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Raising kids who value life at every age and stage can be possible today in a confusing world — as long as there is time and intentionality within the home, according to those who are active in the pro-life arena.
Bethany Bomberger, co-founder and executive director of The Radiance Foundation, a faith-based educational 501c3 nonprofit headquartered outside Washington, D.C., believes in the importance of creating a family that celebrates life.
Bomberger told Fox News Digital in an interview that she hopes “Pro-Life Kids,” her new book geared to children in kindergarten through 6th grade, can be a “catalyst for a lot of adults who think it’s too hard to talk about hard things.”
“We’re living in a culture that is screaming lies at our children about what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man and what it means to value other human beings,” she said this week.
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“So if we do not teach our children, there is a broken world that will reach them.”
A mom of four, Bomberger was a teacher for many years in both public and in Christian schools. It was inside the classroom, she said, that she learned “the power of literature” — and that kids need adults to “delve into some really hard issues age-appropriately.”
Bethany Bomberger believes that “very well-intentioned people with a pro-life worldview … don’t know, really. how to communicate that worldview powerfully and appropriately.” (Bethany Bomberger/The Radiance Foundation)
Bomberger and her husband, Ryan, co-founded The Radiance Foundation together.
They speak to tens of thousands of people each year at events all over the country — and they frequently notice, she said, that young people in both high school and college often say, “My parents were pro-life, but I know better — I am pro-abortion.”
Bomberger believes that “very well-intentioned people with a pro-life worldview … don’t know, really, how to communicate that worldview powerfully and appropriately.”
“If we do not teach our children, there is a broken world that will reach them.”
Given all of this, what are some steps parents can take to create a culture of life within the family?
Parents should ‘create a foundation’
One way, suggested Bomberger, is to hold “a once-a-week family meeting or a date that you come up with [for the family calendar], where you say, ‘Today we’re going to talk about these things.’” Kids need to hear this, she said.
“We can’t shy away from creating a foundation, a belief system, for our children,” she said. “Since kids are inundated with a culture that says things like ‘abortion is health care’ and ‘abortion is women’s rights,’ we’re going to give them a standard by which they’re going to weigh that information.”
Bethany Bomberger and her husband, Ryan Bomberger, are surrounded by their four children here. She said being pro-life comes naturally to kids. (The Radiance Foundation)
Being pro-life comes naturally to children, said Bomberger. She said parents must “be intentional about fostering that natural inclination.”
The current “culture of destruction” has anger at its foundation, Bomberger believes, particularly now that the Supreme Court, in the Dobbs decision, HAS struck down Roe v. Wade. She said that culture is expressed through a bevy of “bumper-sticker phrases that are superficial and shallow.”
When it comes to slogans such as “my body, my choice,” Bomberger suggested parents drill down on that meaning.
Parents should say, ‘Let’s talk about that’
For example, they might say to their kids, “Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about ‘my body, my choice,'” said Bomberger.
Among the benefits of raising children who value life, noted Bomberger, is this: “When we help children understand the power of what it means to be pro-life, they see other human beings as important and having intrinsic value,” she said.
A pro-life crowd reacts outside the court on June 24, 2022, to the SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v. Wade and sending abortion back to the states. (Joshua Comins/Fox News)
“Something we like to say is we love every human being, not necessarily every human doing,” said Bomberger.
“There’s a way we can teach people to value others without having to agree with all of their behaviors and ideologies.”
Any time any individual or group begins to think that another individual or group of humans is without value, said Bomberger — “it has never turned out well.”
“There’s a way that we can teach people to value others without having to agree with all of their behaviors and ideologies.”
“We’ve seen this with slavery, we’ve seen this with the Holocaust … It leads to oppression, racism and hatred. We want to see a culture that defies that.”
Parents need to ‘keep ahead of the curve’
Fox News Digital also spoke with Lila Rose, a prominent pro-life activist, author and speaker based in California, about how parents and families can raise kids to value life at every stage.
“You’re hard-pressed to find a little kid who doesn’t see the humanity of other little kids,” said Rose.
“It is a universal experience for children to understand that life is precious and special, especially if they’re well-loved themselves.”
She, too, believes that young children are naturally pro-life.
“They get very excited about pregnancy and a new baby coming along, and the joy that brings them naturally,” said Rose, who is also a mom.
San Francisco native Lila Rose of Live Action said that it’s very important for parents to make sure their kids are not “preyed upon by a school system that is out to destroy proper moral thinking.” (LiveAction.org)
“It is a universal experience for children to understand that life is precious and special, especially if they’re well-loved themselves.”
When children grow to experience the “brainwashing of our school system” — which presents “the false dichotomy of women’s rights versus pro-life” — that’s when they get confused, said Rose.
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“It’s very important that parents not let their children become preyed upon by a school system that is out to destroy proper moral thinking.”
She advised parents to “take whatever measure you need to as a parent to keep ahead of the curve.”
Parents might consider switching schools or choosing to homeschool
Rose suggested switching schools or even homeschooling the kids if a child’s school is teaching pro-choice rhetoric.
“We can also do a lot, right in our own homes, to create kids who value life,” said Rose.
A mom homeschools her daughter. Children need “the perspective that a baby also has human rights,” Lila Rose told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
She said that “showing appreciation for pregnancy and celebrating babies” is one “powerful” way.
Rose said that once kids are old enough to understand, “provide the truth to them: This [fetus or growing baby] is a child, a human being that has human rights.”
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“If they’re just hearing one side — that women’s rights are being withheld in some way by pro-lifers — they’re going to want to do what’s most empathetic,” said Rose.
“But if they’re getting the perspective that a baby also has human rights, and that no woman has the right to kill her child — this viewpoint can be very compelling.”
Parents must be willing to engage
Raising pro-life kids takes a multi-faceted approach, Rose said. “It’s family culture — how we appreciate new life in our own families — and how well we cherish our own children.”
The work must continue as children grow, she said, with parents “having conversations to help [the kids] reason through the questions as they arise, and helping them to understand that this [issue] is human rights for the child and fundamental human rights for all people.”
A newborn baby is shown right after delivery. Parents need to be willing, said Lila Rose, “to engage in these topics with kids and not shy away from them.”
It is very important, she said, that parents are willing “to engage in these topics with kids and not shy away from them.”
Rose believes the current pro-choice agenda is actually “brainwashing” in terms of what it does to children.
“Children are a blessing, and we respect life.”
“I’ve talked to so many young women. And I’m always amazed at how many of them have not actually heard the pro-life position. When they do,” she added, it “undermines” the pro-choice point of view “that they’ve been fed” for so long.
“They suddenly are open to the pro-life position,” she said.
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Rose emphasized that “it’s game over for the pro-abortion movement when parents actually engage their children and properly educate [them about] the pro-life movement and its values.”
“Children are a blessing, and we respect life — that’s the pro-life culture,” she said.
And the pro-choice side, she added, just “doesn’t stand a chance against it.”
Source: www.foxnews.com