Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 07:1 (Spring 2025)
Article: Principles On Parental Rights And Child Flourishing
Author: Colin J. Smothers

Eikon 7.1 (Spring 2025) p. 14

Principles On Parental Rights And Child Flourishing

Colin J. Smothers

Colin J. Smothers is Executive Director of CBMW.

1. God’s creation of mankind as male and female in His image grounds human dignity, undergirds the institution of marriage, and establishes the natural family through procreation (Gen 1:27–28; 2:24).
2. God has established the family prior to the state to be the first and foundational unit of society for maximal human flourishing, and thus the family enjoys certain rights, responsibilities, priorities, and privileges.
3. God’s good, creational design gives children to fathers and mothers (Gen 4:1; Ps 127:3), a stewardship accompanied by parental rights and duties ordered to a child’s good to provide for, to protect, to nurture, and to educate their own children to full maturity without interference.

Eikon 7.1 (Spring 2025) p. 15

1. These God-given parental rights and duties complement and do not negate the rights of a child to be nourished, to grow, to develop body and soul, to be educated, and to reach adulthood in bodily integrity, including with their procreative potential intact.
2. Neither parents nor the state are authorized to facilitate a minor child undergoing irreversible therapies and/or surgeries aimed at changing their God-assigned biological identity as male or female.
3. The law rightly acknowledges that a minor child cannot consent to adult sexual activity, so also should the law recognize that a child cannot consent to any medical interventions, including hormones and surgeries, that would inhibit their future sexual and reproductive capacities.
4. It is becoming increasingly common for many in the medical, educational, and legal sectors to encroach upon God-given parental rights to raise their own children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4) and to educate them according to God’s commands (Deut 6:6–7; Prov 22:6).
5. Parents have a God-given stewardship and priority to raise and educate their own children, rather than the state, medical professionals, teachers, or counselors.
6. It is to act against Nature and Nature’s God for courts to strip custody from parents who oppose their child’s so-called gender transition.
7. Parents should exercise their God-given rights and duties ordered to the good of their own children, under the authority of God, recognizing that they will be held accountable for their choices (You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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