Best interests of the child?

I absolutely refuse to make my life calling one of criticizing reality TV shows. But sometimes I just can’t help commenting on them. Here’s yet another insane one. (I’m sure you’ve heard about it already.) Apparently ABC aired a promo last weekend pitting five desperate couples against each other, all wanting to adopt a 16-year-old’s baby. I saw a picture on the internet of Barbara Walters with the birth mother and the baby. Barbara and the mother beamed. The baby already looked like he was in distress. It was all very pathetic. Can you imagine being that kid? I think adoptive children already have tough issues to deal with. Why compound them? Think about it - when this little guy grows up, he’ll be able to watch a video tape of his smiling mom handing him over to some crazed contestants who won him, the "prize." Do we really think this whole charade is in the child’s best interests? And isn’t that the test we use to determine how to handle minor children? (Ask any family law judge in the country!)

I think "selling" babies on TV should be a crime.

And that brings up another point. What do you guys think of "open adoption," anyway? This child’s mother will still have access to her child after he is adopted. The more I think about open adoption, the more I think it’s harmful. How confused and emotionally sabotaged will this child be?!

Ya know, it seems like society is falling ever more swiftly into the immoral abyss. It’s like a leak in a dam. At first it’s small and seems insignificant. Suddenly, the hole opens up because of the pressure . . . and the City is in hot water. (No pun intended.) Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic because I have a job that constantly places me in the muck and mire of depravity. Pretty soon I’m going to stop being shocked by the degradation of my culture. But hopefully I will never completely lose my idealism and hope. That would be sad.

I remember something my dad told me once when I was going through a time of being stunned that so many women could abort their very own children or throw them into trash cans after they’re born. He told me that we should, in all reality, be shocked when women choose not to abort their children or abandon them to death. "How can we expect people in the world to make righteous decisions when their hearts are dark, without Christ?" Indeed, we should always expect the world to choose evil. Anything better than that is God’s grace.