Well, it's good to see that some former contributors are currently contributing to the internets, though sharing their wisdom elsewhere. Or maybe just engaging in shameless self-promotion.
Anyway, I was reading this article over at Spectrum's site and I thought I'd throw out a discussion topic for our reader (yes, singular). James Coffin cited a pretty fascinating interview with Des Ford's son Luke that I had actually already read. The part he globbed onto was Ford's comment about the necessity of believing your religion/denomination is "chosen" or "special" if it is to continue on. Coffin took this and wrote about some possibly meaningful distinctions between "liberals" and "conservatives" in the Adventist church and the implications for our kids' futures. Or something.
I've spent seconds--maybe full minutes--thinking over this a bit myself, though from a slightly different perspective. There are a lot of things from my strong Adventist upbringing that I appreciate and honor and am thankful I experienced (camp meetings, vespers, Sabbath school, potlucks...). There are quite a few other things that I really don't plan on exposing my kids to (scary stories about the time of trouble, anti-Catholic bigotry, inbred schooling...). But I don't know that how easy it is to pass on the good parts of Adventist (or Christian) culture and avoid the unwanted others. I mean, if my kids don't go to Adventist schools (and I doubt they will), how culturally Adventist could they get? I feel like there is a certain amount of certainty/fundamentalism/whatever needed to inculcate the values/culture that I want and I don't know that my freewheeling liberal attitudes provide a context where an appropriate appreciation for Christianity--especially of the cultural/collective sort--can prosper. Not that this is super pressing since I'm not dealing with parental concerns yet and don't plan to be anytime soon (ahem, Wheat Thin). Anyway, this is my first real post back in the saddle, so it doesn't have to have a point, just an invitation for other(s?) to comment.
*It was Sabbath when I started this post. So there. Not to say that it took me this long to come up with a few blathering sentences, but I get distracted easily....
2.24.2007
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3 comments:
Thanks, N-Dawgg for your interesting post, as eminent as it was delayed. I would have commented earlier, but I was too stunned by the Swiss invasion.
Also, it is once again Sabbath, and a good time for discussion. As N-Dawgg so aptly pointed out, I am dealing with these issues with a different urgency than ever before. Child of Wheat Thin brings up all sorts of questions about our ideal selves and what kind of person we would like him to be, and what, if anything, can be done to increase the chances that his life arc will resemble our hopes.
For those of us who grew up in Adventist schools (sssshhh - let's pretend our readership is sufficiently broad to have those outside this category in attendance), do you remember the dynamic between kids who had spent some time in public schools and those of us in for a life sentence? I remember those kids being the bad ones, the worldly ones, and I never remember socializing with them on the weekends.
I think N-Dawgg's question speaks to the difficulty of a "cultural Adventism" without, as a parent, retaining the adversarial stance against mainstream/urban culture that is built in to what we mean by "cultural Adventism." This is a stance Wheatabix and myself could never, I think, embody, even if we were remotely certain of what "mainstream culture" had in common. One must stress what is distinctive, as Ford says, to retain any sort of motivation to remain Adventist. This is as true of theology as it is of culture, right?
Well, this is my inaugural post on veggie potluck and, as a "pseudo- Adventist", as Wheat thin likes to refer to my upbringing, it seems apropos that I post after the Sabbath has come to an end...
I have to say that I agree with not only Luke, but also N-Dawgg and Wheatthin that it seems fairly impossible to remain Adventist--even just a "cultural Adventist"(you know, eating Big Franks and at the same time not giving a crap about the Three Angels' message)--without living the tenets particular to the church. And you know what? I'm fine with that.
As a brand new propagator of the species, I have begun to think about "the way I'm going to raise my son". What does that mean, anyway? All of a sudden I'm thinking about whether or not I want the Polyester Wheatthin to be raised in a similar fashion as Mom and Pop were. And I've decided that the answer to that is yes. Similarly. I'm perfectly comfortable within the Adventist framework, as long as it excludes the judgmental ("you can't wear jewelry"), the Puritanically moralistic ("sex leads to dancing, so we should have banquets instead of proms"), and the evangelical ("if you're not Adventist you won't go to heaven"). It is the many beautiful cultural idiosyncrasies in Adventism that I hope to pass on to my son (resting one day a week, potlucking and having vespers on the beach, and just plain loving thy neighbors by feeding the homeless and singing in nursing homes, etc). But maybe N-Dawgg and the others are right. Maybe you have to take the whole thing, part and parcel, in order to be actually labeled an Adventist. In that case, I don't know under what religious category the little'un will fall. I don't think it matters. He can be raised by a father who grew up a strict Adventist and a mother who grew up a pseudo Adventist while going to public school and attending a gay-friendly nondenominational church and probably still turn out ok. Happy and ethical, even.
Poly, one can interpret silence on VP as complete agreement and mutual celebration. Well done.
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