You Bought What?!

Something To Think About, Are we upset in the wrong direction?

Breaking Bad is one of the most popular series on television.  It's the story of teacher who becomes a major force in the methamphetamine market.  I've never watched the show, but critics say it is well done.  It has received a number of awards. A toy company recently decided to make action figures of the main characters in the series.  The model of the main character, Walter White comes complete with a gun and a duffle-bag full of money and blue crystals. At first the dope dealing dolls were carried by Toys-R-Us, but after a petition stirred up negative publicity, they pulled them from their shelves.  I'm not sure if it is the official version, or a bad Breaking Bad toy, but I found Walter and Jesse, complete with hazmat suits, on Ebay. At first, like the Florida mom who started the petition drive to get Toys-R-Us to stop selling the dolls, I was upset with the retailer.  After I thought about it a while my thinking began to shift.  I still don't think it is a good idea, on any level, for a retailer to sell such a product.  However a bigger question began to loom in my mind.  Instead of asking, "Why would anyone sell that?"  I began to ask, "Why would anybody buy such a thing?"  Especially, "Why would any parent buy such a thing for their child?" Dad, Mom, retailers aren't responsible for the spiritual, ethical, moral health of your children.  You are. It's Something To Think About.

To Spank or Not to Spank . . . ?

Something To Think About, Parenting

Some recent incidents involving well-known athletes and their children have once again brought the debate concerning the corporal discipline of children to the fore.  Retired NBA star Charles Barkley commented on the uproar.  His comments might not have been as carefully articulated as one would want, but the bottom line point he made is worth considering.  Barkley grew up in an environment where parents spanking their children was a common means of discipline.  The implied question behind his comments is, "What would you rather have, what we have now, or a situation in which children were actually loved and disciplined by parents who were constructively involved in their lives?" More than half a century ago I was raised in a home where corporal punishment was part of the means by which my parents sought to impart discipline, self-control, and the knowledge that actions have consequences to me.  With complete conviction I say, I was not abused.  I am a better man because of that up-bringing The Book of Proverbs speaks of the "rod" nine times.  At least five of those are related to the discipline of children.  (13:24, 22:15, 23:13-14, & 29:15)  Some interpreters have adopted creative ways of explaining away what these texts appear to say--appropriately applied corporal punishment is, or at least can be, a good thing.  I don't think they succeed.  The rod is what the rod is. Supplementing these references from thebook of wisdom is this word about the only perfect father, "WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”  (Hebrews 12:6)  Check out that word translated "scourge." The text goes on to specifically speak about how the Lord's discipline is unpleasant.  We might consider ourselves abused when we are in the midst of this discipline, yet, if we endure we reap the good result. Are there children who are abused by misapplied, extreme, or perverted forms of discipline, so-called?  Yes, and we should make no room for such behavior.  When we follow the popular knee-jerk line of thinking, however, that all forms of discipline that involve physical pain are wrong we heap abuse on many more children, and even on society at large.   It's Something To Think About.

Be Somebody Who Is Worth Following:

Something To Think About, Storms, 4/2

Any one who pays the slightest attention to our culture can see that there is a crisis in manhood.  Eric Metaxas addresses this crises in his book, 7 Men and the Secret of Their Success.  It is not a book that is full of instructions; once you get past the introduction there is little in the way of how to, rather the book is full of example--as Metaxas calls them, "Living pictures," which he says are worth a thousand words. Young men, and even those of us well past youth, are in need of heroes, role-models, and people  we can look up to.   It is a relationship that is seen throughout scripture:  Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Paul and Timothy, and, more than any other example, Jesus and His Apostles. A few of us are working through Metaxas's book.  To quote a Marine motto, we could use a "few good men."  Whether you are a part of our little group or not, step up, man, be someone worth following. It's Something to Think About. Explore the Good News here.

To the Barricades--Fighting the Idiocy:

I really hate to do this, but some folk who don't know me might read this, so I need to put a preamble on today's STTA.  If you do know me, you can skip to the black font if you want.

• This is the fourth in a four-part series.  You need to see the other three posts for this one to make sense.  (Scroll down to the March 5 post and start there.)
• I'm a long way from being a political activist.  In fact I try to keep the church out of anything associated with partisan politics.  
• I am a supporter of public education.  While I am also a supporter of home, and private education, I realize that without a strong public system many (most) of our youngsters will grow up uneducated.

I want to make a couple of observations and suggestions.  I hope that parents will responsibly and creatively put them to use.

Bureaucracy produced, zero-tolerance rules make zero sense.  We should quit acting as if they do.  

The Prophet Micah gave us one of the great ethical statements of all time:  

Do justice, to love kindness, 

And to walk humbly with your God.

(Micah 6:8)

 

Unlike the various zero-tolerance policies there is an inherent tension in Micah's words.  Is this a time when my emphasis ought to be justice, or should kindness (mercy) be shown?  And wrap all of that in humility--rather than the incredible bureaucratic hubris that says "I've got every possible scenario covered with my one simple rule."  

No, you don't!

In Jesus day the Pharisees were the zero-tolerance guys.  In Jesus grace and truth are found.  Let's not be on the wrong side.  (See here for an example of the conflict.)

 

We create zero-tolerance policies to remove unfairness, and to make an absolute statement against something our system decides is intolerable.

• We correctly identify that drugs are a problem among young people, so we create a zero-tolerance policy that will suspend a seventeen year old, who we trust to operate an automobile and cook our supper at the local burger-joint, for having an aspirin in his backpack.
• We conclude that students in school need to get along, so we write a zero-tolerance rule that causes a young man who saves his classmate's life to be suspended for three days. 
• We conclude that guns are bad (a debatable concept, to say the least) and so we throw kids out of class for chewing pop-tarts into the shape of a gun.

As parents we should have zero-tolerance for such idiocy.

More and more school systems act as if children belong to them.  

It's not that long ago.  My son, a good student, wanted to go deer hunting in the mornings of deer season.  To do so he would miss a class at High School.  "Son, as long as your grades are ok, I don't care."  

Several days later:

"ring-ring"

"This is Mr. Smith, Chad's absolutely essential class teacher.  Do you know that Chad hasn't been in class for the past five days?"

"Yes."

(Surprise on the other end.)

"How are his grades?"  

"He's doing OK."

"Let me know when he isn't."

That is a truncated version of the conversation, but the gist is there.  This is my son, and forgive me Mr. Teacher, butI need to decide how he should best send his November mornings.  He has shown himself responsible enough to make this choice.  He has earned the right, and besides that I like venison and don't hunt myself.

"But," the educational bureaucracy objects, "If we allow that, some kids just won't come to school at all.  Yes, and I'm willing to work with you to address that.  What I am not prepared to do is to zero-tolerate responsible students and parents into a corner that makes zero sense.

OK, if this were were a sermon it would be 12:15.  I need to quit.  A couple of suggestions:

To the parents of Arundel County Maryland.  Bake every cookie for every party, back sale, and reception in the shape of a revolver.  Use jelly-beans for bullets.  Make sure every P,B&J sandwich is in the shape of gun.  Force the zero-tolerance enforcers to reduce the head count in every class to zero.

To the parents in Florida:  Tell the system that you have zero-tolerance for a system that is so intolerant of good sense that it cannot tell the difference between a kid who is starting a fight and one who is saving a life.  In honor of the gun-snatcher's heroism declare a three-day holiday.  When the zero-tolerant types say the three days have to be made up, declare another one.  Let the bureaucracy know that you have zero-tolerance for a system that punishes good behavior.

To parents everywhere:  Stop tolerating a system that lays claim to our children.  The schools exist to help us educate our children.  Let the system know that we have zero tolerance for a bureaucracy that doesn't understand that.

 

It's STTA. 

Something's Wrong, #2

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT

Reducing child-rearing to its simplest terms, one could describe it as, encouraging good behavior and discouraging bad.  "Don't hit your sister!"  "Share your toy with Johnny."  Recent news gives evidence that our culture is doing the opposite.  Yesterday's STTA tells of a "policy" that reflects our society's growing unwillingness to take a chance in order to save a life.  Other news idicates that it is even worse than that.  In our absurd focus on eliminating and controlling things that some people use to do wicked things, we actually end up punishing innocent or even heroic activity.   We can all take comfort in knowing that our schools are being kept safe from deadly weapons, like the one pictured to the left.  I only hope that Al-Qaeda doesn't figure out how to gnaw bread into atomic weapons!  I likewise hope that Arundel County, Maryland, officials are conducting sufficient investigation to find out whether this pastry-based killing machine has a high capacity magazine.  We have to put a stop to such things. Well maybe not. While it is important to take a stand against pastry guns--I mean, after all, these things are invisible to metal detectors--we can't leave disarming bad guys to mere mortals.  Such work must be left to professionals--people with the keen eye and steely nerves that enable them to tell the difference between breakfast and terrorist threats.  In Florida a young man observed a classmate pointing a 22 revolver--non-pastry version--at another student.  The report is that rather than threatening to eat the revolver the young man was threatening to shoot his fellow bus-rider.  Not realizing that gun-removal, pastry or steel, must be left to professionals, the young man stepped in and wrestled the gun away from the would-be shooter.  Fortunately no people were harmed or toaster-pastries chewed.  In order to discourage amateurs--you know, the kind of folk who can't spot a deadly pastry-gun in plain daylight--from saving the lives of others, the young man received a three-day suspension.  One can only hope that the young man is kept out of school permanently.  We have to protect our children; they are our most precious asset. Enough.  It's not funny! I know many educators who are terribly bothered about these examples of common-sense, being replaced by senseless bureaucratic rules.  We need to pray for these points-of-light.  Systems that reward heroism with suspensions are not friendly to teachers and administrators who show courageous Godliness and good sense.  Pray for them. These two examples are just two of the more notable examples of parents being replaced by the education machine.  Mom, Dad, resist this tendency.   I'm so dumb that I think that the only danger posed by pop-tarts is tooth-decay and obesity.  Me, I would have given the Florida lad a medal.  Obviously, I don't know anything about educating children, but if you want to listen to someone foolish enough to believe that parents, not bureaucracies ought to raise children, tune in tomorrow.  In the mean time pray. It's STTA.