I think I detect a false disjunction. That said, it’s possible to make an idol of *anything* and I have seen cases where that seemed to be happening with family.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
…when I was a baby Christian in college, the church I attended hosted a Korean church, and I was blessed to have several Korean-American friends whose parents were in the Korean church, but who came to our college fellowship. One of the consistent themes in Asian-American culture was that if a young person wanted to go into the ministry or missions, there would be a very serious discussion with the parents. I saw the same thing in a mostly Chinese church I attended in LA, and have seen it other places as well.
To be fair, it’s worth noting that a great portion of Asian-Americans ARE the cream of the crop, intellectually speaking, and hence it’s as hard for them to understand a child wanting to go into the pastorate as it is for caucasian doctors and lawyers to understand the same. “I spent 20 grand a year on your education so you could earn 20 grand a year?”, and all that. But this kind of thing is, at least in certain quarters, very real.
I’m guessing that you’ll see the same kind of thing in the South with family traditions, even if they’re not as noble as a career in the professions.
Aaron. False disjunction is a good description. Step back a few feet and this could be interpreted as subversive and cultish style logic often used by domineering tyrants to drive wedges where no crack exists.
Taking a closer look. As far as logic goes, the questions would be:
Are the premises true?
Is the reasoning sound?
What sort of groups might use the same reasoning is not relevant to me…. I’m not going to reject logic on a guilt by association basis.
Edit to add: Well, he’s got a lot of good points. I’m not entirely sure he’s properly sorting out the relationship between “faith family” and local church and Scripture. But the passages he’s referring to have to be taken seriously. If he is not correct in saying service to God a higher priority than service to family interests, we’d need to explain why these passages don’t teach what he understands them to teach.
More precision than the headline suggests might help. He’s not talking “taking care of your family” so much as “doing what your family wants.”
If we could sort of Venn diagram it, I think we’d have to show lots of overlap between “duties to family” and “duties to local church” and both those inside of an “all to the glory of God” circle. But when “what my family wants” clashes with “obedience to God/serving God in the local church,” the author is correct about which should win.
There is indeed widespread undervaluing of the place the local church has in God’s design for believers in this age.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Discussion
NewFamilyolitry?
That said, it’s possible to make an idol of *anything* and I have seen cases where that seemed to be happening with family.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
NewReal issue....
…when I was a baby Christian in college, the church I attended hosted a Korean church, and I was blessed to have several Korean-American friends whose parents were in the Korean church, but who came to our college fellowship. One of the consistent themes in Asian-American culture was that if a young person wanted to go into the ministry or missions, there would be a very serious discussion with the parents. I saw the same thing in a mostly Chinese church I attended in LA, and have seen it other places as well.
To be fair, it’s worth noting that a great portion of Asian-Americans ARE the cream of the crop, intellectually speaking, and hence it’s as hard for them to understand a child wanting to go into the pastorate as it is for caucasian doctors and lawyers to understand the same. “I spent 20 grand a year on your education so you could earn 20 grand a year?”, and all that. But this kind of thing is, at least in certain quarters, very real.
I’m guessing that you’ll see the same kind of thing in the South with family traditions, even if they’re not as noble as a career in the professions.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
NewAaron correct
Aaron. False disjunction is a good description. Step back a few feet and this could be interpreted as subversive and cultish style logic often used by domineering tyrants to drive wedges where no crack exists.
www.micahpattisall.com
NewLogic
Taking a closer look. As far as logic goes, the questions would be:
What sort of groups might use the same reasoning is not relevant to me…. I’m not going to reject logic on a guilt by association basis.
Edit to add: Well, he’s got a lot of good points. I’m not entirely sure he’s properly sorting out the relationship between “faith family” and local church and Scripture. But the passages he’s referring to have to be taken seriously. If he is not correct in saying service to God a higher priority than service to family interests, we’d need to explain why these passages don’t teach what he understands them to teach.
More precision than the headline suggests might help. He’s not talking “taking care of your family” so much as “doing what your family wants.”
If we could sort of Venn diagram it, I think we’d have to show lots of overlap between “duties to family” and “duties to local church” and both those inside of an “all to the glory of God” circle. But when “what my family wants” clashes with “obedience to God/serving God in the local church,” the author is correct about which should win.
There is indeed widespread undervaluing of the place the local church has in God’s design for believers in this age.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.