The Crisis of Childhood in the Time of Advent
Professor Dr. Michel Abs
Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)
In a period when humanity prepares to receive the Child of the Incarnation, who will change the face of the world, we must pause to consider the state of children worldwide. Evil is rampant, and various vices are spreading; most affected are the children—the weakest link in society.
The condition of children today is unworthy of an era where the culture of human rights has become widespread, protection systems for all social groups are increasing, and the media records even the smallest events in collaboration with social media networks.
Despite most of the world's countries accepting the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the state of childhood is not well. In fact, it is in a deplorable situation that calls for raising global awareness, in addition to enacting new legislation that fulfills this purpose. It is also essential to establish new organizations, in addition to those currently existing, specialized in the various crises that childhood suffers from.
If we were to list the various calamities that afflict childhood, the list would be long, and what remains hidden is even greater.
Children have become the least protected "human commodity" and are most exposed to harm—even from those closest to them. They are subjected to domestic violence, sexual assault, economic exploitation, involvement in wars, drug trafficking, pickpocketing and theft, prostitution, being placed with employers under slavery-like contracts, forced marriage, and other practices carried out by a society immersed in materialism where the values of mercy and compassion for the weak have vanished.
Perhaps the most abhorrent aspect of what children are exposed to is the killing and mutilation they suffer during armed conflicts. Children have become the most numerous victims among the casualties, in a clear trend to eliminate the future of the people being attacked and sometimes exterminated, as is happening in Palestine, Lebanon, and many parts of the world.
It appears to observers that deliberately killing children—even exterminating them in medical incubators where infants with delicate health conditions reside—comes within a clear plan to eliminate the largest part of the next generation of the attacked people.
The extermination of children as a "preventive" measure is not new in history. Many kings and emperors have carried it out, reaching its peak in what Herod did during the time of Advent to preserve his kingdom.
How similar today is to yesterday, where society destroys the most vulnerable groups and turns them into victims in conflicts over interests or power, as if humanity has not developed an inch since the time of Advent until now.
At the peak of the advancement of sciences and culture, humanity is called upon to take care of its weak and provide them with the necessary protection, as their current situations still pose a challenge to our humanity and a black spot in our civilization.