the glory and the horror

In studying for Cell Bio, a couple of friends and I got into a short discussion of family, safety, and poorer and/or less safe neighborhoods. Two friends feel very strongly (to the point of characterizing it as criminal negligence) that your responsibility is always to your family first, regardless. An unsafe neighborhood is never something you should expose your family, especially your children, to if you really love them if you can help it, is what I got as their stance. On the surface, this totally sounds sensible, reasonable, and loving. To love another is to cherish and protect the other, as Josh McDowell used to put it. My gut reaction is the same, and I used to think the same when I sat down.

At least until recently, in the last year or two.

The question to me, can be put forward as such. When, if ever, are you justified to expose those that you care about, and love deeply, especially children/family, to danger, especially while in the process of of something else? Or is it always wrong to expose them to gang violence, drug dealing, and such things unnecessarily? On a larger level, what does it mean to live incarnationally among “the least of these” in America and elsewhere, especially if it means physical danger and possible harm, even death (a la the missionary who was burned alive in his car with his kids in India several years back)?