My point is less about whether or not a sitting President should make such a speech to our students and more about the response to the speech of those who, like me, do not agree with President Obama's policies. I cannot help but wonder what our response would be if this were two years ago and President George W Bush had suggested he give a similar talk. Would you be ok with it then? If you are being intellectually honest, you would more than likely say yes. And yes, the response from those on the other end of the political spectrum would have been similar to ours. Quite frankly, that type of response has frustrated me over the last 8 years. Is that what we have come to in America? If I agree with you I will listen and everyone else should listen too, but if I don't agree with you, I am just not going to listen. I am going to take my toys and go home. What does that tell our children about engaging a culture?
Which brings me to our roles as Christians in this matter. What is our role and what should we do? Should we always take our kids out of school so they don't have to listen to something we don't agree with? If so, you may have to take them out everyday because I promise you there are things taught daily that you may not agree with. I can name several.
How then do we reconcile Romans 13 in which Paul addresses how we as Christians should interact with our government? What does "opting out" tell our children about the respect we should have for the Office of the President or any other authority figure? When you don't like what someone in authority says, just "opt out". "We are only going to listen to the President if he is a Republican Christian who goes to a Baptist church and he believes that the country was founded by Christians and based on Christian principles." I am being facetious but you get my point.
Our government is full of people in positions of authority who do not agree with us and most of them were elected by we the people.
I realize that I am stepping out here a taking a risk but I am convinced that we have missed the boat here. As parents, we have the obligation to teach our children to engage the culture and respect authority while at the same time not compromising our faith and convictions. It is a tough job but it is what we are called to do. If our kids are old enough to go to school then they are old enough to begin discussions on how to respect authority, in this case the Office of the President, but realize that we may not agree with everything that he says. We have had multiple discussions with our girls over the past several years concerning things they are learning at school that we don't agree with and they completely understand.
Personally, I do not like the message that we are sending as Christians when we say to all of those around us that we are not going to let our kids listen to our President when we don't agree. If the shoe were on the other foot, we would certainly not want them to do the same. Think about taking that philosophy to its logical conclusion. We would never accomplish anything and the possibility of intellectual argument or persuasion to change the mind of someone else is lost. We certainly would not want those who have not heard or do not believe the gospel to take that approach.
So as you consider your choice to "opt out" or not, I challenge you to consider the following passages in Scripture (hold your cursor over the reference to see the passage):
- Romans 13:1-7
- 1 Timothy 6:1
- 1 Peter 2:18
- Colossians 3:22
- Ephesians 6:5
- Titus 2:9
What should we take from these passages and how do they impact how we should handle this situation?
In closing, I want to leave you with this. Personally, I do not like President Obama's ideology or policies and quite frankly find them scary. And I completely support challenging any policies we feel are not in the best interest of our country. However those challenges need to be done through the right channels and by the right means. Matthew 10:16 tells us to be "wise as serpents but innocent as doves." That being said, that is my personal view and there are plenty of Christians who feel otherwise, some of which are in our church, class and who are reading this blog.
Nevertheless, I challenge you to read, think, and engage our culture for the purpose of showing Christ's truth to others.
I am glad you posted this! Thank you for taking time to think critically about faith. culture, and politics!
ReplyDeleteThanks Curtis. Honestly, my first instinct was to call Jim and tell him we should home-school! :-) However, after a time of scripture-searching (what did we do before the internet and search engines?!) and prayer, I really believe our kids need to know how to be in the world and yet not of it. So...I'm still praying that my kids will be protected from evil influences in whatever form they might take. I'm still praying that God will guard their hearts and fill them with Truth, but I also feel that our kids need to see us openly listening to the other side of any argument. Doesn't matter whether it's political or not; we certainly don't have to agree with it, but we have an obligation to listen and counter with God's Truth. Praying we all find a way to get past our initial reaction and live by faith. We have to trust God with our kids, too.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing this! i agree with teaching my children respect for authority. as well as, i need to be an example in doing that.
ReplyDeletebtw- presidents have done this before-Reagan & Bush.
Curtis,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you posted this. I was a little concerned, but then I remembered when I was in elementary, that Jimmy Carter did something very similar.
I can not recall what the speech was about, but it did not change my views about who I was or about my beliefs. I guess as parents we want to protect our children for as long as we can, but at some point they will be faced with decisions that they are going to have to make on their own.
We have to rely on what we teach them and they look to the Lord for guidance and hope that kicks in and they make the right decisions.
Lets continue to pray over our children and country.
Thanks Curtis for posting this and continuing to challenge us to stay in God’s Word and be able to defend what we believe in as followers of Christ.
ReplyDeleteI actually agree with your stand. As a veteran I believe that even though we do not agree with the beliefs of the President we should have and should teach our children to have a respect for the Office. He is the Commander in Chief of our country and this calls for our respect. Our role as parents, as other posts have mentioned, is to train our children to be in the world but not of the world.
I think we can reconcile Romans 13 by acknowledging that God has ordained governments to fulfill a role in society as part of His plan, but these authorities can be in rebellion against God. Jeremiah 5:5 gives us an excellent example. The leadership of Judah was in open rebellion against God. In order to be faithful to God and follow His authority Jeremiah had to speak against the secular and religious leaders of his day. This is what we are called to do as parents, to teach our children to respect authority but at the same time not compromise our faith.
I challenge all of us to watch the Presidents speech and discuss it with our kids.
For those interested in seeing the teaching materials / curriculum ...
ReplyDeletePreK - 6
http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/prek-6.pdf
Grade 7 - 12
http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/7-12.pdf
Engaging your kids / friends / neighbors / culture is always the more difficult thing to do, but also a powerful way to allow God to shine through.
Curtis...thanks for posting your thoughts. Very encouraging to see you challenging us to teach our children discernment. I agree with the comments on teaching our children to be like Jesus and be in the world and not of it. Not easy life lessons to learn regarding respecting authority when you share different beliefs but our children will face it everywhere...in school, when they have jobs someday, coaches, etc...our job as parents is to pray for them and educate them to go out in the world as prepared as they can be. If we are being faithful servants we should all be out in the world more often which will always challenge our beliefs as we share with others who aren't bless with the knowledge we have of the Bible and God's love.
ReplyDelete