October 2, 2015 2:52 PM

Smith: Texas Children: Born in Sin And It Doesn't Get Any Easier For Them After That, Either

From the Left: QR’s liberal columnist Glenn W. Smith says many conservatives concerned about the innocent unborn when it comes to reproductive health issues feel that innocence is lost once they are born. Consequently, they are undeserving of health care, excellent education etc. It's time that changed.

Many religious conservatives dwell endlessly on the innocence of the unborn as they express their opposition to some forms of contraception, abortion, etc. But, once the unborn emerge into the world these innocents become welfare cheats, their innocence apparently lost somewhere along the birth canal like lost luggage at an airport.

Wondering why so many Texas newborns face such bleak circumstances, I recalled being a panelist a few years back at a George Washington University conference called “A Dialogue for a New Moral Agenda.” Another participant was Wade Horn, George W. Bush’s assistant secretary of children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. My jaw dropped when I heard Horn say children were born in sin and had to have that sin disciplined out of them by strict, authoritarian parenting.

I don’t doubt the sincerity of those holding these beliefs. They flow straight from some faith traditions. For instance, St. Augustine wrote, “Even the infants are, according to the true belief, born in sin.” An author at Christianity Today explained further, “According to Augustine, the ‘carnal excitement’ that accompanies procreation causes the child to be tainted with the sin of its parents, who were tainted by the sin of their parents, and so on back to Adam.”

You can read the full column by Glenn W. Smith in our R&D Department.

By Glenn W. Smith