Q: If God is love, why does the Bible tell us (Exodus 20: 5) that he "visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations?" How could a loving God punish innocent children for mistakes that their parents have made? A: This passage is certainly difficult to reconcile with the concept of a compassionate, gracious, and merciful Lord who desires only the best for his creation. As I look at it, the verse seems to speak to the intricacies of human beings and the causal effects that our actions may have upon generations to come. We have all seen the all-too-painful results of cycles of pain passed down from generation to generation. Fathers abuse children; children become parents, trapped in a cycle of pain. The abuse continues. Researcher Martin Teicher recently published an article in Scientific American1 reporting on a series of studies which now point to the fact that child abuse can literally affect the brain in a physical manner, hardwiring changes to various regions of the brain. While previous mental health professionals linked physical, sexual and emotional maltreatment of children to self-defeating behaviors in adults, they viewed this link as a "software problem amenable to reprogramming." The new studies point to a much bleaker conclusion. Using new brain imaging techniques, researchers have found evidence of physical changes in the structure and function of the brains of adults who were abused as children. How does this happen? Child abuse occurs during a critical formative period when the brain is "being physically sculpted by experience." As abused children develop emotional coping mechanisms to handle the horror that they face on a daily basis, the brain shapes itself to the experience. What is needed for emotional survival becomes a permanent part of the brain's landscape that persists into adulthood. Children who learn to shut down their emotions and withdraw from pain become adults whose brains physically perpetuate these habits. In fact, the researchers found that the right and left hemispheres begin to do less connecting, having learned to protect the child from emotionally interpreting painful experiences. What I find the most remarkable about this research is the conclusion drawn by Teicher, which sounds like a modern echo of the words of Exodus 20, verse 8. "Whether it comes in the form of physical, emotional, or sexual trauma or through exposure to warfare, famine or pestilence, stress can set off a ripple of hormonal changes that permanently wire a child's brain to cope with a malevolent world. Through this chain of events, violence and abuse pass from generation to generation as well as from one society to the next." (p. 8). Are the iniquities of the fathers visited upon the children of the third and fourth generations? Sadly, yes. We now have scientific confirmation of that fact. Does this mean that God is merciless and cruel? I don't think so. In His love, our Creator has designed us as remarkably adaptive beings. Whether our pain be physical or emotional, he has embedded mechanisms into our being which help us to cope. Flawed and scarred, we carry with us the "sins of the fathers." Our re-wired brains are a perpetual reminder that God IS love. Looking down the centuries of time, he foresaw the human cruelty that would make it necessary to fashion a brain that would shield and protect. Teicher wraps up his article by stating, "Our stark conclusion is that we see the need to do much more to ensure that child abuse does not happen in the first place, because once these key brain alterations occur, there may be no going back.." As Christians, we can add a hearty amen, along with an additional conclusion of our own: We live on a sinful planet. The longer we remain here, the more children will suffer abuse, go hungry, cry out in pain. We cannot afford to settle comfortably into our own sheltered lives of luxury. We must allow the Biblical mandate to hasten the return of Jesus to rest heavily upon us. The sins of the fathers have been inflicted upon enough generations. Even so, Lord Jesus, Come! 1 Martin Teicher, "Childhood Scars that Won't Heal: The Neurobiology of Child Abuse." Scientific American, march 2002. Sandra Doran, Ed.D., is an associate superintendent of education for the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. She posts her monthly columns on her web site. Read them on-line at www.tagnet.org/powerlines.

Sandra Finley Doran, Ed.D. 2028 Bluff Oak St. Apopka, FL 32712-3945 (407) 889-5524 email powerlines@juno.com

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