One of the ads I looked at when job hunting in the last 40+ days, was for office admin of a Children's Home in the Tyler area.
The job itself was something I could absolutely do, and the thought of being part of helping kids was very appealing, so I hopped over to their website.
Oh. Oh, no.
*I am not implying that the lovely-looking family who owns this place are not in fact, a lovely family, or that they believe they are nothing but an absolute refuge for the kids who are placed there.
But, when I got to the page that stated there's a chapel on the property and that attending chapel is mandatory for all residents *and staff* that it started going all sideways in my brain. They claim to be non-dominational, but they do believe in the three steps to getting into Heaven: Admit you are flawed by design due to original sin, ask for forgiveness, and accept Jesus as your savior.
Look, I have nothing against whatever people believe in for their spiritual peace, as long as it doesn't hurt other people. And that's the issue here.
I cannot think of a worse thing for a child who has been abused, neglected or abandoned to be told than, "Yeah, you were born broken, but we're gonna fix you right up here!"
No shit, they are broken. But it was *not* something they were born with. Do not dare let these broken little birds deduce that they somehow deserved the hell they went through.
Children are not born as little lumps of clay to be molded into what you want them to be. They actually come straight out of the box with their own strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and emotions.
They are not flawed and they are not broken. They are perfect little sunshines, and the duty of the grownups around them is to encourage them to become fully themselves; not little replicas of their parents, not what their parents wished *they* had become, just fully themselves, and to do it with love and kindness and respect, actual respect for that tiny human.
Every one of these kids already thinks they deserved the shit hand Life has dealt them, because the people they were supposed to trust told them so and backed it up with violence or neglect every day.
They did not, not one of them, and I can't think of anything more monstrous than to let them believe that they did, even if the "end result" is another pair of angel wings stamped on your bible.
Anyway.
I didn't apply for that job, but it's OK, because I got a job yesterday that I think I'm going to like.
No one is born sinful or broken. Everyone is their own sun, waiting to shine on everything around them and being the real light this world needs.
Pass it on.
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