I recently read this article regarding a Muslim family who complained that the Catholic school policy for their daughter required her to not wear a headscarf.
Thankfully, the school was allowed to retain their policy.
But let's think carefully about this:
A Muslim family send their daughter to a Catholic school. Doesn't this just beg the question: why?!?
If the family held the school in high regard, why would they want the school's policies to change? To ask a school to change its policy (even on something which may seem trivial) shows a lack of respect for the school's reputation.
If the family wanted their daughter to have a Muslim education, why send her to a Catholic school?
Or is this just another opportunity to try to get Christian organisations shut down?
Or, if not shut down, to try to get Christian organisations to adapt their policies, making them slip away from their Christian principles?
(I know that a school uniform is hardly a 'Christian principle', but I'm using the slippery slope argument.)
Where is the common decency of, "This school has certain principles. If I want to send my child there, I should expect to follow them, or else go somewhere different."?
Sunday 29 January 2017
Monday 16 January 2017
A question of identity
In today's world, people don't seem to know who they are.
I am who I am because of the clothes I wear...
I am who I am because of the food I eat...
I am who I am because of the house I live in...
I am who I am because of the friends I have...
Clothes wear out, fashion changes, 'experts' keep telling us to eat different food (milk is good for you, it's not that good, soy is good for you, not really, wholemeal bread, no bread is good, you need carbs, you should follow the no-carb diet...), houses need repairs, other houses get built nearby, friends come, go and stab us in the back sometimes.
One of the current prominent trends is to define ourselves by our gender or sexuality. For centuries, masculinity and femininity have helped give people identity - and this is great! Men and women clearly have different strengths and weaknesses, and both are needed for balance and achieving potential.
Feminism came along, and its honourable goals of equality became distorted by male degradation and badly applied with 'political correctness'. The consequences being that masculinity is ridiculed and no longer seen as admirable (allowing for a rise in effeminate men), and femininity grows to encompass the lack of masculine qualities (allowing for an increased lack of self-confidence as young women feel unable to fulfil what now seems to be required of them).
Add to this increasing divorce rates and mothers being told they can do just as well without their husband. Children then grow up accepting that single-parent (or, usually, mother-only) families are normal, often with the parent they live with helping the children to believe that the other parent is a disgrace. Boys grow up not wanting to be the father that their mother hates; girls grow up believing they must do everything because men are essentially a waste of space. Commitment in relationships is lost, marriage vows are just a 'nice touch' but no longer serious and certainly no longer 'until death us do part'. And finally a spouse (or live-in partner) of the opposite sex can be replaced by one of the same sex: one that is more likely to agree with decisions and incorrect lines of thinking.
Gender roles are now so confused that identity by gender is lost. But instead of realising that a mistake has been made somewhere along the line, people still clutch at their misplaced identity and choose to go down the line of redefining gender (redefining marriage didn't satisfy the identity crisis).
And the icing on this destructive cake is that the Christian church is slowly submitting itself to the worldly values. Whilst Christians are meant to show love towards all people, the church has gone from being the mother who loves her children by directing their behaviour and social conduct, to agreeing with people that 'God made them that way'.
The Gospel message has changed from 'turn from your own way and turn to God' and become 'stay as you are and have God as a hobby on the side'.
If the church would only get back to the Biblical truth that we must find our identity in Christ, then we find resolution. Stop chasing things of the world and return the focus to God. Gender deformity is not what gives true identity and value. Neither are material possessions, other people, clothing, dieting or appearances. Finding our identity anywhere other than in Jesus is essentially idolatry.
Identity in Jesus is the message of hope we need to be sharing, and the only true hope for the world. Other people are welcome to join us in this hope, and we should be encouraging people to join us, discipling people to understand the hope we have in Jesus. But we should not change our message in order to attract people to a false hope.
I am who I am because of the I AM WHO I AM.
I am who I am because of the clothes I wear...
I am who I am because of the food I eat...
I am who I am because of the house I live in...
I am who I am because of the friends I have...
Clothes wear out, fashion changes, 'experts' keep telling us to eat different food (milk is good for you, it's not that good, soy is good for you, not really, wholemeal bread, no bread is good, you need carbs, you should follow the no-carb diet...), houses need repairs, other houses get built nearby, friends come, go and stab us in the back sometimes.
One of the current prominent trends is to define ourselves by our gender or sexuality. For centuries, masculinity and femininity have helped give people identity - and this is great! Men and women clearly have different strengths and weaknesses, and both are needed for balance and achieving potential.
Feminism came along, and its honourable goals of equality became distorted by male degradation and badly applied with 'political correctness'. The consequences being that masculinity is ridiculed and no longer seen as admirable (allowing for a rise in effeminate men), and femininity grows to encompass the lack of masculine qualities (allowing for an increased lack of self-confidence as young women feel unable to fulfil what now seems to be required of them).
Add to this increasing divorce rates and mothers being told they can do just as well without their husband. Children then grow up accepting that single-parent (or, usually, mother-only) families are normal, often with the parent they live with helping the children to believe that the other parent is a disgrace. Boys grow up not wanting to be the father that their mother hates; girls grow up believing they must do everything because men are essentially a waste of space. Commitment in relationships is lost, marriage vows are just a 'nice touch' but no longer serious and certainly no longer 'until death us do part'. And finally a spouse (or live-in partner) of the opposite sex can be replaced by one of the same sex: one that is more likely to agree with decisions and incorrect lines of thinking.
Gender roles are now so confused that identity by gender is lost. But instead of realising that a mistake has been made somewhere along the line, people still clutch at their misplaced identity and choose to go down the line of redefining gender (redefining marriage didn't satisfy the identity crisis).
And the icing on this destructive cake is that the Christian church is slowly submitting itself to the worldly values. Whilst Christians are meant to show love towards all people, the church has gone from being the mother who loves her children by directing their behaviour and social conduct, to agreeing with people that 'God made them that way'.
The Gospel message has changed from 'turn from your own way and turn to God' and become 'stay as you are and have God as a hobby on the side'.
If the church would only get back to the Biblical truth that we must find our identity in Christ, then we find resolution. Stop chasing things of the world and return the focus to God. Gender deformity is not what gives true identity and value. Neither are material possessions, other people, clothing, dieting or appearances. Finding our identity anywhere other than in Jesus is essentially idolatry.
Identity in Jesus is the message of hope we need to be sharing, and the only true hope for the world. Other people are welcome to join us in this hope, and we should be encouraging people to join us, discipling people to understand the hope we have in Jesus. But we should not change our message in order to attract people to a false hope.
I am who I am because of the I AM WHO I AM.
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