Harbingers Of Hope
We believe the "orphan home problem" among Churches of Christ is definitely headed toward a solution. That solution may be still several years in the future and there will almost certainly be many more churches divided and many tears shed before it comes. But the signs of a solution are too obvious to be ignored, too many to be discounted.
And what will the solution be? Well, if it does not come (as it should) from an application of the Scriptures to the problem, it will come eventually from the pressure of public opinion and from both Federal and State laws. For as people become more enlightened in the matter of child welfare, and more advanced in their understanding of the needs of dependent children, the old-fashioned "orphanage" is destined to become increasingly the symbol of an age that is passing. Indeed, it has long been recognized by those whose life work is devoted to the field of child welfare that "institutional" children (those reared in an orphanage) are sent forth into life cruelly handicapped and maladjusted. Numerous tests of every conceivable kind (intelligence tests, psychological tests for emotional development, aptitude, social attitudes, etc.) are unanimous in revealing the inadequacy and malignant evil inherent in ALL orphan homes. Children from such institutions are simply denied the care and training, the love and security, that are necessary for a normal and healthy growth.
In this issue we publish two short articles which tell of the closing of such homes in the state of Florida. The "orphan home" is becoming obsolete in American Society. It will one day take its place alongside the "duckingstool" of New England's witchcraft days and the pillory which the colonial society used to hold up law-breakers to public scorn and contempt. Thinking people, with a concern for innocent children, will not forever tolerate the existence of institutions which deny these children the rights and privileges of normal home life (when such life is abundantly available) and instead keep them incarcerated in these "institutions"!
It is ironic that our own brethren should within these last few years become so wildly exercised over this matter that they are splitting churches from one end of the nation to the other promoting these institutions among the churches. It is a sad and revealing commentary on the immaturity and spiritual feebleness of the generation of Christians which has grown up in our time. The very conviction that they are "doing great things" for the cause of Christ lends a peculiarly malevolent air to the whole sordid story. For these "do-gooders" are so intent on having their own way, on making a name for the Church of Christ, on being "on the march", that they have blinded themselves to reality.
Well, with their proliferation of these institutional organizations they are "making a name" all right — a name that a generation hence will cause sincere Christians to hang their heads in shame and disgust. Especially worthy of censure in this evil story are the men who are in position to know better — the leaders and promoters of this brotherhood frenzy. A few of the chief proponents of these institutions are men of some scholarship and ability; they have every opportunity to know that the institutions they are promoting are an odorous and shameful excrescence on the American society, that they do not even belong to the horse-and-buggy days, but rather to the ox-cart days, and that enlightened people in all walks of life have long since recognized their shortcomings, and begun to move away from them.
In this particular, we are informed that when the brethren in California who are promoting "Sierra Children's Home" went to the California Welfare Board to seek a charter for their institution they were bluntly told that California has no need at all for such a "home" as they proposed (an institution to care for normal, healthy children from 6 to 16), but if they really wanted to do something worthwhile, there was desperate need for institutions to care for the mentally retarded, the physically handicapped, the emotionally maladjusted. And what happened? Do you need to be told? Our fine brethren insisted on starting their "orphan home" to care for normal, healthy children! Well, they have had their charter for over two years now — and not one hungry child have they fed; not one homeless waif have they sheltered! In spite of the fact that they have begged (and received) untold thousands of dollars from the churches to build "our orphan home!"
The fact that the denominational world, and the various state and national welfare agencies are closing down these institutions is a harbinger of hope. Such reveals unmistakably that the enlightened conscience of the American people is condemning these monstrosities to the oblivion they so richly deserve; and that helpless children in the future will not be victimized merely to satisfy the pride and feed the ego of some groups who want to "make a name for themselves". People who are really interested in helpless children will want to do what is best for the children, not what will "make the biggest show" for themselves or the church with which they may be connected. And, beyond all peradventure of doubt, the "institutional orphan home" is an anachronism in our society, not needed, not wanted (by people who know the requirements of children), and not worthy of support from any source.
Yet it is in the promotion of this cancerous thing that brethren have been willing to split the Lord's church, to castigate and stigmatize godly men and women who refused to join in the evil, and to rush headlong into a program whose ultimate end is the cruel mistreatment of children! They pride themselves on being "lovers of orphans", but a more proper designation would be "lover of self", and "haters of orphans".
But, as we say, there are harbingers of hope on the horizon. Every time one of these "institutions" closes down it emphasizes the fact that the future will eventually be free of all such "homes" — and healthy American children will grow up in families, like God intended them to grow.