children

Century Blogs

Adoption is not a "second-best option"

Mar 21, 2013 by Duane R. Bidwell

National Organization for Marriage board chair John C. Eastman recently called adoption a “second-best option” for children. He was speaking to the Associated Press about Chief Justice John Robert’s position on the rights of same-sex couples: “Certainly adoption in families headed, like Chief Roberts’ family is, by a heterosexual couple, is by far the second-best option.”

The comment reveals less about adoptive families than about Eastman’s willingness to jettison religious tradition for political gain.

Blogging Toward Sunday

Whose children?

Mark 10:2–16

Oct 01, 2012 by Kathy Wolf Reed

Today’s Gospel lesson, though not a traditional baptismal text, embodies the spirit of the sacrament: the ones bringing the children to Jesus are not necessarily parents; they are “people” moved to care for these little ones. This choice of language leads us to ask, if the adults bringing the children to Jesus are not their parents, then who are they? Why do these men and women stand up to the disciples for the sake of children that are not biologically theirs?

Books

Bringing Up Bébé

One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

By Pamela Druckerman

Les enfants magnifiques

May 08, 2012 by Anthony B. Robinson

Beneath the many contrasts Pamela Druckerman draws between French and U.S. children is a deeper one between the two societies.

Books

Marriage today

Sacramental or utilitarian?

Nov 01, 2000 by John Wall

Marriage After Modernity: Christian Marriage in Postmodern Times, by Adrian Thatcher

Faith Matters

Will my son be a Christian?

Apr 04, 2001 by Miroslav Volf

The statistics are clearly in my favor. An overwhelming majority of children adopt the religion of their parents. So I shouldn’t worry. It is highly probable that my son Nathanael will grow up in some sense a Christian.

Features

Mixed messages

Churches’ witness on the family

Feb 21, 2001 by W. Bradford Wilcox

Despite a mounting body of research showing that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births pose serious threats to the well-being of children, mainline Protestantism has had remarkably little to say in recent years about the nature, health and prospects of the family.

Editor's Desk

God with us

Children's letters to God
Dec 15, 2009 by John M. Buchanan
There is a veritable feast of recommended books and DVDs in this issue, and I have already circled and clipped several and left them lying in conspicuous places just in case anyone is wondering what to give me for Christmas.
Books

The Child in Christian Thought

Marcia J. Bunge, ed.

Heart of a child

Sep 26, 2001 reviewed by Linda Nelson

Neil Philip’s Illustrated Book of Myths includes a story the Algonquin Indians tell, titled “Glooskap and the Wasis.” Glooskap, the mightiest warrior of all, returns home after a lengthy period of conquests, only to be defeated by the mighty Wasis, a creature on the floor of his home.

Living by the Word

Scoop up a child

Mark 9:30-37

Sep 08, 2009 by Glenn Mitchell

In Mark’s Gospel the antidote for a fixation on power is a little child. In chapter nine, Jesus again shares news of his pending passion with his disciples. They don’t understand and are afraid to ask. Instead they argue among themselves about who is the greatest.

Faith Matters

Reading reverie

A child lost in a book
Jul 28, 2009 by Stephanie Paulsell
After a week of chilly, rainy weather, a bright sunny day finally arrived here in New England. Not too hot, not too cool: it was, as Goldilocks found the baby bear’s porridge to be, just right.

My daughter, who had spent the cold, wet days reading her way through a pile of books, gulping them down like milkshakes, didn’t move an inch.