Wednesday, July 6, 2016

First teach your children...


5 comments:

  1. Bravo! Now there is solid Orthodoxy, by which the whole world will learn to adore the Theanthropos!

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  2. I am going to risk sounding cynical: When I read this I thought of Luke 6:32-34. I also thought of my upbringing in this modern secular world where "being nice" and a "good man" is sometimes the highest good, even though it is not in-of-itself salvific. Being good, helping those in need, etc. is one of the most common and ubiquitous aspects of being human - the question is why - to what end? What about those who do not do good? what about evil? What about death? What does it all mean? These are questions that I asked even as a young child and the answers of these questions are what the "blessing from a priest" and the "our Father" address.

    As a father of two young children I find Fr. Alexander's (whom I know nothing other than this quote) advice however well intentioned, wrong on a very important level.

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  3. Jake - I was about to post a comment similar to yours, but after reading the quote again, I decided my criticism was unwarranted.

    Note that Fr. Alexander says that religious upbringing *begins* with thanking Mom for clean clothes and meals. It's only the beginning; not the highest good as imagined by secular culture. To be sure there are weightier matters to consider. Those should be attended to without leaving the others undone (Matt. 23:23).

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