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‘Wake up America; our very existence is at stake, for how we treat and love our children will determine our future’
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A troubling report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) detailed an alarming 10-year increase in depression and thoughts of suicide among teenage girls. According to the report, 57 percent of high school females reported feeling sadness or hopelessness in 2021 — a 58 percent increase from 36 percent in 2011 — with 30 percent of females seriously considered attempting suicide and 24 percent actually outlining a suicide plan.
Judge Phil Ginn, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.staging.ses.edu), commented on this spike in negative mental health issues among America’s teen girls, outlining several key components concerned parents and teachers can utilize to better come alongside those struggling and provide a solid Christian foundation to support and encourage them.
“Any man who claims to be an expert in women is either a liar or a fool,” Ginn explained. “Nevertheless, after being privileged to raise four daughters, two unofficially adopted daughters, two female dogs, and a female cat with my precious wife, I do believe that I have at least earned some measure of insight into the psyche of the female mind. Although most of my knowledge is admittedly shrouded in a fog of mystery, I have developed a rather keen sense of the lurking dangers located in the minefields of the adolescent growth of young females. Based on what is happening in the culture around us, all parents with any understanding and compassion for their children should now have their danger antennae at full alert.
“If there was ever any doubt about my observations, the CDC has just confirmed the greatest fear of any parent, but particularly those of us who have been truly blessed with daughters. In a recent report, the CDC revealed that there has been an alarming 10-year increase in depression and thoughts of suicide among teenage girls. This startling revelation includes statistical confirmation of a 58% increase in the reported feeling of sadness or hopelessness together with an astounding 60% increase in young females seriously considering suicide. Other studies have backed up these numbers by revealing huge percentage jumps in actual suicide attempts and ultimate loss of life by suicide in this 10–14-year female age group.”
Ginn continued, “The pundits are quick to offer their prepackaged solutions to mitigate these harsh facts. To be sure, there is much that can and should be done within the medical and scientific communities to combat depression and suicidal ideations amongst all of our children, including our daughters and granddaughters. However, at the risk of being labeled as a member of a fringe group or even a fanatic, isn’t it about time that we as a culture simply admit that we are being plain stupid in promoting many of the new norms of our culture. With that in mind, here are some commonsense things that we ought to be doing as parents, grandparents, and as a nation to help our young people grow to be responsible loved and loving adults.
- Love them unconditionally but love them enough to teach them right from wrong.
- Teach them that they are worthy to be loved because of who they are and not just because of what they represent as some sex object.
- To the extent possible, raise our young people in homes with mothers who demonstrate what it means to be a woman and where a father demonstrates what it means to be a man. Then, both the mother and father meaningfully display how it is possible for them to be committed to each other through the good and the bad and who love each other enough to love their children.
- Stop forcing our young women to compete against post puberty males in sports, and for goodness sake, allow them to dress separately from these same males.
- Help them to understand that there is a God-given order in this world that needs to be understood and appreciated.
“We at Southern Evangelical Seminary firmly believe that all of our children, males and females alike, desperately need to come to know and understand that God exists and that they can have a personal relationship with Him, a relationship which offers real objective meaning to life. The worth God places on these young women and all of our children has been established for all times as set forth in 1 Peter 1:18 where it says, ‘For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ.’ The answer to this dilemma has been there all along. Our nation is just too enthralled with the new erotic and hedonistic sexual paradigm to stop long enough to rescue our precious but perishing children. They are not sexual playthings — they are God’s special creations, and we had better come to terms with that and do it with great haste. Wake up America; our very existence is at stake, for how we treat and love our children will determine our future.”
