Adventures in Parenting

At this juncture in history, it would be wise to note that the current failures in finance, education and government all rest on the assumption of a "secular" society. We need to hear these wise words:

"No state can be completely secular in the sense that those who exercise power have no beliefs about what is true and no commitment to what they believe to be right. It is the duty of the church to ask what those beliefs and commitments are and to expose them in the light of the gospel. There is no genuinely missionary encounter with our culture unless this happens. Here we must face frankly the distortion of the gospel that is perpetrated in a great deal that passes for missionary encounter. A preaching of the gospel that calls men and women to accept Jesus as Savior but does not make it clear that discipleship means commitment to a vision of society radically different from that which controls our public life today must be condemned as false." (Lesslie Newbigin, emphasis mine)

What are the beliefs and commitments of contemporary society that must be exposed? Two are glaring:

1. Under the right conditions, human beings will choose what is right (and therefore the way to a harmonious society is to manipulate the conditions).
2. Human beings find happiness in achievement and acquisition rather than in right relationship with their Creator and one another.

Once again, Lesslie Newbigin's words ring in my ears:

We cannot go back on history. But perhaps we can learn from history. Perhaps we can learn how to embody in the life of the church a witness to the kingship of Christ over all life - its politic and economic no less than its personal and domestic morals - yet without falling into the Constantinian trap. That is the new, unprecedented, and immensely challenging task given to our generation. The resolute undertaking of it is fundamental to any genuinely missionary encounter of the gospel with our culture.

In order to view this task in some historical perspective, I would like to go back to Augustine, who, in his greatest work written near the end of his life, painted a picture of the relationship between church and world that was to shape the thought and practice of Western Christendom for a thousand years. . . . for it was Augustine, standing at the point of collapse of the classical worldview, who inaugurated a new approach to knowledge with the slogan credo ut intelligam. (Foolishness to the Greeks 102, emphasis mine)

We stand at a similar precipice today: the collapse of the modern worldview with its assumptions about human nature, economic sustainability, and justice. The kingship of Christ over all of human society can alone establish the good order even of those who rebel against His rule. The question is whether we, like Augustine, will put forward that vision to a disintegrating society, or retreat into our Christian enclaves hoping to avoid the collateral damage. Only one of those alternatives is governed by love.

Over the past several days, I've been reading the beginning of 2 Corinthians, where several verses have popped out at me:

"We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God" (4:2) . . . "we do not look to the things that are seen but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (4:18)

So when I read some excerpts from Lesslie Newbigin (written in 1989), it came across as an exposition of these texts.

"The reigning plausibility structure [worldview, or perspective on what is real and valuable] can only be effectively challenged by people who are fully integrated inhabitants of another. Every person living in a 'modern' society is subject to an almost continuous bombardment of ideas, images, slogans, and stories which pressupose a plausibility structure radically different from that which is controlled by the Christian understanding of human nature and destiny. The power of contemporary media to shape thought and imagination is very great. Even the most alert critical powers are easily overwhelmed. A Christian congregation is a community in which, through constant remembering and rehearsing of the true story of human nature and destiny, an attitude of healthy scepticism can be sustained, a scepticism which enables one to take part in the life of society without being bemused and deluded by its own beliefs about itself. And, if the congregation is to function effectively as a community of truth, its manner of speaking the truth must not be aligned to the techniques of modern propoganda, but must have the modesty, the sobriety, and the realism which are proper to a disciple of Jesus." (Missionary Theologian pp153-4, emphasis mine)

I can honestly say that is why I keep returning to Newbigin: he continually calls me to remember and rehearse the true story in order to participate in society without being bemused and deluded by it. Every time I read his writings, he calls me to inhabit, to live out, the "plausibility structure" of the gospel.

Yesterday as I sat with Elisabeth in the playground, I re-read selections from Lesslie Newbigin's writings. He describes his context in a blighted section of Birmingham, England:

"Every home has a television and this provides, for most of the time, the visible center of life in the home. The commodity in shortest supply is hope.

The older inhabitants speak much of earlier times when there was a closely packed community in which neighbors knew and helped each other. Much of this was destroyed in the name of 'improvement.' The terrace houses were pulled down and their inhabitants forced to move to the suburbs. One 18-story tower block was built; those who inhabit it have one main ambition, namely, to escape. Older people comfort themselves with nostalgic memories of the past, and are fearful of the present. For young people, especially for those of the Afro-Caribbean community, there is little reason for hope about the future. There is a famine of hope.

We have good news to tell. Before we think about how it is communicated, it is well to begin with a negative point. It is not communicated if the question uppermost in our minds is about the survival of the church in the inner city. Because our society is a pagan society, and because Christians have in general failed to realize how radical is the contradiction between the Christian vision and the assumptions that we breathe in from every part of our shared existence, we allow ourselves to be deceived into thinking of the church as one of the many 'good causes' which need our support and which will collapse if they are not adequately supported. If our 'evangelism' is at bottom an effort to shore up the tottering fabric of the church (and it sometimes looks like that) then it will not be heard as good news. The church is God's keeping. We do not have the right to be anxious about it. We have our Lord's word that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The nub of the matter is that we have been chosen to be the bearers of good news for the whole world, and the question is simply whether we are faithful in communicating it." (Missionary Theologian pp143-4)

I could read those words, and look up and see the people around me in our urban context living in a similar famine of hope. The older generation indeed have the nostalgia of which Newbigin speaks, and the younger generation have the hopelessness he describes. Here, as there, the television is the center of the home for most of the time, and simultaneously both mocks hope and presents false hopes.

And I, quite true to his description, so often do think of the church as one of the many 'good causes' that needs my support. Consequently what little sharing of the good news I do is not bold and happy in God's authority, but timid and apologetic (in the wrong sort of way).

I need more frequent rebukes from this wise old man to remind me of how influenced I am by my pagan society.

"The whole creation, in all its excellency, cannot contribute one mite to the satisfaction or blessedness of God." (John Owen, The Glory of Christ p96)

Tonight I picked up the Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh to read to Elisabeth, and found myself repeatedly laughing out loud at A. A. Milne's brilliant use of the unexpected, like this:

The first person Pooh met was Rabbit.
"Hallo, Rabbit," he said, "is that you?"
"Let's pretend it isn't," said Rabbit, "and see what happens."

It is no wonder that Pooh has become a classic. I'll most certainly be reading it again tomorrow night.

Today Elisabeth and I took the bus down to a playdate with a friend. We brought along her phonics cards, her wipe clean book, and some pocket change. We had all we needed to turn a city bus into a home-school bus. And we were finished by the time we got to the play date!

Today marked the first day of school for Elisabeth - the first day of home school. Just as I had never envisioned myself being a full-time father before I left teaching to be with Elisabeth, I don't think I ever picked myself as a homeschooler. If it even approaches the joy of being a stay-at-home dad, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Why have we made this decision? I've come across reactionary calls to "get our children out of government schools" and, like most reactionary rhetoric, don't find them beautiful or compelling. Our decision comes from a positive view of parenting, education and social engagement. At the core of our decision (which I think, at this point, leaves the door open to home, public or private education in the future) are a few fundamental assumptions:

1. Parents are primarily responsible for the nurture and education of their children. (This is why no one takes parents to court who choose to enroll their child in a private school.)
   
2. Parents exert the greatest influence on a child's life by the responsible decisions they make - including how to educate them.
   

So we have deliberately chosen (for this year, at least) to provide that nurture and education in our home, where we can provide a rich, loving, and inviting learning environment. This is, I think, a significant part of the vision of the kingdom of God, "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the wicked to the wisdom of the just" (Luke 1:17). It is the restoration of the most primary human relationships to reflect the wise and loving design of God to make the family the primary unit of worship, instruction and community.