In a YouTube video produced by a friend who leads the Christian youth organization Link Year, dozens of students line up for a foot race to win a $100 bill. Before they begin, the leader informs them they won’t each start from the same place. He then reads a series of statements, telling everyone to whom those statements apply to take two steps forward.
The very first statement was, “Your mom and dad are still married.” The second statement was, “You grew up with a father figure in the home.” Then there are many others.
By the time he’s finished, some students in the group are mere feet from the finish line. Others haven’t moved at all, still at the starting line, looking frustrated and hopeless. The message is clear and profound. Everyone runs the race of life, but some people have more help than others.
We are currently in a cultural moment where all of the emphasis is on white privilege, and as a white man, I fully admit that while I have worked hard to be where I am, I have enjoyed more than a few helping hands and “get out of jail free” cards that others have not. Often, our culture has a backwards way of addressing inequality, as Dr. Glenn Sunshine recently pointed out on the Theology Pugcast. Opportunities should not be removed from those who have them; they should be given to those who don’t.
At the same time, this video reveals what we know to be true from mountains of research. The most powerful head start any child can have is being raised in a home with a married mom and dad. That remains the single, most consistent and accurate indicator of a child’s long-term success.