This morning I arrived at work and noticed an Awana 24-7 ministries booklet and found myself flipping through it. This pleasant little children's workbook was all about one of the important things a child apparently needs to live a life of faith: doctrine. Near the beginning, 1 Timothy 4:13 and 16 are quoted, after which it says the following; "he [Paul] was talking about the power of God that would save Timothy from falling into sin and error - if he continued holding onto correct doctrine."
So what is this "correct doctrine" that kids need to learn so God can save them? For one thing "God is the truth [and] only truth brings certainty. God's truth is given to us in His Word" To paraphrase, this means we need to read the Bible and gain certainty from our reading. If we don't, does that then mean we have not experienced God? But I digress. It goes on to state that God is omnipotent, eternal, immutable, omnipresent, triune, and sovereign. Funny how most of these words are not in the Bible, which is of course where they claim all truth lies... Beyond that, is God really immutable or omnipotent? I'm not absolutely certain. Guess I don't read the Bible enough... And what about the fact that God is love? I guess love isn't as important as words referring to power and strength. Sounds pretty American to me.
And then there's Jesus. Actually, that's not entirely true. Then there's the death of Jesus. The gospels are not quoted once in the chapter on Jesus. All that is mentioned is how his death gets us into Heaven. Sounds like a pretty full teaching of the Gospel to me. And after this death? The Holy Spirit arrives, who apparently comes only to keep us from sinning and strenghening our faith, but not for any sort of mission. Darn it all, this sounds almost too good to be true (yes, that is sarcasm)!
I don't even want to talk about the angels/satan chapter. It honestly made me want to vomit. As does the humanity chapter. Ad the chapter on salvation? Well, apparently salvation is all about going to heaven after you die.
There is a pretty decent chapter on the Church though. For a kid, I think it's probably a good teaching, though far from complete.
Then we get to the section that really set me off; The Future. What does "The Bible" say God has in store for us? It depends who "us" is referring to? If by us you mean Christians, we get to be raptured before the tribulation! Yippee! As for everyone else, they get to experience the tribulation, in which the Antichrist and Satan rule the earth (my antichrist money is on either George W or Tim Lahaye, but we'll just have to wait and see). And after this, of course, Jesus will reign on earth for 1,000 years, kick Satan's booty, and then take everyone he likes to heaven, which is somewhere up in the sky, and sends everyone on his naughty list to hell, which "is a place of constant, conscious torment," where you feel like you are on fire "over your entire body forever with no releif in site." So live by faith. Then do some crossword puzzles at the end of the book, and you are set up to be a Christian for life.
The reason I rip apart this curriculum, which was designed for kids, is that this is what a lot of the adults I know believe. And when these kids reject their faith, they may not even know that the faith they are rejecting isn't faith at all! If this is Christianity in a nutshell, count me out. Consider me the rodent who's job is to bury the nut and move on to something better. Or crack it open and take out the good bits, leaving the rest to decompose as it should.
Peace,
Matt
Currently Reading: Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God by Gordon D. Fee.
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3 comments:
The end of your little blog reminded me of something good ol NT Wright said once. When he was a chaplain at Oxford he met with all the first year students one on one, Often they would let him know that they didn't believe in God, and he would ask who the God was that they didn't believe in. Often they would spue out some crap like what you read in the Awana book, or worse, and would just reply "oh, i don't believe in that god either". Maybe that is what teens need to hear, that we don't believe in that man made God either, may be we should even tell them the american dream is not the gospel but probably the antithesis to it, and i really think Pat Robertson is the antichrist. I'll wager you 20% of our purgatory.
Pat Robertson, huh? You are on my friend.
I actually do feel like I do basically what you are saying here. And I'm glad to do it. But I feel a definite need to go further; I'm sick of the faith being hijacked by ignorant, arrogant, American evangelicals who then pedal their ignorance to the next generation. Even today I read a church e-mail telling me to pray for a bunch of anti-abortion peeps to get elected and/or moved onto the supreme court. I'm all for getting rid of abortion, but I'm honestly praying for people who are really pro-life, as in caring for people even after they are born. We need to start preaching some good news that is actually good news.
Man, how does this theology get EVERYWHERE?! It's like dispensational, gnostic, fundamentalism is the COCKROACH of theology, it's nasty but persistent and most people don't notice until it's too late!
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