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Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture

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It's election season in America and the culture wars are in full swing. But what can they tell parents about raising children? This is Raising Joyful Children in an Angry World. I'm your host, Paul Osborne. Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, Elon Musk. Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, or maybe you prefer the good old liberal Maureen Dowd, the culture warrior of the New York Times. This week, London Times writer Alice Thompson wrote a piece as to how weary she is of reading about the depravity of men and the abuse of women. She points to a book called Clown World about the influencer Andrew Tate and an investigation into his alleged abusiveness. And the conclusion Alice comes to is the need to educate young boys. Education. Oh, the foundational belief of every culture warrior. If you watch these presentations, these debates, you read the articles, you see people who claim to be culture warriors believe That if they can show their opponent the flaw of their thinking, prove that their political policies don't work, if they can tie cultural influence to these chaotic outcomes, indict and prove the ideas guilty of all of the cultural shortcomings, ah, then the other person will come to agree with them and be willing to adopt their political policies and understand virtue or vice. And the fatal flaw of the culture warrior from all sides is their overconfidence in human reason and the failure to understand the sinful nature of humanity. They dismiss the demonic, and in doing so, the cleverness of the devil and his minions and the effect of the sin nature. Both sides, at best, end up with declarations of law without the proclamation of the gospel. The exposure of humans darkest flaws without the offer of divine redemption and restoration. N. T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop, points out in his book, Broken Signpost, that any exploration into justice, ethics, morality, or these kinds of topics apart from God are an exercise in futility. See, the warrior will get people to click and watch. They're good at selling books at raising money, but the desired outcome, well, it's hardly ever stated. I mean, at least Alice Thompson calls it, fixing the depravity, a word that's almost rarely used, probably why it had to be written in London, dealing with darkness, changing the heart. But sadly the warrior never seems to find the fix. And dare I say in some circles, such a fix would end the culture warrior business. The question that is not asked, but one that I believe could be helpful to a young parent in raising a Christian child might be something like this. How did this little girl, when she was three, four and five, loved her little doll, gave the doll a name, took her to bed. Then as she got a little older, she dressed it and combed the doll's hair. And now that she's an adult woman, somewhere down the road, now holds a militant belief that she has the right to destroy under any circumstances, the life in her womb. How did that happen? How did the little boy who loved discovering his hand eye coordination with balls and bats and built with legos, exploring the world, collecting little race cars, he fought you over bedtime, begged you to be allowed to play a little longer, How did that little boy come to a place as a man in which he believes that he has the right to inject narcotics in the form of gummies and vapes or whatever that literally, literally put his brain to sleep and negatively impact his hand eye coordination? How did he come to that conclusion? Now that he is a man, how did we end up in a world with a story like clown world? with Could it be that somewhere along the way the idea in the first commandment that God is the king, not the child, that VBS rhyme, one king, one crown, one God that's always been around, was missed? Did the child not understand in baptism that they were adopted into the kingdom of God, given God's name? Were they uninformed that confession and repentance should be seen as medicine? But instead saw a confession of sin as some sort of shame. Did the child miss or reject the gospel? And was instead the child treated like a prince. Hey, what's your favorite food? What clothes do you want to wear? Play your favorite games. Learn your favorite subjects. Were they sent to a school that focused on what came easy to them? Did in the adolescence the parents become the servants? And they were not expected to honor mom and dad, but instead expected mom and dad to honor them. It was the person taught that life's best when you're the king, you're the queen. And so that the darkness of the sin nature was fed and not confronted. See, you go back to these verses in the Bible, Mark and chapter 9, where they're having I believe an argument and, and, and again, in, in, in chapter Matthew 18, where Jesus picks up the child, right? Let the little children come on to me, picks up a child, anyone that receives a child in my name receives not me, but the one who sent me. Jesus gives this elevated status of bringing children to him. And he gives this incredibly stern warning to anyone that causes these children to stumble, that it's better that they have a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the river. Oh man, I mean, it's so important that the Lord points this out. And yet, if we're honest, when we're around our gatherings with a bunch of young families, The mention of soul care, spiritual issues, learning about Jesus, God, faith, love, it's not talked about much. See, the cultural warriors, I mean, they love a good debate. I like a good debate. But in the end, unless those that hold ungodly values go back, to being a child in the position before God. All of the cleverly thought out policies and statistics and cultural arguments, they're just going to fail. You're going to find yourself singing that old Eagle song, Desperado, right? Why don't you come to your senses? They describe somebody in the situational ethics of riding fences, filled with envy, not appreciating what's been on their table, but only wanting what they can't have. And the song concludes. Why don't you come to your senses before it's too late? The answer, because unless you become like a child and come to Jesus, you can't come to your senses. At least Ms. Thompson recognizes in her piece the vast amounts of ideas and temptations and pitfalls that the young must navigate in this crazy culture. But she does not see the blindness and the vulnerability of these traps that accelerate human depravity, that they can only be solved by the God who became one of us in order to redeem us. The culture warriors ought to encourage us to take our children to Jesus, to practice confession and repentance as medicine, to not just give them the law but include the proclamation of the gospel, Jesus loves me this I know. It's a song that comes out of a novel that's over 150 years old called saying seal. It's meant to, it's meant to comfort a dying child in the novel, but the title in that novel is as profound as the song, say and seal, proclaim the gospel to your children and seal them for the kingdom as the political fights continue. The ultimate battle for the heart and soul is a fight for identity. Our king invites our kids to know who they are, what to believe, and where they belong. Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.