Abandoning the Child: A Case for the Future We Deserve

"The child" as constructed by the Early Church and inherited via colonization by the West is not, in fact, a child at all. A reflection and manifestation of adult cultural and spiritual anxiety, the child in Christian political discourse has often served as a tool for the consolidation of power as opposed to furthering the interests of concrete children themselves. While attempting to attenuate the impacts of such instrumentalization through positive discourse attending to children as actual persons is of certain value, this paper proposes that the greatest good might be done by removing children from political rhetoric altogether. Children, and indeed all those whom their lives touch, would be better served by encouraging Christian communities to resist their urges to consolidate power in moments of anxiety and lean into the faith they proclaim they possess.