Ethics would be easy if...
With my tongue firmly in my cheek I sometimes wonder if ethics would be simple if it weren’t for children. An editorial this morning in the Wall Street Journal got me thinking again about how the parents and communities are to train children. How do parents navigate the balance of faithfully telling the larger story into which a child is born and simultaneously allow the child to experience their own nuanced part in the epic narrative?
William McGurn contrasts two pending court cases; the second in which a seventeen-year-old ran away from home due to threats of violence from her Muslim father after she left Islam, and the first in which a 10-year-old girl was forced to attend public school because her, “Christian faith could use some shaking up” (WSJ, September 7, 2009).
Threats of violence are one apparent difference in the two cases and simplify the issue somewhat, but how much jurisdiction does a family or faith community have over the formation of their children? How do we react when children are being told a story that contradicts with the one we have experienced to be true? Are Hutterites neglecting their children by not training them in computer competence? Are Amish children disadvantaged by not watching television? Do headscarves stifle Muslim teenagers creativity? For better of worse, these alternative societies are experienced examples of how to train children while not succumbing to the myth of liberalism that states, “There is no story except the story you chose for yourself before you had a story” (Stanley Hauerwas, On Freedom and Death, 2009, Oakville ON).
Two principles come to mind that might be helpful as we followers of Christ seek to train children. The first is that there is a biblical mandate to do this work so we should not be ashamed to tell children the grand biblical narrative. “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Secondly, my friend Leanne reminded me once that this training needs to be age appropriate. There are beautiful, complex, ugly, violent, simple, and funny parts of the biblical story. We can faithfully tell the story in ways that are appropriate and useful for children at each age.
Children still make ethics more difficult than it would be with out them but what a privilege it is to be able to teach the story of God’s mission to redeem all things right from the start of their lives.
William McGurn contrasts two pending court cases; the second in which a seventeen-year-old ran away from home due to threats of violence from her Muslim father after she left Islam, and the first in which a 10-year-old girl was forced to attend public school because her, “Christian faith could use some shaking up” (WSJ, September 7, 2009).
Threats of violence are one apparent difference in the two cases and simplify the issue somewhat, but how much jurisdiction does a family or faith community have over the formation of their children? How do we react when children are being told a story that contradicts with the one we have experienced to be true? Are Hutterites neglecting their children by not training them in computer competence? Are Amish children disadvantaged by not watching television? Do headscarves stifle Muslim teenagers creativity? For better of worse, these alternative societies are experienced examples of how to train children while not succumbing to the myth of liberalism that states, “There is no story except the story you chose for yourself before you had a story” (Stanley Hauerwas, On Freedom and Death, 2009, Oakville ON).
Two principles come to mind that might be helpful as we followers of Christ seek to train children. The first is that there is a biblical mandate to do this work so we should not be ashamed to tell children the grand biblical narrative. “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Secondly, my friend Leanne reminded me once that this training needs to be age appropriate. There are beautiful, complex, ugly, violent, simple, and funny parts of the biblical story. We can faithfully tell the story in ways that are appropriate and useful for children at each age.
Children still make ethics more difficult than it would be with out them but what a privilege it is to be able to teach the story of God’s mission to redeem all things right from the start of their lives.
posted by Luke at
8:44 AM
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