Daddy, Why Are We Going Backwards?

I was riding with a friend and his little son. He drove past his intended turnoff, and because there was no traffic, he decided to back up instead of turning around. He backed quite a long way, and as he did so the little boy became alarmed.

He quavered, "Daddy, why are we going backwards?" He recovered his composure when his father turned off and began to drive forward once again.

But I am thinking of another type of trauma from which it would be harder to recover. That is, changing churches, or even denominations. This, of course, is coming from one who remembers when doctrine was considered an important thing.

When the magazine "Christianity Today" took a poll on why people attended certain churches, they found that the number one reason was driving distance. To many, church for young people is a kind of spiritual day care center. "It's good for the kids to get religion, so I have the wife take them somewhere." With this loose attitude, really wrong doctrine can be taught to the young.

I once worked at Standard Publishing Company and had an opportunity to see some of their material. It showed a puppet policeman named Jerry, complete with nightstick, lecturing the kids on The Law, the ten commandments. See an implied threat there--a little legalism? Hopefully, parents would become enlightened enough to realize this violation against the plain teaching of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, and withdraw the child and themselves.

Some are becoming wise. Millions are not in any corporate church. Daddy will not have to back up from the living room or kitchen table. There, at his side, children will learn that God is not a policeman ready to strike them if they violate the law.