Children will likely first be educated about a great many things by their parents before others outside their immediate family educate them. This means that, whether or not they understand the nature of this responsibility, parents have a grand opportunity to simplify the worldview formation of their children (Deuteronomy 4:9). It is much easier for a child to come to the truth, about Jesus or other things, when he or she has not been taught fallacies and errors. Yes, in order to have actual knowledge everyone needs to systematically test everything they were taught or have believed as they mature. Kids must challenge whatever they are taught, even if it is true, in order to be certain. But it is still much easier to quickly recognize truth as truth when you have not been taught lies for your entire life by older people claiming to have a better understanding of reality.
If I ever marry and have kids, I will not have them grow up being fed assumptions, lies, and claims that I and my spouse have not examined deeply. Human life can be extremely difficult and frustrating as it is, and it does not need any unnecessary complications to be added to it. When it comes to Biblical doctrines and general ideologies, Christians do children a great disservice when they teach them despicable errors like eternal conscious torment of unsaved humans, legalism, sexual prudery, complementarianism, and fitheism. So much irrational, unbiblical, and purely gratuitous fear and awkwardness can be totally avoided by merely teaching them the truth and teaching them how they can know the truth, by guiding them gently and by acquainting them with the immutable rigidness of reason.
No person, whether a young child or a child transitioning into adulthood, needs to wrestle with allegiance to belief in eternal conscious torment. No children need to feel like they cannot doubt without sinning or to think that their questions have no answers. No children need to struggle with thinking that their salvation hinges on a perfect moral performance. No child needs to feel confined by unbiblical rules. No girl needs to grow up thinking that she has lesser value before God because those who claim to represent God discriminate against her just because of her body. No boys and girls need to feel alienated from each other's friendship because of the illogical fears and awkwardness of the generation that produced them.
These are just some of the destructive, irrational, fallacious, unbiblical ideas that can be taught to children as they grow. I wish that the next generation of children would be taught the undiluted truth and not have to spend as much time separating fallacies from truths, but until my culture is seized by rationalism irrationality will continue to reign. The consequences of inaccurate education are severe--a faulty understanding of God's nature, a distorted view of morality, and a lifestyle that does not align with reality.
Christian parents can greatly simplify the spiritual and intellectual journeys of children by giving them the truth as it is. They cannot stop them from rejecting truth if they choose to. They cannot keep them from accepting lies. But they can make the claims they share with them clear, accessible, and accurate, and verifiable--parents can explain to their children how they can know if a claim is true and not just blindly tell them that it is true. This is the only way to do our best to convey truth to the next generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment