Lots of responding in this past week but nothing much on the page that I initiated. So what is happening and what am I simmering away with? Sally's blog on obedience was very timely as I was struggling with my reaction to the material being used in our church children's programme. It seems to come from a very 'hard' type of Christianity that promotes moral behaviour and rigid obedience to codes of behaviour. The overall theme seems to be that being a Christian means we HAVE to make the right choices.
The material for June is on the theme of humility. It has been interpreted as "putting others first" (from Phillipians 2.3) BUT the context of that is that God has poured out abundant love on us and in our gratitude we are able to recognise that all people are equal (Phillipians 2.1 - interpreted). Somehow the challenge is to present humility as a response - as Sally explained obedience. And not as an obligation.
It is relevant I think that when I did a web search on humility I could not find anything about teaching humility to children. Despite the assertion in the material that children are born self-centred and have to learn to put others first - the bulk of the educational evidence seems to suggest that when children are secure and know they are loved they are able to follow the example of parents and to consider others' needs as well as their own.
A Bible Gateway search for the word humility found it mentioned only eight times. And none of these mentions was attributed to Jesus. I'm not at all sure that it is a key Christian principle or even part of early church doctrine.
But I also recognise that my reaction TO the material is inextricably linked with my reaction AGAINST a lot in my childhood. Too much of my faith formation was in the hands of well-meaning people who worked from the premise that we children were sinful and needed to be saved. A colleague who shared a similar upbringing saw over a year ago that I needed to leave JOY behind - the acronym for Jesus first, others second, yourself last. But I still struggle to do this. There is a narrowness in some expressions of Christianity that I have found unhelpful.
One of the saddest things I have heard in all this is about a little girl whose view of God is being steadily constricted as she enters into the world of church and school. Her inclusive mother/father is now male and increasingly authoritarian. Her prayers that previously used many and diverse images are beginning to seem standardised and formulaic.
My immediate concern is that the material used to nurture our children in faith should be underpinned by sound theological and child development principles. Using stories from the Hebrew scriptures as object lessons does raise some questions for me in that regard. I do believe that it is possible to have a fun and engaging programme WITH sound life-affirming theology.
But I also recognise the emergence of baggage that I need to deal with and not heap onto my colleagues in addressing the matters at hand.
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