War
October, 2001
"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
to search out a matter is the glory of kings." (Proverbs 25:2, NIV)
As I put pen to paper, the attack on the
World Trade Center and Pentagon buildings is just a few days old.
The nation is very much reeling with a full range of primal emotion.
This is not the kind of thing that you could shield your children
from, even if you wanted to. The images are everywhere. On T.V.
In the newspaper. Our church, like many, is sponsoring times of
corporate prayer over the entire situation. At a recent pot-luck
that we held for CHEACT Board members and their families, it was
the unavoidable top topic of conversation… and seems destined to
be for the coming weeks and months to come.
To the rhetoric that flows freely from
every microphone and keyboard, I have nothing to add. It is all
being said simultaneously from adults to other adults, with children
listening in. That is the point of this month's column. Children
need adults to make sense of what is going on. For our family, current
events have coincided with our regular bible readings, which "just
happen" to have us learning about Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael, a
fitting place to begin the discussion with my children.
But, no matter where the conversation is
started, or what emotional response from us our children first witnessed,
we get to process with them… under their microscope. According to
the August Time Magazine article entitled, "Home Sweet School,"
96 percent of our nation's parents are not spending critical time
during each day helping their children understand this apparent
chaos through a Christian worldview. Even those of the 96% that
employ private Christian schools are likely not transferring their
own values. I'm not sure you could get three Christians to even
agree on how all of these issues fit into "our" worldview.
Does God still deal with nations? Or has
he kept up with the times and shifted His focus to individuals like
our 21st century western culture has? Are we being punished as a
nation? Would there be any justification for that? For the abortion
holocaust? For stem cell research? For removing God from courthouses
and public schools? Did the multi-religious gathering by our nation's
officials at the national memorial service please God? Is racial
profiling OK? For what does God hold governments accountable? Did
the arrests and trials of the 1993 WTC bombing perpetrators fulfill
this role? Do God's law and the clarification that Jesus gave apply
to individual citizens and governments alike? Does God control the
nations? Even the non-Christian ones? Is God on our side? Are we
on His side? Is He using us in the global theater? How? Should we
be going to war or praying for peace?
I take that back. I doubt you could find
two Christians that agree on all of the issues with which we are
now face to face - prime fodder to be used for discussion and training
up our children.
If we humble ourselves, search the scriptures
and open our hearts to be searched by Almighty God and if we live
our lives as open books before our children, teach them by our example
to wrestle with tough things in the heat of strong emotion, and
keep them close under our influence during these prime learning
hours in our home schools, they may just discover how to fit their
most trying circumstances into a Christian world view when they
leave home. They just might emerge into adulthood flying as straight
as a cruise missile.
Brett Adams
Chairman, CHEACT
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