Tradition

Last spring, my wife and I went to a parents' meeting at our daughter's junior high school. The purpose of the meeting was to get parental input on the selection of a new principal. This process had aroused unusual interest because of a proposal from a group of parents whose children attend a traditional elementary school; they had proposed that my daughter's junior high school hire a "traditional" principal and become a "traditional" junior high school.

This particular junior high school is about as "inner city" as is possible in Abbotsford, B.C. The students come from a wide variety of religious and nonreligious backgrounds, and the school has its share of behavioural problems. Probably the majority of the parents at the meeting were there to oppose the hiring of a traditional principal. I had never taken the proposal seriously anyway. Trying to impose a traditional school on students whose parents are opposed to it seems to me a futile effort.

I was struck, however, by some of the ideas that came out in the discussion. Chief among them was the meaning attached to the word "traditional". I pushed hard to find out what people meant by this term. I was told that a traditional school was one in which students had to wear uniforms, sit in straight rows, speak very politely to adults and not talk to each other.

Implied but never stated outright was the idea that traditional meant a school in which rigid Judeo-Christian morality and Christian ideas were somehow rammed down everyone's throat. I was surprised by the tremendous fear there is of "oppressive Christianity" here in the Bible belt. In many instances, Christians are hated and feared rather than admired and loved in this community.

I continue to be intrigued and disturbed by this definition of "traditional", and its equation with Christianity. In a school where the previous principal stated that one of the main issues was controlling "bullies", I am rightly concerned about order. Enough order must be kept so that my daughter is safe and so that learning can take place. But what do wearing uniforms, sitting in straight rows and not talking have to do with Christianity?

I am deeply concerned with Christian morality, but why should it be considered "traditional" just because it was held more firmly by a previous generation than the present one? Much of Christian morality is, in fact, quite radical; it demands radical change, not a blind adherence to the status quo. What have we been telling our society about Christianity?

Christianity is valid, not because it was held by a previous generation but because it demands commitment to a present, living Christ. I do not particularly want my daughter to be "traditional" if it means being mindlessly obedient to human beings and to the way things used to be done. However, I care deeply that she is a Christian.

We Christians must be wary that we do not confuse tradition with Christianity.

Sunday school lesson

My father got up every morning before six o'clock and was gone to work long before the children were awake. My mother got up with him to make him a large, hot breakfast and pack his lunch. After my father had gone to work, my mother had half an hour before she had to wake us for school. She would sit at the kitchen table to eat her own breakfast, read and "study her Sunday school lesson". We would find her there when we got up, with her big Bible open on her lap.

Those early mornings with God did more than prepare a Sunday school lesson. I am convinced they were the source of my mother's power, the secret behind her growth in Christian maturity and her development of many Christian virtues, the fountain from which flowed much of the peace and love that permeated our home.

But those sessions did prepare Sunday school lessons as well. My mother was an effective Sunday school teacher from the time I was a young boy until she finally decided to take a break last year at age 80. Her style changed over the years, however. She told me a couple of years ago that now, before teaching the lesson, she spent much more time simply loving the children in her class. The reason was that the children are much more needy and troubled now than they were a generation ago. I think that is true. However, the reason may also have been the wisdom of increased spiritual maturity on the part of the teacher.

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