Growing Compassionate Kids: Helping Kids See Beyond Their Backyard

Rating:
Summary: Solid Christian book leaves out gays
Review: This book has a solid Christian foundation on helping children see the world that lies beyond their doors. The author discusses ways to help children empathize with those who have less-less food, clothing, water, medical care, etc. Do a family mission trip, prepare health goodie bags to hand out the car window to homeless people at interstate exits, talk to homeless and street people, give them a lunch, visit the sick, help the poor, serve at a nursing facility, sponsor an exchange student, etc.
With all her talk about helping those who appear to be different, the words "gay" or "lesbian" never appear, even in the chapter called, "Shedding Stereotypes." Iraqis, Native Americans and so forth are named. Why not gays? It is as if gayness does not exist and as if millions of gay Americans are unworthy of our time. The only times she mentions something about gayness is when she says we should help those with HIV and AIDS. Are the only gay people we should minister to those who are sick and dying? Considering that there is an epidemic of suicide seven times the national average among gay teens and young people, one would think that the author would stand up for gay and lesbian teens by name. Put your compassion where your mouth is. She should be encouraging straight teens to learn compassion by realizing that some of their peers are vilifed for a birth trait over which they have no control. If our straight kids are not supportive and friendly to our gay kids, they are not fulfilling God's simple rule to love one another without conditions. When straight kids befriend gay kids, they get to walk around in their shoes. This is the quickest and best way to learn compassion and to shed bigotry and homophobia, fear of gay people. Do not tell me that devout Christian teens do not know any gay kids. They go to school with them every day. And fundamentalist Christianity or political affiliation are no protection from gayness in your own family, in fact, it can greatly impede the acceptance of your child's sexual identity should they ever "come out" to you. Those who throw their gay kids out of the house, or disown them, are usually fundamentalist Christians, and they have learned this extremely violent attitude toward gay people in their own churches and homes! Gay kids of these kinds of people are the ones who often commit suicide! We want to prevent that don't we? Isn't that why we are trying to teach our kids compassion in the first place, to prevent and end this sort of suffering? If we wish to discuss compassion and how to make our kids more compassionate citizens, it seems to me that treating gay people with compassion is the essence of this discussion, since they are the last great scapegoats and are still so vilified by church, and government. But the author chickens out.
The author also stuck pretty much with organizations that were church affiliated. This makes it sound like such organizations as Amnesty International or Habitat are not as effective or helpful as working on strictly religious projects within the church. Not so. Protests, gay pride parades, and marches on Washington were not mentioned either. These are great ways for kids to gain experience in what really goes on in the world, to develop compassion for and help those who have no voice. It is our job as American patriots to point out the things we think are wrong about our nation, and make changes for the better. That is what protests and marches are for.
Otherwise, this is a very helpful book with concrete ways for kids to learn compassion. It should just go farther. This book has an excellent appendix of further resources--books, popular films,organizations, etc.