Will Parents Someday Need a 'License' to Raise Their Children?

Requiring parents to have a “license” to raise their children? It sounds far-fetched, but is it really? A senior contributor to the Federalist recently wrote an article “warning . . . parents that if leftists are not stopped in their agenda, moms and dads soon could need a ‘license’ to raise their own children.”

Stella Morabito writes:

Licensing of parents might still sound fringy, but it’s an old social engineering dream that dies hard. And they’re busily building the road to get there. Unless there is aggressive and sustained pushback, you can count on the idea invading the mainstream. . . . So parents can’t let down their guard. They hold the key to getting through this wild ride.

In other words, some in the secular world want your children, but parents stand in the way of their social engineering of the next generation. That’s why we’re increasingly seeing parents left in the dark about their own children’s “gender transitions,” abortions, access to birth control, and school curriculum (which, Morabito notes, is increasingly including CRT, which teaches things such as “children in intact families have ‘unearned’ privilege that must be dismantled,” the idea that “‘sexual rights’ are ‘human rights,’” pornography and explicit materials, and more).

Increasingly the secular world sees children as their property—not a gift given by God to parents so parents can raise their children in the way that is right. And, as Morabito states, legislation that could be applied to parents, such as the so-called Equality Act, is already in place to “open the door for a state actor to declare ‘unfit’ any dissenting parent, Christian or otherwise. If that happened, we’d likely see more state-enforced procedures to determine parental fitness.”

Morabito notes,

All of these directives hijack the role of parents as the emotional and moral guides of their children . . . Parents ought to be asking: What next? If those trends are left unchecked, I think the answer could be the state licensing of parents [an idea that’s been suggested in the past!].

But children don’t belong to the state—they’ve been given to parents by God. Parents need to wake up and defend their rights, beginning with steps such as fighting for transparency in school curriculum (whether or not your children attend public school—you still pay taxes and therefore have a voice to speak up!) and freedom for parents to make medical choices for their children.

The attack on parental rights is a direct result of the assault on biblical authority. If God didn’t create the family, and design this fundamental institution so that parents raise the next generation, then society can define and redefine the family however it wants. But the Bible’s history is true—including the creation account which states that God created the family, beginning with marriage between one man and one woman (Genesis 1:27, 2:24). The family is the first and most fundamental of all human institutions ordained by God. And the family is the educational unit to pass on a spiritual legacy to the next generation and impact the world for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, there are grave consequences to rejecting God’s Word, beginning in Genesis. So, as Christians, let’s believe it, defend it, and proclaim it in a dark world that desperately needs the wisdom, clarity, and truth of God’s Word and the gospel message.