Toward a Grandchild Friendly Culture

Last Saturday Dottie and I attended the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview’s annual Wilberforce Award banquet. Named for William Wilberforce (1759-1833), the great British Christian, politician, abolitionist, and social reformer, “the Wilberforce Award recognizes courageous leaders who are making an impact on the social ills of the day, showing perseverance and selflessness in combating injustice and making a positive change in the values and character of society.”

This year the honor went to Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “In recognition of Dolan's efforts on behalf of life, traditional marriage and religious liberty in America….”

“The human project,” Dolan said in his acceptance speech, “is about babies. A man and a woman are made for babies. Culture is all about babies. Our lives are at their best when centered not upon ourselves, but upon babies.”

He then went on to comment, “Culture is simply humanity’s best effort to protect the baby, the mother, the father. Culture’s purpose is to embrace, nurture, and protect the baby, the mother, the dad and to see that this precious infant has the embrace of the community to grow in age and wisdom until—guess what?—the baby is an adult, can tenderly and faithfully love a spouse, have his or her own baby, and the sacred cycle begins again.”

Many of us around the age of sixty or older already have grandbabies. The truth of "the sacred cycle" is in front of our eyes at least via FaceTime and, when we're lucky, asleep in our arms or holding our hand crossing the street.

This is culture at it's best. It's culture worth building even as the culture in which we live becomes increasingly less child-friendly. And it's our responsibility to fight that trend. Our grandchildren are counting on us.