I have been a bad parent.  Occasionally.  Mistakes.  Bad decisions.  I've always stayed within the bounds of what is culturally acceptable though, just like these parents.  [If you can't be bothered with a 9min clip, watch a few seconds from 3:42, you'll get the idea].  So, by the judgement of the majority, these parents are doing no wrong.  But my spirit is riled.  What is acceptable to them is abhorrent to me.  Am I imposing my own Judeo-Christian worldview on their ancient culture?  Should I just leave them to it?  Are their children different to ours?  Somehow immune from trauma as their parents assert?

Our culture defines us.  It gives us pre-conceived ideas of how things should be, and how they should not.  But culture is not static. Some of what is common today would horrify our great-grandparents.  What is acceptable is fluid, and changes over time.  We decide what is 'right' largely based on what everyone around us is doing.  Just like these parents.  No foul then?  Or are there true objective standards that we should all live by, irrespective of geography and culture, outside of space and time?  I believe that there are.  I believe that there are moral absolutes written into the very fabric of the universe.

What about you?  Do you define right and wrong by the culture around you?  Do you think some things are kind of wrong but it's ok to do them because everyone else is doing it?  What if you moved to Cambodia?