By Stan Guthrie
In Frank Capra’s classic 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life, when a desperate and depressed George Bailey says, “I wish I’d never been born,” Clarence, his guardian angel, gives an unremarkable reply: “You mustn’t talk like that.” It was unremarkable because at this point in American history, there was still a stigma attached to suicide. Yet today that stigma has lessened, as the so-called “death with dignity” movement has gathered momentum.
Now imagine something worse than suicide—a mother or a father telling a child, “I wish you’d never been born.” Such a callous and cruel statement would be considered child abuse, plain and simple. Parents who uttered these dark words would be unfit and would have their children taken from them.
Or would they?
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
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