While many in our society today love, care for, teach, watch over, and care about the well-being of children, there are many others who treat children as throw-away people and pay little attention to their need for food, shelter, protection from abuse, a quality education, and a nurturing environment. If this were not so, we would not have so many households in need of food, homeless children and families, and abused and ignored children in our country.
Others in society see children as marketing targets. In 2003 advertising marketers spent more than $15 billion to capture the minds of children in an effort to create loyal, lifelong consumers. Children are valued not as unique individuals, created in the image of God; marketers see them for the dollars they can contribute to a corporation’s bottom line. If you doubt that this is so, look closely and at the plethora of goods from fast food to automobiles, toys, candy, clothes, and multimedia entertainment competing for the dollars that children spend in the marketplace.
The 205th General Assembly (1993) adopted A Vision for Children and the Church, which states, “We believe that children depend upon adults for safety and security in a world that does not always value children.” That is why the child advocacy office exists—to constantly remind the church that if we are truly to follow Jesus and welcome children we need to be aware of the needs of children. We need to be aware of the assaults on childhood that have detrimental effects on children, and caring adults need to be moved to do something to make a difference.
To that end, the work of the Child Advocacy Office in National Ministries centers on creation of resources directed toward heightening the awareness of the many issues that adversely affect children. The Child Advocacy Office also works collegially with other program areas when interests in the well-being of children intersect.
As former Senator Paul Simon said at the General Assembly Breakfast in 2003, “When it comes to public policy advocacy, General Assembly pronouncements aren’t enough unless they are accompanied by local follow-through.”
For further information on this ministry, visit Child Advocacy. The ministry of PC(USA)’s Child Advocacy Office is supported through gifts to the Pentecost Offering.
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