Wrestling with the transmission of Christ’s values to our children?

James Oakley has written a challenging article in the April 2013 issue of the Tasmanian Anglican. James brings his parenting, ministry as children’s and family worker, Christ-following and legal skills to inform his and our thinking. James says in part (but please read the whole article),

… many Australians, including some within the church, will elevate their concept of Australia to the position that God properly occupies: the Australian Nation is sovereign; first allegiance is owed to Australia; the Australian way of life must be preserved at any cost; the Australian Nation is the final arbiter of right and wrong. Sometimes the rhetoric will dress up so-called Australian values as Christian values, as Mr Abbott did last year .

It is also revealing that the language of fear is so prevalent.

The fears that are exposed in Australians by the arrival of asylum seekers, and the response that the electorate condones, reveal a fundamental distrust in God. This is unsurprising in society at large, but it is a serious problem if it occurs amongst people who claim to follow Jesus!

One difficulty in raising children in this environment is that our childrenthey will hear the cultural message. They will and then look to us for a response – do we agree with what the culture says? Is Jesus subordinate to the Great God Australia? If we are silent, or if our Sunday faith does not infect our Monday to Saturday life, then the answer they will hear to both these questions is ‘yes’.

They will hear: us to say that Jesus has no relevance to the plight of people seeking refuge from torture and death. They will hear: us to say that such people are not really our neighbours – we don’t need to be a good Samaritan to them. And this is deeply and profoundly wrong.

What then shall we do?

First and foremost is some honest soul-searching. What do we really think about refugees in Australia? Do we believe that Jesus has nothing to say here; that we owe no obligations to these people; or that the gospel of love and grace has no application outside the migration zone? For if we are in thrall to the idol of national autonomy, we can hardly teach our children otherwise.

Practically, there’s a number of things we can do with our children that can to help them form their Christian conscience on this issue:

• Get on your knees. If we are praying regularly with our kids (and I hope we are), then praying for people who are not connected with us can be a tangible way of caring for them as a whole family.
• Get talking. We can talk to our kids about refugees. Help them to cut through the lies and rhetoric, and understand the facts. Help them to see the humanity of refugees and asylum seekers .
• Get involved. Perhaps there are groups you and your family can get involved with, with an interest in helping refugees and asylum seekers. It might be an English Language Café run out of a church or business, it might be an advocacy group like Amnesty International, it might be a playgroup run by or set up for refugees and immigrants, or it might be a service provider like the Migrant Resource Centre.
• Get radical. If enough Christians were to organise together to provide community accommodation for asylum seekers awaiting a decision, perhaps there would be fewer in detention centres? Could we work with organisations like the Red Cross who already arrange for community accommodation? Would we be willing to open our homes to a person or family seeking asylum in our country?

What would that say about the transforming good news of Jesus!

See James’ article in Tasmanian Anglican magazine of April 2013, Parents as Pastors. For the Australian context of this important issue see for example, Coalition to bring in the drones against asylum boats.