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Who pays?

The break down of the family results in more children for government to protect which means the costs continue to soar.  Who pays?  We all do.  How will we pay?  Consider the following reported by Dan Shaw in the October 11, 2006 edition of the Journal & Courier of West Lafayette, Indiana.

“The Tippecanoe County Council discussed raising property taxes to help pay for the local branch of the Indiana Department of Child Services.  At a council meeting Tuesday, Angela Smith Grossman, director of the local department, said it has about $1.4 million in the bank with which to pay about $3.4 million worth of overdue bills. Moreover, child services will have expenses of about $4.7 million for the rest of the year.  When she compiled the department's 2006 budget, she said, the department was helping about 250 children. A year later, it was helping 430 children.”  This is in one county.

The foundation of society is the family.  This is not a trite statement, it is the truth.  When the family begins to break apart, regardless of the reasons, the consequences are far reaching.  When families no longer work, the repercussions, like ripples in water, extend in many directions.
The first victims of a failed family are the kids.  Families, both nuclear and extended, are to take care of their children.  The best institution to care for children is the original one, the family.  All others are substitutes.  But when the family fails and I mean really fails, someone must pick up and carry on the tremendous responsibility of caring for the kids.

We can say “they” are not our responsibility but that of “their parents.”  But who can turn a blind eye to vulnerable children?  "I think we are in a box," county auditor Bob Plantenga said. "I don't know how we are going to get out of this without raising property taxes."

“Councilman Tom Murtaugh agreed that the council has little choice.”  "What can we do?" he asked. "The only other option is to cut off services.  We could end up with another death.  And we don't want that on our shoulders."

Why is the most affluent country on earth plagued with escalating numbers of abused and neglected children in the custody, care and budgets of local, state and federal governments?  Sure, there have always been children and families needing assistance.  But have we not turned a corner when property taxes must be increased to pay for an ever-growing population of someone else’s kids to rear?  What has changed in America to bring our society to this point of dysfunction?  I think I know.  What do you think?

With whom are our children safe?

With whom are our children safe?  Are there people or groups we can leave our children with and not fear they suffer some kind of abuse?  Reports of child abuse, especially of a sexual nature, are a common occurrence these days.  Whom can we trust with our kids?  Consider the following sad headline.

“A western Kentucky minister has been charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.”

The FBI said it traced transmissions of child pornography to a computer used by David E. Meadows, 52, pastor of the Park City United Methodist Church in Barren County. Undercover federal officials said they downloaded several images from a computer traced to the church in April, according to court records.

Federal officials traced the user to the church, where Meadows lives alone in the parsonage, according to an FBI affidavit. The FBI conducted a search of the premises earlier this month and found pornographic images in the drawer of a computer desk, the affidavit said. Investigators also found computer disks containing "short videos of children participating in sexually explicit activity," the FBI said.  Meadows was charged in U.S. District Court in Owensboro. (Associated Press)
Mr. Meadows is not charged with actually abusing a child.  But, isn’t it disturbing that a minister is watching child pornography?  I remember in the 1970’s my uncle’s pastor, a Baptist in central Florida, was arrested for molesting young girls in his congregation.  And what about the Catholic priest scandal of the past few years?  Or, the female teachers convicted of having sexual encounters with their under-age students.  Professions once perceived as immune from such scandal no longer exist.  Preachers, teachers and other leaders with whom we might have felt safe leaving our children with solely because of their professions no longer assure havens of safety.  Nor can we automatically trust the next-door neighbor or a family member or anyone solely because of their vocation or relationship.

So, do we live in total paranoia constantly over the safety of our kids?  I don’t think a touch of paranoia today is a bad thing at all when it comes to the safety of our children.  Anyone working with children should be watched with a slightly jaundiced eye; not from an accusatory perspective, but from one of caution.  We can no longer assume by any one’s profession that kids are safe.
Is there a reasonable solution?  My advice is to get to know and become comfortable with the person, the organization and the safe guards in place whenever our kids are in someone else’s care.  The abusers are a very small segment of society.  The overwhelming majority of adults in any profession, religious or secular, are not pedophiles out to abuse our kids.  Although the number of perpetrators may be small, the stakes and the challenge to keep our kids safe is huge.  The great obstacle we face is we never know where the predators lurk!  Heads up parents.

If you know of any resources to assist parents with this or other abuse issues, please submit them in the comment section below.

Register to vote by Tuesday, Oct. 10!

I encourage everyone to take full advantage of the privilege to vote.  Many have sacrificed their lives so we can live in a free society and choose our elected officials.  Get the facts on local, state and federal issues and vote your conscience. If you have never registered to vote, click on the link below for help.  Be a part of the great experiment we call America and vote.

Click here for voter registration information.

Faith's role in serving at-risk children

Why does KBHC’s approach to working with at-risk children work?  It doesn’t always work.  No one’s clinical philosophy, treatment modality or behavior modification techniques work on every child in the child welfare system at any specific level of care.  The system of caring for abused, neglected and dependent children in Kentucky and across the nation is broad.  The range of care reaches from in-home services to psychiatric hospitals with many programs, philosophies and service delivery models in between.

However, many children served by KBHC do make substantial personal progress.  The programs at KBHC are successful for many reasons; two of which are essential.  First, we employ a cadre of professionals that know how to deal with the “emotional knots” in lives of the children.  Secondly, as a faith-based agency, we have many staff that bring a value added dimension to the process of bringing healing to these kids.

A person of faith brings added dimensions of grace, passion and perseverance the ordinary employee may not.  Grace from a theological sense is an acceptance and forgiveness no matter what one has done or failed to do.  Our goal is for staff to model to the children this same kind of “unconditional positive regard.” (Carl Rogers)  Many children believe what has happened to them is their fault and think of themselves as bad.  We strive to show the kids love, acceptance and hope.  We work from the premise there are no bad kids.  We want to put flesh on our faith so the kids in our care not only hear grace and hope but also feel it!

Many of our employees passionately serve these children.  It is more than a job to them; some feel they are fulfilling their service to God working with these kids through KBHC.  With this kind of passion, a significant value is added to the mix of care and treatment.  Along with passion comes the perseverance needed to hang in there with kids who believe we, like all other adults in their lives, will give up on them.  Serving this population of children isn’t easy.  Nevertheless, we don’t give up on kids.  We may not be able to provide the help some of them need, but we do not give up on them.

When faith is an option for the children we serve and the spiritual dynamic in life is recognized as a significant part of being a whole person, there is more of an opportunity for the children to find strength and hope to move beyond their pasts.  Such is their option, such is their choice and such is our mission. 

Our programs, or better said, our people, are successful in caring for the most innocent victims among us because of a faith-driven professionalism.  The abused, neglected and often forgotten children from every corner of Kentucky find hope and healing through the Christ-centered ministries of Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children.