Raising Christian children in a pagan culture - Cover Story

Christian Century, Feb 16, 1994 by Ellen T. Charry

CHRISTIANS HAVE always had to reflect on their relationship to the dominant culture. St. Paul urged his fledgling converts to reject vestiges of paganism and cling instead to the identity given them by being baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. In this he was followed by the Church Fathers, who carefully sifted the culture to see what would faithfully and fittingly correspond with Christian claims and what would corrupt them.

Raising children in our culture has forcefully reminded me of how crucial this act of discerument and resistance is. It has also persuaded me that the intentional formation of young Christians is the most important ministry contemporary churches can undertake. Modern liberal education, stemming from Rousseau, assumes that children flourish when given the freedom to select among many options in developing their own unique gifts and talents. This approach can succeed with Christian children, but probably only in a culture that is sympathetic to Christian practices and beliefs. That is no longer our situation. Becoming a Christian today is, as it was in the earliest centuries, an intentional choice made in the face of other options. While children do need freedom, they also need to be deliberately shaped by Christian practices so that they may have a genuine chance to understand and respond to the gospel.

In the Middle Ages ascetical disciplines strengthened character, cultivated independence from physical and emotional needs, and encouraged self-control. Today money, sex and power, not the classical theological virtues, set the standards for achievement and status. Expression of emotion, not its control, is encouraged. Self-development rather than self-control is the goal. Accepting guidance from any source but the self---and especially looking for guidance from God is looked upon as a sign of weakness, or simply as an eccentricity. Yet while youngsters think they are creating themselves, they are in reality being formed by television; by the sports, entertainment and advertising industries; by the shopping malls and by the streets. The market forces behind these institutions are not interested in children's moral, social and intellectual development.

Intentional Christian nurture is necessary because our culture shapes children for a world shorn of God. Christians see power in the crucified Jesus; popular culture defines power as winning in athletic or commercial combat. A Christian learns about hope from the resurrection; our culture sees hope in a new-car showroom. The church is again called upon to rescue people out of paganism.

Against the dehumanizing currents in popular culture, the church stands for a decision to find one's dignity in Jesus Christ. A discipled Christian life expresses itself in every interaction with other people and the creation. Each person and object is a gift from God, protected by the love of Jesus Christ. We must face Jesus Christ every time we touch another person's mind, feelings or body. Unless our children know Jesus, what will protect them from hurting themselves and others?

The church is perhaps the only institution with the beliefs, literature, liturgy, practices, social structure and authority (diminished though it be) necessary to rescue children from the violence and other deforming features of late 20th-century life. But it cannot accomplish this by simply laying the faith before young people and inviting them to choose it. Nor can it impose Christian identity by force and indoctrination. It can only prepare the setting for the Holy Spirit slowly to nurture children into Christian faith and practice. Churches need to think creatively about how to assist the Spirit in this process of formation.

THE CHURCH is we]] positioned for forming Christian children. First of all, it is one of the few institutions with access to the whole family. Both parents and children can be brought into the church% social and intellectual orbit, where they can publicly interact with one another and find support for their life together. Furthermore, the pulpit offers perhaps the only remaining locus of personal and public edification and exhortation.

Of course, religious education must begin at home and at an early age. Well-intentioned parents may encounter an immediate obstacle: they themselves do not feel comfortable speaking about God. Parents who are unable to articulate their faith will find it difficult to raise Christian children. These adults may gain some credibility with their children by entering with them into a process of study, prayer and reflection. Otherwise, children will quickly discern the shallowness of their parents' faith. Perhaps nothing makes a stronger impression on children than to be invited to study scripture with parents who are studying not to indoctrinate the child but for their own spiritual nourishment. To prescribe a program of scripture study for children alone, when parents do not participate, can seem like punishment, and can be the source of yet another power struggle between parents and children. Indeed, parents who rigidly impose their Christian beliefs in an attempt to exert authority over their children will be seen as more concerned with their own power than with their children's life with God. We should trust that adolescents will recognize and respect reasoned religious convictions.