Endangered: Your Child In A Hostile World

Endangered: Your Child In A Hostile World
by Johann Christoph Arnold

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From Publishers Weekly
Parents and societies around the world, says family counselor and father of eight Arnold (Why Forgive?; Seeking Peace, etc.), are hypocritical when it comes to their children. Declaring 2000 the Year of the Child does not put children first, nor do parents who work harder and longer to give their children everything they believe they need yet don't spend enough time with them. Children require the quality of love that comes with "reverence," he asserts. Teachers and caregivers are underpaid, schools are in dire need of resources and parents delude themselves by thinking they're spending time with their kids, when, in fact, they're watching TV while the kids are surfing the Web. With references to famous advocates (Jonathan Kozol, Mother Teresa and Mary Pipher), as well as everyday moms and dads who are changing their lives to put kids first (such as the father who quit his lucrative job at a prestigious law firm to spend more time with his daughters), Arnold presents a strong case for recovering the spiritual aspects of child rearing, such as "the power of a hug." ("Without such breadAthat is, without warmth, humor, kindness, and compassionAthe most carefully considered discipline will eventually backfire.") In our quest for greater meaning in our lives, let us not forget the children, begs Arnold in this lovingly written book, which is less a how-to than a bold instrument of advocacy for America's kids. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This book's title makes it sound more ominous than it is. Arnold's harshness eases as chapters progress, and he again emerges as a passionate advocate for a civil society, one that loves children and allows them to be children. A pastor and counselor within the Bruderhof community, Arnold (Seeking Peace; Cries from the Heart) here concentrates on the ills facing American children, mainly materialism and the lack of stable, loving families. Child abuse, guns, consumerism, drug abuse, Ritalin, ruptured families, social pressure, overstimulationDthese all rally against healthy, humane childhoods. Arnold praises black sheep, disdains divorce, asks anti-abortionists to live peaceably under the law, and pleads for a return to reverence for life. An excellent choice for public libraries, this is inspiring reading, and not just for parents.DLinda Beck, Indian Valley P.L., Telford, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Arnold paints a terrifying picture of a hostile world out to get our kids, but he doesn't leave parents hanging. Arnold suggests thoughtful approaches parents can take to help their children survive, and thrive in, today's society. He doesn't offer 3 Quick Steps or Seven Easy Rules of Parenting: scattered throughout this extended meditation on parenting is enough insight to last a lifetime.

(Beliefnet, Aug. 2000)

From Booklist
Arnold, senior elder of the Christian communalist Bruderhof, usually writes on theological matters, such as, in the superb Seventy Times Seven (1997), forgiveness. He is apologetic about adding to the voluminous parenting literature. But from counseling children and parents, he knows the threats to children that contemporary society poses; as a father of eight, he understands childrearing; and as a graceful writer, he is most welcome to the field. Parenting is at a crossroads, for as the gap between rich and poor has grown, so has that between adults and children. Violence by and against children increases, the two-income family continues to estrange parents from children, and a hedonistic culture diverts attention from and often harms children. Arnold challenges parents to put children first. He emphasizes many familiar themes that he movingly illustrates with real-life stories and the less familiar one of reverencing the child as, in the words of a Hasidic saying he quotes, "the image of the Holy One." Instead of mere advice, Arnold offers a noble philosophy of parenting. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Jonathon Kozol, author
Beautiful. . . It is Arnold's reverence for children that I love.

John Taylor Gatto, author, The Underground History of American Education
Endangered...is a work of great good sense with a message all of us need to hear.

Karen Miller, author of The Crisis Manual for Early Childhood Teachers.
Endangered is valuable, thought provoking reading. It exposes hardships and cruelties facing children, it shakes the reader out of complacency.

About the Author
Johann Christoph Arnold's best-selling titles on parenting, sexuality, death and dying, forgiveness, and peace have sold over 100,000 copies. His books draw chiefly on experiences as a pastor at the Bruderhof, a Christian community movement, and from wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of counseling couples, singles, teens and young adults, prison inmates, the aged, and the terminally ill. Endangered, Your Child in a Hostile World, his latest work to date, speaks to a broad secular audience while drawing closer to the heart of his spiritual message.

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