Article November 23, 1987 Issue

Dissolving the darkness of indifference

The Christian Science Monitor

Children in darkness—it's a disturbing image. So troubling, in fact, that it might seem a lot easier simply to turn away from information about the desperate situations faced by many children in the world, situations highlighted in the series that ran in the Monitor earlier this year: "Children in darkness: the exploitation of innocence."

But turning away won't make the problem disappear. As the series makes clear, indifference only helps to perpetuate the misery of exploitation. In fact, dissolving indifference may be the most important first step we can take toward finding genuine, lasting solutions.

But what do we replace indifference with? Outrage? Righteous crusading? Past experience has shown that anger and fervor are not enough to sustain long-term reform. Perhaps our deepest need is for a change of heart, for the sort of spiritual awakening that allows us to understand childhood in a radically different, and powerful, light.

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