They Tryin’ to Catch Em Preachin’ Dirty

Wow! I don’t know how to process what I just saw.

WOW… That first video? “You gotta practice the 10 commandments perfectly.” Sounds like a legalist to me – and at only 7 years old?!

Hmmm I agree with Sean. It’s sort of… shocking almost. I like more of what the Episcopal Priest has to say than the child does, about Matthew 7:1 in particular.

Though, I don’t think there’s a set age at which people are called to do things. I don’t believe God is limited by age. I DO believe, though, that a child of that age can’t fully comprehend such grandiose terms and theology as what he was discussing. My middle and high schoolers often have a hard time with the “vocabulary” of faith, if you will. I personally think it is more likely to be the result of brainwashing, nurture, and the desire to please parents than 100% God’s doing.

It seems to me too coincidental that both the boys they show are sons in families of preachers. Not to mention very charismatic preachers. Nothing against charismatic preachers, but it seems more like something a child would strive to emulate. I couldn’t believe how they ended the first video. It seems telling, but then again, it’s been through editing!

What would be REALLY interesting would be to see these kids in like 10 or 20 years.

And in response to you, “DPotter” , I don’t think the professor necessarily has the right to be offended – not as much as he expressed, anyway. Isn’t that judging as well? Matthew 7:1, right?

I think the issue with this and with much of Christian is life is figuring out how, where, and if to draw boundaries. When do we let these elements divide us?

I was just sitting here, trying to come up with an example of a young child who is just learning how to talk but has not yet been indoctrinated to any degree of religiosity or atheism and wondering what they might say about “God”, but it’s really hard! I don’t think such an example is possible…or at least we wouldn’t understand the child because he/she wouldn’t know any of our God/theology-language.

I used to babysit a friend’s son, Kipling, a few times a week. His aunt met me with him one day, and before she left she showed me a 30 second video on a digital camera of him dancing and rolling around and jumping and yelling at the sky in what to grown-ups sounds like jibber-jabber. It was outside and there was no music playing or any nearby, provoking energies (at least none visible), and it occurred to me that this was his devotion – the pattern of quiet stalking (meditation) and sudden bursts of toddler-language while jumping towards the sky (prayer/worship) and spinning in reverie (mystical experience) – and that it came from that Light that gives life and is already within every child…

Hawley: Yes, the 10 Comm. got me too…how do you explain the nuance of law/gospel preaching to 7 year old? There are definite parenting issues here. I can imagine they want their child to love/serve God, and as long as the children seem ok with it (enjoying themselves), I don’t see much of a problem. There are socio-economic issues here too, so that certain communities would accept preacher children more than others (try this in Berkeley!) Yet, should there be ‘boundaries’ here?

As Aaron suggests, at what point might Scripture lead us to say ‘woah son, let’s bottle that zeal for a few years’…JTB was said to be filled with the Spirit from the womb, and little Samuel served God from a young age, Joash was the KING at 7.

Trevor, gosh…what a story about Kipling. I know some theologians have made the case that infant salvation is possible on the basis that God is able to communicate on any level…so our children are not in spiritual limbo until they begin to read…Psa. 139:15-16 ‘My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.’

Bonnie, I was hoping you would chime in. I hear you on the Jesus Camp reference. The godly play idea is wonderful, and I think one of the projects that needs to come about (hopefully in our generation) is to make the program accessible to a wider range of churches who cannot justify the price tag–kind of like the ‘One laptop per child idea’.

The fundamentalist approach typically fails because it presents a ‘closed system’, a one-way-only diagram for one’s faith so that the objective seems to be group think rather than exploration, genuine disagreement, and openness. I wonder if these kids have so learned to edit themselves to the narrative of their individual community that it will be a challenge for them to interact with other Christians from other denominations, backgrounds, etc.

I liked a phrase that PZ used once about parents who make their children ‘into the project of the century’…how to nurture the child, give them freedom, and yet encourage what may be a budding gift of preaching is a thesis waiting to be written, or at least a journal article.

Oh, and Hawley, I’m afraid the ‘dpotter’ isn’t nearly as clever as you’d hoped…my first name is Dylan.

Go ahead and reserve a couple of spots at the Betty Ford Clinic.