Your toddler child(or grandchild) comes to you in the kitchen 15 minutes before dinner, asking for a cookie. You say no because you are a good and loving adult. She (or he) promptly falls to the floor, pealing forth the siren song of oppression and injustice: “But whyyyyy? It isn’t fair! Why do you hate me?” come sputtering through the tears. “No,” you say, “I love you and am busy preparing a nutritious meal for us all, and I’m not going to let you ruin your appetite with sugar.” You say this because you are a good, loving, responsible parent. The toddler thinks you are a big meanie, one who withholds the immediate blessings of cookie joy for some far-off imagined future event (dinner) that is about a million years from now. 

Imagine a parent who not emotionally an adult. The moment that toddler whines, the un-parent feels sorry for the child’s distress: “Oh, I really can’t stand to see her suffer like this!” Furthermore, the insecure non-adult worries that the child may genuinely think herself unloved and hands over the cookie 14 minutes before dinner. The child smiles, beaming up at the non-adult, and greedily attacks the cookie. Twenty minutes later, the child sits at the dinner table, completely disinterested in her plate except to play demolition derby with the peas and carrots. 

Indulgence is not love. Over-indulgence spoils children. Spoiled children can potentially grow up to become spoiled non-adults. To be spoiled is to remain the center of one’s own universe and to expect others to fall into your service for whatever it is you need or want. It is the antithesis of Christian love, which is manifest in humble servanthood. 

It is equally wrong to become a spoiled child enabler. This is the non-adult parent who, out of personal insecurity, indulges the spoiled child and perpetuates the reign of her tiny kingdom. This all applies to politics as well. 

Scathing polemics characterizes our political landscape. Our politicians look less like adults than like the spoiled, un-adult children of a recently deceased billionaire--squabbling with each other over every dime of the inheritance—lawyering-up to destroy the opposition in any way possible. Self-absorbed and crazy with greed, they conspire to get that cookie at any price. This is a far cry from what the Founding Fathers imagined.

The Founding Fathers imagined a nation of real adults—free citizens who take responsibility for themselves and others—and a government that is to be a child to the citizenry. These free citizens, organized by equal states under a covenant document, are to feed the government only what is right for its proper growth and nutrition. Today it seems that the child has grown up to be something of a spoiled, obese, non-adult who thinks it can tell its parents to do whatever it likes. The American government was never supposed to be a parent to the citizenry; it was supposed to be its servant. 

Today, government wrongly sees itself as the parent, and too many citizens see themselves as the children. National politics has become a contest between crying, whining toddlers—who can cry loudest to coerce Mama Government into giving them their cookie right now. It’s tragic: they usually get their way. 

The political parties think themselves noble for handing out the cookies—and why wouldn’t they, when doing so reinforces the perception that they are the parent? They may consider themselves “loving” when they give people whatever they want when they want it, but instead, they are merely spoiling the national appetite for real nutrition. The real meal consists of justice, fairness, equality, freedom, opportunity, safety—the things adults prefer to eat. These are also the meals which adults serve to children, whether they enjoy it or not. 

Indulgence means catering to immediate gratification without regard to long-term consequences. Children know no better, but adults must, or they remain as children forever. 

As Christians in America, our role is to serve others in obedience to Christ. This does not mean indulging others; it means giving them what is right for them, whether they like it or not, just like good parents. We are not answerable to the children for how we are supposed to love them. They don’t set the terms; we do. Similarly, our love and service to America are not subject to the terms of its whining children. We love by Christ’s terms alone; all else is a mere indulgence.

To love in Christ’s terms requires moral discipline, not indulgence. We serve genuine needs, not whims. We are to provide good food and real medicine despite childish resistance. We do self-absorbed people no good by indulging their selfishness. 

We are to be adults—Christ’s servants caring for His people and creation—responsibly giving what is truly good so that all people can grow into adulthood. This is our mission. It is growing in Christ and making Him known.  †