By: MARGARET BROWN
A COUPLE of weeks ago the Sunday Express tabloid newspaper carried headlines stating that the parents of the missing toddler Madeleine McCann were under investigation for child neglect.
It also claimed that the same enquiry was to be carried out in Portugal.
Apparently ‘concerned’ citizens in both countries had been pressing for legal action to be taken, urged on by bloggers on the Internet.
When I look back to my own days of parenthood, I realise that were I to have been judged by the standards of these sinless and righteous people, my children might well have been considered neglected.
To park a baby in its pram outside a shop for a moment, or leave an infant sleeping in the nursery while supper is eaten in the garden, or upstairs in a hotel while the parents have a meal – is this an open invitation to any pervert or childless person to abduct a youngster?
Life cannot be lived like that nor should every stranger be seen as a threat and, despite the permissive attitudes and moral decay of the 21st Century, has every child to be watched over 24 hours a day, seven days a week , to ensure it survives?
Only Christ was considered to be without sin, which leaves the rest of us doing our best and falling heavily by the wayside time after time. Before casting the first stone would it not be better to examine one’s own life for flaws, and if claiming to be a Christian to read carefully through the 10 Commandments before passing judgement?
