{"id":34067,"date":"2018-05-17T05:45:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T09:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=34067"},"modified":"2018-05-16T17:35:32","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T21:35:32","slug":"defending-child-killing-in-the-name-of-cultural-relativism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/05\/defending-child-killing-in-the-name-of-cultural-relativism\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Child-Killing in the Name of Cultural Relativism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the jungles of Brazil, some tribes kill children who are disabled, who were born to single mothers, and who are twins.\u00a0 The Brazilian legislature is considering a bill outlawing these practices.\u00a0 But anthropologists and other postmodernists are opposing the bill on the grounds that child-killing is part of these tribes\u2019 culture<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So reports the new Patheos blogger John Ehrett<\/a>, who explores the conflict between human rights, as liberal democracies have understood them, and the new ideology of cultural relativism.\u00a0 Throughout, he shows the necessity of an objective moral order, as given by Christianity.<\/p>\n

\n

You have GOT to read his post, Moloch in the Dock<\/a>:<\/p>\n

For the last couple of weeks, I haven\u2019t been able to stop thinking about this astonishing\u00a0feature story<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Foreign Policy\u00a0<\/i>magazine. The article explains that a number of indigenous tribes in Brazil\u00a0still routinely kill<\/i>\u00a0disabled children who would (traditionally) be unable to survive under harsh jungle conditions. \u201cThose targeted include the disabled, the children of single mothers, and twins \u2014 whom some tribes . . . see as bad omens.\u201d<\/p>\n

As someone previously under the impression that such practices were a vestige of the past, I find it stunning that such killings have gone on openly for\u00a0decades.<\/i>\u00a0More shocking still, though, is the fact that a bill outlawing the practice\u00a0is actually being met with opposition<\/i>: \u201c[W]hat may seem an overdue safeguard has drawn widespread condemnation from academics and indigenous rights groups in the country. . . . One anthropologist at Funai, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak on behalf of the foundation, argues that child killing among indigenous peoples must be understood in the context of the Amazon\u2019s incredibly harsh environment.\u201d The article goes on to explain that the bill \u201cimmediately created tensions between those who champion universal human rights, which prioritize the individual, and those who support cultural relativism, which favors the freedom of communities to organize themselves according to their own moral codes.\u201d<\/p>\n

First things first: I find it difficult to comprehend the degeneracy of those who would sanction such killings in the name of \u201cpreserving culture.\u201d I have to wonder whether these anthropologists would hold that laws against murder are similarly unjustified in high-crime areas where violence is commonplace. After all, why infringe on those areas\u2019 local norms? (And yes, I realize this is particularly low-hanging fruit, but I can\u2019t help pointing out that such relativism is the logical terminus of\u00a0any\u00a0<\/i>intellectually honest attempt to simultaneously secularize and privatize morality.)<\/p>\n

Yet upon reflection, I\u2019m also aware that my outrage is grounded in my own worldview\u2014indeed, modern liberal \u201chuman rights\u201d frameworks are predicated on deeply Christian assumptions about the dignity of the person.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illustration, Molech Worship, by Charles Foster (Rhymes with Right) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the jungles of Brazil, some tribes kill children who are disabled, who were born to single mothers, and who are twins.\u00a0 The Brazilian legislature is considering a bill outlawing these practices.\u00a0 But anthropologists and other postmodernists are opposing the bill on the grounds that child-killing is part of these tribes\u2019 culture. So reports the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":34097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,26,27],"tags":[6899,6905,6875,615,1055,1084,6743,6902],"class_list":["post-34067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-ethics","category-law","category-life-issues","tag-child-killing","tag-christian-cultural-influence","tag-civil-society","tag-cultural-relativism","tag-human-rights","tag-infanticide","tag-liberal-democracy","tag-moral-absolutes"],"yoast_head":"\nDefending Child-Killing in the Name of Cultural Relativism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A bill in Brazil to outlaw the tribal practice of killing disabled children, offspring of single mothers, and twins is being opposed by anthropologists and other cultural relativists.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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