Re: [asa] Rubber Meeting Road -- My Kid in Public School

This makes manifest the wickedness and falsity of YEC, whereby false views are introduced into the church and then allowed to grow causing friction and division.

Is truth an important part of the Gospel or not?

The problem is to work out what the right course is in a given situation, but ultimately the responsibility for this lies with your pastors who allow false teaching in their church and let Sunday school teachers teach lies.

I don't know how you can get that one over.

Michael
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: David Opderbeck
  To: Dawsonzhu@aol.com
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2007 12:47 AM
  Subject: Re: [asa] Rubber Meeting Road -- My Kid in Public School

  you know as well as I do that there can be times we should not
  pay a hoot to what our "friends" or our "peers" etc. think. I certainly
  don't enjoy conflict, but anybody who insists that I must tolerate _doing_
  wrong things to be their friend, is not my friend at all.
  Right, I just meant that many of her Christian friends will be raised with basically YEC views, and I don't want her to feel that she has to be defensive and/or combative with them about this particular thing.

   
  On 1/5/07, Dawsonzhu@aol.com <Dawsonzhu@aol.com> wrote:

    My brother's kids never had much problem that I know of.
    He did study biology in the university, and probably
    discussed the matter from time to time. We both became
    Christians as adults and after considerable education.
    I expect his reaction was much like me, "so what's the
    problem?" If you're not bothered by them teaching evolution,
    neither will she feel much trouble about it.

    And maybe this is even a good thing. We should learn not
    to fear the truth, but desire to know it. We must learn
    to listen to arguments critically, and think them over
    for their content. Isn't that one of the greatest things
    about education? Christians should strive the utmost to
    be this way, as we are supposed to love the truth.

    I was a little troubled on one point where you said

    " One the one hand I don't want to nip her respect for the church and her Sunday School teachers or to bring her into conflict with any of her Christian friends; on the other, I don't want her to be afraid of science; and on yet another, I don't want her to think scientists necessarily have the last word. "

    A balanced view of course is of tantamount importance,
    and we certainly should be very careful not to lose respect
    for other people just because they fail in one category.
    We should always strive to see the good in others as best we can
    and realize the we do not know everything, and be honest to admit it.
    Teens are especially prone to see one failing as
    "universal all inclusive failure" --- that's coming. :-)

    Nevertheless,
    you know as well as I do that there can be times we should not
    pay a hoot to what our "friends" or our "peers" etc. think. I certainly
    don't enjoy conflict, but anybody who insists that I must tolerate _doing_
    wrong things to be their friend, is not my friend at all. That is
    one of the hardest lessons we have to learn, but it teaches some
    important things for life.

    In Lamentations 3:25-27, Jeremiah writes;
    The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
    it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord,
    It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.

    Sometimes hard lessons are best learned early and they
    can prepare you for life.

    by Grace we proceed,
    Wayne

      This afternoon was one of those "rubber meeting the road" times. My 11-year-old daughter, who goes to public school, adores her science teacher. Today, however, she came home very upset. It seems they've begun to study evolution, and my daughter is feeling an enormous conflict with what she's been taught in Sunday School. This is so difficult and delicate a thing to have to start navigating. One the one hand I don't want to nip her respect for the church and her Sunday School teachers or to bring her into conflict with any of her Christian friends; on the other, I don't want her to be afraid of science; and on yet another, I don't want her to think scientists necessarily have the last word. I did my best to start explaining how there are different ways of looking at how God created the heavens and the earth, and that some things -- like that there is a God and that God is the creator -- are primary while others -- like how old the earth is or what natural processes God used to create -- can be discussed. Anyone have any tips, resources, etc. for helping a kid this age start to navigate this minefield?

  --
  David W. Opderbeck
  Web: http://www.davidopderbeck.com
  Blog: http://www.davidopderbeck.com/throughaglass.html
  MySpace (Music): http://www.myspace.com/davidbecke

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sat Jan 6 01:58:30 2007