Tips for Parents Using the Lessons of History: Moral Eugenics

I recently learned some of Adolf Hitler's theories on eugenics from Dan Carlin of Hardcore History. This insightful, extremely engaging podcast discusses myriad topics from history. Carlin has a wonderful way of weaving together objective historical analysis and philosophical musing over the what-ifs and how-comes of happenings in our world's documented history. On the episode in question, Carlin discussed how Hitler and the Nazis, in an attempt to raise up a pure Aryan race, resorted from genetic experiments in concentration camps to euthanasia of the disabled. Eugenics is basically the practice of selective breeding (and similar interventions) in order to create a desired group or race.

This idea of "creating" future generations brought me to consider how so many young Christians are not taught God's word and how to apply it to their lives. This would account for the Barna group statistic which states that "six out of 10 teens involved in a church will probably not continue their spiritual commitment into early adulthood." We must create a race of Americans who know how to stand up for what is right, not to mention how to distinguish right from wrong. To do so we must engage in what I call "moral (or biblical) eugenics". Before you close your browser, dismissing me as a crackpot human breeding advocate, let me explain what this means. The definition I am attaching to moral or biblical eugenics is a spiritual one. There are certain principals to parenting. That is, there exists a basic understandings of what a child guardian should do. A parent should discipline his child when the child behaves wrongly. The parent should provide proper sustenance and a healthy growing environment that does not wound the child emotionally or physically. This a good model for parenting but it is not complete. These basic principles of parenting must be married with (or bred with, or joined to) the eternal, absolute principles of God. It is one thing to tell a child "You should not hit your sister!" It is a much greater good to teach your child that "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Granted, we can not make a child who is too young understand all the ins and outs of righteous living, as it is defined by 2 Corinthians 5:16-21). However we should teach them to a greater and greater degree as they grow older that they are accountable to God for everything they do and teach them what our great, loving Creator desires of us:

What shall I come before the LORD,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8, NKJV)

Without the joining of common sense principles of parenting with the eternal, immutable morals of scripture, parents run the risk of producing offspring who will have no where to turn when a difficult decision must be made. It is easy enough for a child to learn to do right because it keeps him from getting into trouble. But what does it take for a child to be able to make a right judgment because he seeks the greater good of his fellow man and the pleasure of his Creator and the Supreme Judge of the world? Otherwise children learn to do right in a Pavlovian manner that does nothing to create a moral compass within them and thus leaves them to decide right and wrong through trial and error or else through pain avoidance. The former will create an adult will much emotional baggage from the inevitable consequences of wrong choices; the latter will create adult citizens who do not understand bravery, nobility or sacrifice, all three of which are the basic ingredients for decent citizens and great leaders.