A recent study by the Family Acceptance Project on the impact of family rejection of LGBT youth found that parents who identify as “strongly religious” were significantly more likely to reject their children. According to research by the Center for American Progress, there are an estimated 300,000 homeless LGBT youth in our country, and the leading cause of their homelessness is family rejection.
I ask you to pray for the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youths suffering the terror and degradation of homelessness on the streets of our nation. And I ask you to pray for the even greater number of LGBT teens battling despair and hopelessness as they suffer abuse and rejection in their homes.
Carl Siciliano
Executive Director, Ali Forney Center
Many of these kids have never been told they are good, that they aren’t sinners. In fact, one day a minister from a fundamentalist church heard me tell a group of them that they are precious children of God. And she said to me, “Where do you get off telling them this?
I was raised to think I was a sinner and never felt good enough for God, so I never really felt a close relationship with God. It was such a freeing experience finding Christian Science and learning that I was loved by God, and discovering who God really was. That’s what these young men and women need more than anything.
One thing I’ve learned—you don’t go into these facilities and preach.
Becky Barrett-Alford
From the November 2011 issue of The Christian Science Journal
Youth Representative 2013 – UN General Assembly,
New York
Adam Pulford, the 2013 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations, speaks on the themes of discrimination and the call for equality for all at the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Adam spoke in the 2nd meeting of the Third Committee at the 68th Session of the UNGA.
Our Children, Our Compassion
17th Jul 2014
Virginia Harris, C.S.B.
Whenever I hear patients describing how unsure or fearful or confused they feel about what to think or do in a situation, I turn to prayer – and what I do know: There is one God, one Father-Mother Love of all Her children, and Her children are inseparable from this divine and unconditional Love; this all-powerful Love embraces me, my patients and everyone in whatever is the situation. The spiritual clarity and conviction in this prayer always reveals the next practical thought and action.
The crises at the US border and in Central America, as well as the violence in Africa and the Middle East, are heartbreaking as it is indisputable how raging fear and hatred impact the children. In my experience, only prayer that affirms the all-knowing, all-loving, ever-present and active One can effectively break the hatred and dial down fear so that practical, compassionate actions that bless all concerned may be revealed. The post below from a year ago was written to affirm the importance of daily nurturing the world’s children in our most tender prayers. Now, more than ever, these prayers are needed.
“Ah, children, you are the bulwarks of freedom, the cement of society, the hope of our race!” Mary Baker Eddy
What a promise this is to the entire human race – to our children and to ourselves. Many countries acknowledge a Children’s Day observation during the month of June (the United Nations in November) for the purpose of promoting the welfare of the world’s children.
What, then, is our responsibility to care for the treasure that is our children…to nurture them to full promise? In the last several months in the US there have been weather and man-made disasters that have put our children in harm’s way. For this year’s Children’s Day might we ask ourselves are we doing enough to keep them safe?
Many years ago I was an activist in the prevention of child abuse and neglect. It was clear to me then, as it is now, that children must have adult advocates to keep them safe and to maintain their natural purity and innocence. In this way, I felt, we adults would be redeeming a bit of ourown natural childlikeness and innocence. Because how we cherish our children speaks volumes about how we value ourselves, hence the quality of our entire society…and the expectations for our future.
When I became a spiritual healer, Jesus’ love of children was an example to me. “Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right.” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health) Early in my public speaking days I gave talks on spirituality under the title of “Who’s Caring for America’s Children?”
As an advocate for the spiritual and physical wellbeing of my patients, a special place remains in my heart for the care of children.
Whenever I am asked to provide healing support of a child, it becomes the focus of my spiritual practice. All my metaphysical prayer stands behind and in defense of that priority. My prayers affirm the little one’s untouched and unchanged pure and perfect being as the loved child of the Father-Mother All. I know with my whole heart that the child’s entire being is not vulnerable, weak or at-risk, but rather strong, protected, and aligned with spiritual power. This is the spiritual power that is always, only Love. Anything unlike Love must fall before it. I stand firmly with my prayer until the material picture is transformed, the threat is passed, and harmony and healing are evident.
In honor of Children’s Day – which is every day to me – I am standing with children as my spiritual priority and my profound hope for society. Shall weall stand together for this great treasure?
We are not powerless to resist the despotic influences that would try to prevent us from performing our highest right and most cherished duty: to affirm and protect the life and innocence of every child. As we do this, we are on the side of the angels – God’s children.
All the children of the world deserve our spiritual priority. Not only will they feel the effect of our deepest prayers, so will those who ask for guidance in putting into practice reasonable and effective safeguards.
When we pray knowing our children truly are the hope of the race, we will care for them as the treasures they are.
