OshKosh B’Gosh Features Down Syndrome Child in Ad Campaign

The little guy in the ad is unusual. He has Down Syndrome, but that’s not what stands out to the viewer. He’s unusual because he’s happy.

Many ads for clothing companies today feature individuals of varying ages who seem to be doing all they can to not smile. There is no joy about them. They exude a kind of self-regarding internal-possession. But this little guy, Asher Nash, is springing up toward the camera. He looks like he wants to hug everyone in the room. He is an incredibly cute little boy, but what you most notice in him is his sweetness.

It turns out that Asher is modeling for OshKosh (owned by Carter’s, to which a portion of my net worth goes these days) because his mother, Meagan Nash, started a campaign to have companies feature children with disabilities in their ads. According to The Blaze, OshKosh contacted Meagan to include Asher in their marketing, and now the company has him prominently displayed in its latest promotional offerings.

We should not miss what OshKosh has done. They have chosen to feature a child that has a condition that causes many people to abort such a baby. According to some studies, around 90% of women who discover that the baby in their womb has trisomy 21 decide to abort the child. (See here for a broader discussion of the data.) Children who have Down Syndrome are in many cases feared. Among other reasons, they will not look just like other children. They will not have the same capacities as other children.

Parenting is never easy. Raising a child with disabilities is not a small matter. But we cannot miss this today: America does not want its children. Or, to sharpen the point, it wants some of its children, and it wants them some of the time. Modern America urges us in ways conscious and subconscious to close our children out, ship them off, have someone else handle and raise them, and generally take them off of our hands so we can do what we want. Children are a burden, we hear today.

The Scripture gives us an impossibly better worldview. It tells us that children are a gift, and a precious inheritance from the Lord. They are a reward (Psalm 127:3). Think about that term, and chew on how it runs directly counter to the culture’s teaching that children are a curse. But note this: children are a costly gift, as I’ve written about in The Grand Design. The banner written over our homes is sacrifice. Children require all the love, care, and attention we can give them (and more). Fathers and mothers of little ones end up, day after day, nearly unconscious on the couch by the time the kids are in bed.

Yet this is all worth it. Believers are not living for this world. We are living for God. Our doxological existence is predicated upon treasures in the life to come (1 Cor. 9:25). Though we all sin as parents, and do not live up to the standard we should meet, we regularly confess our selfishness, and resolve by the power of Christ in us to plunge back into the work given us.

This is, after all, not about us. We do not raise children to look good. Our kids may not make us look good, in point of fact. They may leave us looking wiped out. Their need for us may radically alter our calendar. We may get to do a fraction, perhaps a tiny fraction, of the activities we would like to do on our own. Time with friends, time for recreation, time for our own pursuits—if we’re truly devoted to the little ones God has given us, there may be very, very little so-called “me time” for both fathers and mothers.

As they do grow, let’s be honest: our kids may not look the way we would prefer; they may not run as fast as we would like; they may not stand out the way so many American parents wish they would. They may be average. Normal. Unextraordinary. Status-driven modern parents fear these adjectives like few others. Beyond the real possibility of stunning filial normalcy, our children may never share the interests we have and want them to have, too. But the gospel offers us something better than designer children. It calls us to come, and receive the costly gift of little ones, and to enter into the master-class of dying to self.

Many parents today do not want a child with Down Syndrome. They think such a boy or girl will make them unhappy, and so they abort them. But here is the truth: if our lives are about us and our own comfort, we are already unhappy, desperately unhappy. According to many voices, children with Down Syndrome are often cheerful. They are lost as we all are, but they often exude a warm and loving spirit. What irony for our culture, then: the ones who stand to bless us the most are the ones we do not want.

When a company like OshKosh takes a stand for the dignity of targeted individuals, we should stand with them. Christians should oppose abortion to the full and should support advocates of life without reserve. We may find ourselves in a lonely place. So many people today remove themselves from children with disabilities and all who might threaten the photo-shopped integrity of their “brand.” But let us look again at Asher: he is not closed-off. He has no pout. He is not trying to look impressive, though he is precious. His smile is wide. His eyes are alight. To a world that does not want him, he spreads his arms wide, and beckons us in, winning us over, dissolving our hostility.

In truth, little Asher unknowingly gives us a tiny picture of another little child. This baby was similarly hated by the world, but he embraced the wicked and poor and needy, those who did not naturally want to share his lowliness, the scandal of his crucifixion. Even now, he brings his enemies into his kingdom.

His arms are open wide.