ARE YOU LISTENING
[Editor’s note: I do not know when the following article was originally written. I have copied it from an email received in 1988. At the end of the article, it is attributed to having been taken from Viewpoints, which I assume was a brotherhood paper, or a church bulletin. Regardless of its origin, the author, Sewell Hall, was spot on. He hit the bull’s eye of the target in 1988, and it is still relevant to our present day. I have seen well-meaning, godly parents who have followed the course referred to by Hall. And sadly, I have seen the outcome of those children as they have reached maturity. They have no interest in spiritual things. When parents allow their children to bring all sorts of toys to the assemblies, and not have them focusing on the services, they are grooming them for secularism. Parents need to require their children to listen and to participate in the services. Young parents, please take this article to heart. If you want to always be close to your children, keep them close to Christ by putting him first. You will NEVER have regrets for having so done.]
ARE WE SECULARIZING OUR CHILDREN
Sewell Hall
Several years ago, a Christian who was the president of a large state university stated his belief that students do not lose their faith because of evolution in the science department or humanism in the philosophy or sociology departments. Rather, he felt that they become so absorbed with secular activities that they do not take time for spiritual things. They neglect attendance at services, neglect Bible study and make friends among worldly people. They die spiritually, not from poison but from spiritual malnutrition. Today this is happening to children long before they get to college. And some of the finest, best intentioned and most sacrificial and loving parents are contributing to it.
Please pardon a personal reference. My parents were very concerned about keeping control of their children. My father complained 50 years ago that the schools were trying to take over the rearing of children, and he was determined not to let that happen to his family. Anything the school planned that conflicted with church activities was considered an encroachment by the school. We did not participate in organized sports, either in school or in summer programs. We did not play in the band or join the scouts. As a rule, when school was out, we came home.
You may think my parents extreme. Perhaps they were. But one thing was certain: We had time for whatever Christians were doing anywhere in the areas where we lived. We not only attended every regular service and every service of any gospel meetings anywhere in driving distance even when meetings lasted the greater part of two weeks. Preachers who came preaching in the area learned to expect the Hall family near the front, night after night. I never remember going out of town for a ball game; but I remember many trips out of town to gospel meetings and lectureships. Those gospel preachers became our heroes, and the members of those congregations became the friends whose respect and confidence we most desired.
This is not to say that all parents should adopt the policies of my parents. I did not adhere to all of them in rearing my children. But surely some limits need to be imposed on the run-away secularism now so common.
Children are the busiest people in town. Schools have lengthened the school day, and long bus rides often require children to leave home very early in the morning and return late in the afternoon. Then they have homework to get. Much of the extra time in school is spent in humanistic activities. Children are constantly exposed to vulgarity and profanity not only from fellow students, but even teachers [and, I might add, coaches. BFV]. They desperately need counteracting spiritual influences.
Many conscientious parents, however, want still more secular opportunities for their children than the standard curriculum provides. They encourage participation in extra curricula sports organized by the school and in others that are privately organized, occupying organized afternoons and Saturdays and even portions of Sunday as well as the summer months. Students not inclined to sports are encouraged to be cheerleaders or to join the band with long hours of after-school practice, summer band camps, compulsory Friday night football in the fall, and concerts in the spring. In addition, there are often private music lessons. Scouts also provide wholesome experiences, and parents want their children to be involved. In fact, they feel that their children are deprived if they miss any of these opportunities; and so to provide them, parents pack their own schedules full of taxiing the children here and there and sacrificially spend their energy and money.
No wonder it has become impossible to plan a gospel meeting at a time when it does not conflict with some kind of secular activity! No wonder it is exceptional when students attend every night of such a meeting! No wonder very few parents and even fewer young people are to be seen at special services beyond their own congregation! A negative attitude seems to have developed toward anything the church plans beyond the usual Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night assemblies or toward any extension of evening activities beyond one hour. The church is considered insensitive when anything is planned that encroaches on children’s busy secular schedules.
When do we expect our children to change from this heavily weighted emphasis on this world to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”? If they become accustomed to a secular -schedule in elementary school, high school will only increase the pressure. College allows still less time for the Lord unless there is a purposeful determination to keep the lid on secular demands. If such priorities have not been learned under the guidance of the parents, it is unlikely they will be developed when students are on their own in college. By the time those school years of immersion in secularism are over, there is usually very little spiritual life felt in them. And it all begins when they are young.