended for children to swallow. So in this sense, this verse means to give elementary instruction, suitable for children at their level of development. Just as children learn to acquire a liking for certain foods by tasting them at a young age, so parents need to teach their children to acquire a “taste” for God’s Word from a young age. It’s harder to acquire a taste for new foods later in life—and it’s harder to get our kids to acquire a taste for the things of God if we neglect teaching them from a young age.

2. “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). This verse teaches parents to train up their children in such a manner as the Lord approves. They are to be trained with a godly worldview.

Sadly, in today’s culture, most kids, even from the church, are being polluted at a young age with terms and ideas (such as those listed above) relating to man’s depraved nature. The “innocence” of the previous generations has been lost. Evil is being called good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).

We at Answers in Genesis believe it’s important to deal with many difficult topics (such as the ones I mentioned above) in this magazine, but from a biblical worldview perspective. We have to deal with these issues head on! Most of your children and grandchildren will not escape the onslaught of today’s wicked culture. I pray you will read all of these articles to understand these influences on today’s generations, and then be prepared to help your children and grandchildren get to the place described in Philippians 4:8 and overcome the lost innocence.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.