The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity

Introduction

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Everyday life is a complex affair. Most of it is made up of familiar situations, responsibilities, frustrations, pressures, conflicts, obligations, dilemmas and demands. In the midst of these we entertain hopes and expectations and meet satisfactions and disappointments. But sometimes crisis, public or private, intrude on the regular rhythms of our lives. New opportunities come our way; long-standing certainties are replaced by newly discovered ambiguities. The world around us changes, and it is hard to keep peace with all that is happening. If we are able to deal with portions of what is happening, the big picture often eludes us. Life easily becomes confusing, and the messages we pick up are often contradictory.

There are two further complications. First, those of us who are committed to connecting our faith with every part of our lives are not always sure bow to do so. If it is true, as the major Christian traditions have always insisted, that our religious convictions and values should be reflected in all that we do - the way we eat and drink, work and play, worship and vote, the quality of our parenting and friendships, our involvement with neighbors and of our parenting and friendships, our involvement with neighbors and colleagues, our engagement with popular or high culture - then there is much to consider. All these activities need to be related to our understanding of God, and whatever we learn must be incarnated in our behavior. How else will others know that God makes a distinctive claim on their lives? This is a daunting task, one we cannot handle alone but only with help from others.

Second, it would be easier for us to deal with these matters if there were a deposit of accumulated wisdom on which we could draw. Down through the centuries some impressive groups have developed an integrated approach to life. In such groups, everything was viewed through the lens of faith, hope and love. If the early monastic movements and medieval Christian orders did this for the few, the early Anabaptists and Puritans did it for the many. In the intervening years we have lost some of the breadth of such visions. We have compartmentalized life and either separated ourselves too much from the world or accommodated ourselves too much to it, generally without realizing what we are doing.

There is little to help us over this gap. Sermons are often too general, small groups avoid sensitive subjects, Christian magazines mainly deal with personal or relational issues, theological writings rarely address everyday concerns. This book seeks to provide what we are lacking. We have tried to make it as comprehensive, accessible and substantive as possible. While we have sought to make it practical, it is more than a self-help book because it analyzes wide issues, peers beneath the surface of the subjects it treats, and identifies some of the connections between them.

You can use The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity in a number of ways.

1. You may have a particular interest you wish to pursue (such as developing a simpler lifestyle) or a felt need on which you require help (say, the issue of workaholism). All you have to do is look up such terms in the subject index, find the entries you want, and then follow any cross-references to related articles.
2. You may be passing through a troublesome period of life (such as a midlife crisis) or facing a specific set of concerns (perhaps family problems). In such cases the Life Experience Index is especially helpful, since it lists a range of entries under various life stages and situations.
3. You may be preparing a talk, study, sermon or workshop. As you do so, you may profitably consult entries directly in the dictionary itself. Alternatively, many entries in this volume would lend themselves to being part of a series of small-group or class discussion. You might develop a series with the help of the Life Experience Index, or create your own with the help of group cross-references in a major entry. For instance, a series on redeeming our daily routine might be based on articles about washing, chores, reading newspapers, commuting, office politics, coffee drinking, shopping and television.
   
4. You may wish to use the volume as a textbook for a church or para-church-based class or a college or a seminary course. With regard to the first of these, you could consult the Life Activities, Interest & Concerns Index and take one of its main divisions and construct a series out of it, or choose a theme (such as community) that crosses several divisions. With regard to the second, we ourselves will be using the volume in courses on lifestyle ethics, marketplace ministry and the spirituality of everyday life.
5. You may simply prefer, at times, to browse through the book when and where you have opportunity, moving from topic to topic as your interest takes you. Throughout the volume you will find numerous cross-references in see or see also listings.

For the two of us, working on this volume was an adventure that has developed a growing friendship and appreciation of one another. Through its hundred or so contributors, the book has also introduced us to a wide range of thoughtful practitioners who share some common interests. From the outset InterVarsity Press took a keen interest in the project and, with the help of Rodney Clapp, brought our "concept" into being. We are also grateful to the secretaries and research assistants who helped us at various points on this journey. Above all, we are thankful to God, for all the encouragement and sustenance that came to us along the way, and whose vision for all people and every part of creation is so astonishingly inclusive, vibrant and glorious.

(Originally published 1997. This text is taken from the 2011 version)

"Fire and Ice" from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem, Copyright 1951 by Robert Frost, Copyright 1923, © 1969 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
Portions of "Baptism", "Sacraments", "Fellowship" and "Lord's Supper" originally published in New Testament Spirituality by Michael Green and Paul Stevens, Copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Eagle, United Kingdom. Distributed in North America by Harold Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, IL
Portions of "Body" originally published in Embodied Prayer: Harmonizing Body and Soul by Celeste Schroder, Copyright© 1995. Used by permission of Triumph Books, Liguori, MO.
Excerpts reprinted from Disciplines of the Hungry Heart by R. Paul Stevens, Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Harold Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60189.
Excerpts reprinted from The Equipping Pastor by R. Paul Stevens and Phil Collins with permission from the Alban Institute, Inc., 4550 Montgomery Avenue, Suite 433N, Bethesda, MD 20814. Copyright© 1993. All rights reserved.
The article "Farming" is adapted from the "Long Range Vision Statement" of the organization EarthKeeping.
Portions of "Spiritual Gifts" originally published by Gordon Fee as "Gifts of the Spirit" in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, edited by Gerald F. Hawtrone, Ralph P. Martin and Daniel G. Reid. Copyright © 1993 by lnterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A. Used by permission of lnterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515.

Abortion

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Abortion has been with us throughout the ages. While first accepted as a necessary measure or “therapy” in saving the life of the mother, it has also been accepted in many countries as a means of population control, “quality of life” control (in the case of deformed fetuses) and reproductive control. It is often a choice for teens and women in economic hardship who do not have the resources to care for a child, as well as for women who are victims of rape and incest. In modern Western culture the justification and acceptance of this practice has widened as women’s rights and reproductive rights have come to the forefront. Often a woman’s request for abortion is justification enough for the procedure.

Medical Considerations

Abortion is termination of a pregnancy. It can be classified as either spontaneous or induced. A spontaneous abortion is a miscarriage, that is, the pregnancy ends usually due to various chromosomal or congenital defects, diseases or infections—of fetal or maternal origin. Unlike spontaneous abortion, an induced abortion is not a natural process of the body and involves a medical intervention. This intervention is of two types—therapeutic or elective—depending on the reason for the abortion. If the mother’s life is in danger, as in the case of cardiovascular and hypertensive diseases, an abortion might be performed for therapeutic reasons. An elective or voluntary abortion, on the other hand, is requested for reasons other than maternal health and is the most commonly performed type of abortion in the West today. It is estimated that approximately 25 percent of all pregnancies in the world are terminated by elective abortion, making this the most common method of reproduction limitation.

The method chosen for an abortion is commonly determined by factors like the duration of the pregnancy, the patient’s health, the experience of the physician and the physical facilities. The methods include (1) suction or surgical curettage; (2) induction of labor by means of intra- or extraovular injection of a hypertonic solution or other oxytocic agent; (3) extraovular placement of devices such as catheters, bougies or bags; (4) abdominal or vaginal hysterotomy and (5) menstrual regulation. About 75 percent of induced abortions in the United States are performed by suction curettage for a pregnancy of twelve weeks’ duration or less; these are usually performed in abortion outpatient clinics. There are, however, medical concerns about this spreading practice.

The two major medical reasons for limiting abortion today are fetal viability (which changes with technological capabilities) and medical consequences to the mother. Viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the mother’s womb, now stands at twenty-four weeks and can often be easily defined. Yet the consequences of an abortion procedure to the mother are debated and controversial. While most abortions, especially those done in the first trimester, are safe for women physically, the psychological sequelae have gone undocumented. Some reports deny serious psychological effects of abortion, but most cite overwhelming statistics indicating dire long-term negative effects, including guilt, shame, depression, grief, anxiety, despair, low self-esteem, distrust and hostility. Women with previous histories of psychiatric illnesses tend to be affected to a greater degree.

Both the Canadian Medical Association and the American Medical Association recognize abortion as a medical procedure available under the law. Recently, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education called for compulsory abortion training for students of obstetrics (McFarland, p. 25). In contrast, the Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS) opposes the practice of abortion.

Prolife Versus Prochoice

It is most unfortunate that the abortion debate is divided into two clearly opposing camps: the prolife and the prochoice, each entrenched in its respective uncompromising positions. The prolife stance holds the view that the fetus is a developing human being with intrinsic values and inviolable rights. She is as much a human being as the mother. So the sanctity of the fetal life in the womb, however developed, should have priority over the reproductive freedom of the woman. Abortion should be considered only when the life of the mother is in jeopardy. The basis of the prolife position is largely, but not exclusively, grounded on divine authority and the belief that human life is a gift of God.

The prochoice position does not see the fetus as possessing rights independent of the mother, who alone has the right to decide the fate of the fetus. This maternal right is in turn grounded in the principle of autonomy or self-determination, which provides the mother with freedom to make reproductive choices. The prochoice position also views access to abortion as necessary for women’s complete social equality. They see reproduction as the major obstacle to women’s competing successfully with men, and hence control of reproduction, including abortion, is necessary for equality. Any restriction of the availability of abortion is interpreted as coercing women to carry pregnancies to term against their will.

Personhood

While it is seldom disputed that a conceptus or a fetus is human, there is hardly a consensus as to when a human person begins. Personhood is still a crucial and practical issue, since modern society accords a person certain moral rights, such as the right to life. General philosophical criteria for personhood include any one, a few or all of the following: rationality, consciousness, self-consciousness, freedom to act on one’s own reasons, capacity to communicate with others and capacity to make moral judgments. Some hold that only when one or all of these qualities have been actualized should a human being be considered a person (actuality principle). Others feel that these qualities of personhood only emerge gradually in the course of fetal and early childhood development, so what counts in defining personhood is the potential that the human life possesses (potentiality principle). In this view fetuses and infants are recognized as having different degrees of personhood and therefore are given different measures of right to life.

The Bible does not use specifically the words person or personhood, but a biblical view of personhood can be established on the basis of a Christian doctrine of the image of God. Genesis 1:26-27 reads: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule.’ . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Because God exists as three persons in communion, we also believe that human persons are created in his image to live in community. The most fundamental attribute of being in the image of God and human personhood, therefore, is relationality. God creates every single human person in order to relate to him or her. In response, every created human person seeks to relate to the Creator and other fellow creatures. Since each human being is created uniquely by God, every single human being is God’s image bearer. This is the ground for personhood, uniqueness and the right to life. Life is sacred because God creates a particular life for a unique relationship between him as the Creator and us as his creatures. This relationship begins when a conceptus is formed as God permits a human sperm and ovum to unite in the creation of a new unique life. How that life unfolds and whether all the inherent potentialities are actualized or not do not take away the intrinsic value of that life as God’s image bearer, a human person.

A Christian Response

Such a Christian understanding of personhood undergirds the proper attitude toward abortion. The sixth commandment in the Bible (not to kill; Exodus 20:13) carries the positive mandate of stewardship of all lives as sacred to God. This means not that the value of life is absolute (Matthew 24:9) but rather that no life is to be taken without an absolutely and unequivocally justifiable reason. As the Creator and Giver of life, it is God who ultimately has the sovereign right to take away life. So any attempt to terminate life, as in an abortion, must be done with the fullest sense of accountability before the sovereign God. For this reason the CMDS, both in the U.S. and Canada, in contrast to its secular counterparts, opposes the routine practice of abortion. Four main points are maintained in their position: (1) CMDS opposes abortion, yet supports alternatives; (2) CMDS believes abortion is in opposition to the Word of God, to respect for the sanctity of life and to traditional, historical and Judeo-Christian medical ethics; (3) CMDS believes that the Bible espouses principles that oppose the interruption of pregnancy (the sovereignty of God, the value of life over quality of life, moral responsibility in sexual conduct); (4) in the face of rights arguments put forth by patients and physicians alike, CMDS adheres to the final authority of Scripture, which teaches the sanctity of human life.

But resolving the dilemma of abortion takes more than ardently defending the sanctity of life in the unborn, for there is sacred life to embrace, though tragically unwanted, when abortion is opposed and denied. As a community that espouses Christian teachings and opposes abortion, we must be prepared to parent any children, not just our own, as a shared obligation. This means taking concrete steps to receive unwanted children into our families as a gesture of taking seriously the sacred lives God has created and exercising stewardship.

As a community of grace, Christians must, in addition to exercising the stewardship of life, honor our obligation of love. Love sees a woman seeking abortion as a neighbor in need of compassion. Regardless of whether abortion is given or denied, the pregnant mother, father and other members of the family will likely feel wounded. The Christian community must live out its spirit of koinōnia by developing various forms of care and support during such a difficult time and by providing a context in which repentance, reconciliation, healing and nurturing may take place.

Finally, the Christian community must not abdicate its responsibility in the prevention of abortion in our society. This must be achieved through education of our teenagers and young adults with regard to moral sexual conduct and responsible family planning. Sexual abilities are given to human beings to experience in part on earth what God is fully in eternity—love. Children, as a product of the love between husband and wife, are gifts from God to deepen the experience of love. No sex or childbearing outside the institution of marriage fulfills this divine intention. Christian education in the form of counseling is also important, and participation with a Christlike humility and patience in organizations such as Pregnancy Crisis Center enables a Christian community to resolve and persevere with the abortion dilemma.

» See also: Parenting

» See also: Self-Esteem

» See also: Sexuality

References and Resources

T. Beauchamp and L. Walters, eds., Contemporary Issues in Bioethics (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1989) 181-239; S. McFarland, “The Abortion Rotation,” Christianity Today 39, no. 4 (1995) 25; F. Mathewes-Green, Real Choices: Offering Practical, Life-Affirming Alternatives to Abortion (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 1994); M. L. Pernoll, ed., Current Obstetric and Gynecologic Diagnosis and Treatment, 7th ed. (Stamford, Conn.: Appleton & Lange, 1991); P. Ramsey, “Morality of Abortion,” in Life or Death: Ethics and Options (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968) 60-93; D. C. Reardon, Aborted Women, Silent No More (Westchester, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1987); N. Stotland, “Psychiatric Issue in Abortion, and the Implications of Recent Legal Choices for Psychiatric Practice,” in Psychiatric Aspects of Abortion, ed. N. Stotland (Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, 1991) 1-16; J. R. W. Stott, “The Abortion Dilemma,” in Issues Facing Christians Today (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1984) 2:187-214.

—Edwin Hui

Abuse

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There has been a dramatic increase in the public’s awareness of and concern about various forms of abuse, primarily family abuse. Most of this is physical and sexual assault as well as psychological and emotional abuse against women and children. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation one out of every two American women is beaten during her marriage; 28 percent are battered at least once a year. A woman is battered every fifteen seconds. Battering is the single greatest cause of injury to women in the U.S., more than accidents, rapes and muggings combined. Over 70 percent of men who batter their wives also physically or sexually assault their children. The vast majority of women who are beaten, raped or murdered are assaulted by someone with whom they are intimate. By contrast, men who are beaten or murdered are assaulted by total strangers. The FBI estimates that less than 10 percent of domestic violence is reported to authorities.

Understanding Abuse

Abuse is a buzzword today. One way of overcoming this is to view abuse on a continuum. At one end of the continuum we place brutal, systematic exploitation and oppression. Here power abuse is often premeditated, and the perpetrator knows full well that the abuse hurts others. At the opposite end of the continuum we place relatively mild and sporadic social manipulation. Here the abuser does not intend harm but blindly pursues personal desires and hurts others in the process. Many such abusers are curiously naive about the damage they do to others. This naiveté is usually a factor when abuse occurs in the church.

Abuse of any type occurs when someone has power over another and uses that power to hurt. Physical abuse means that someone exercises physical power over another and causes physical wounds. Sexual abuse means that someone exercises sexual power over another and causes sexual wounds. Spiritual abuse means that someone in a position of spiritual authority uses that position to inflict spiritual wounds. And so, social, political and psychological abuse occurs when those in power use that power to cause unjust suffering to those around them.

The Silent Epidemic

The American Medical Association refers to physical and sexual abuse against women and children as the “silent epidemic” of the 1990s. The AMA tells physicians to be on the lookout for symptoms of abuse and then to go beyond just treating those symptoms. Once doctors see evidence of abuse they are urged to report it to authorities. If necessary, doctors are to assist in pressing charges against the perpetrators of the abuse. This new activism on the part of physicians is one indication of society’s alarm over abuse.

Is there a real increase of abuse today, or are we just reporting it and talking about it more? The answer to both questions is yes. There is a documented increase of child abuse in the home and sexual abuse in and outside the home. For instance, twenty-year-old women are reporting nearly twice the instances of sexual assault against them as their mothers had experienced at the same age.

Also, abuse has become a less taboo topic. For years Americans maintained a virtual silence on the issues of child abuse and sexual violence against women in the home. The church was most reticent of all to discuss these concerns, but now they are out in the open. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, is dealing openly with child sexual abuse by its priests. Some leaders estimate that by the year 2000, the Catholic Church will have paid out over one billion dollars in settlements to victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Spiritual abuse happens when a leader with spiritual authority uses that authority to coerce, control or exploit a follower, thus causing spiritual wounds. Unlike physical abuse, which often results in bruised bodies, spiritual abuse leaves scars on the psyche and soul. Counselors report that those wounded by spiritual abuse share many symptoms seen in victims of childhood sexual abuse, including deep fearfulness, depression, anxiety and an inability to trust. They are often too ashamed to talk openly about it. Some who do talk about their experiences are called “divisive” or “troublemakers” or are told that they are the problem.

Spiritual abuse is as widespread today as it was at the time Jesus spoke the words which contain the Bible’s clearest teaching on the subject. Jesus points out that abusive spiritual leaders demand authority for themselves, based on title and office (Matthew 23:6-7), whereas healthy leaders rely on their demonstrated servanthood to exercise influence. Abusive leaders oppress and manipulate people by heaping on people loads of legalism, guilt and shame (Matthew 23:4), while nonabusive leaders lift those burdens off, directing their followers to Jesus Christ for rest and for “yokes” that are light and fit well (Matthew 11:28-30).

Spiritual abuse occurs on a continuum from minor and sporadic to heavy-handed and systematic. Some abusers are easy to identify by their obviously immoral behavior. Others are much more subtle, but equally damaging. They may officially embrace an orthodox theology and present a polished, respectable public image. But in reality they practice “another gospel” which undermines adult reasoning and personal relationship with God in favor of unbalanced submission to an authoritarian church leadership. Such people subtly coerce their congregations through skillful use of language of intimacy and trust. When these types of leaders pretend to be a friend representing the heart of God and use this illusion to dehumanize and manipulate people, they inflict deep spiritual wounds.

Exploring the Reasons

Many factors contribute to the increasing incidence of abuse: sociological, political, cultural and spiritual. People in the Western world feel an increasing sense of powerlessness, pressured as they are by an increasingly automated, depersonalized and globalized society. One way of responding to powerlessness is by violence, and persons closest at hand frequently are the targets of this frustration. Further, society in general is decaying. Increasingly we hear our culture described as “post-Christian.” One symptom of this is that what is right and wrong from a biblical perspective is taught and understood less and less. Since there no longer exists a moral consensus among us, people increasingly do what is right in their own eyes.

The breakdown of the family also contributes to the increase of abusive behavior in children. Children who grow up in broken and otherwise dysfunctional homes often suffer from poor emotional health and tend to be less psychologically stable. Statistically they are also more likely to be the victims of abuse. Add to this their anger and frustration over being neglected and their efforts to survive under oppressive living conditions, and it is easy to see why disadvantaged children often act out and tend to become abusive toward others. Abusive parents today were very likely victims themselves of parental abuse. This creates a dismal generational view of the problem.

Sadly, there is little difference between the moral performance of the general public and churchgoers. Frequency of all kinds of abuses is more or less the same for the “Christian” and non-Christian population—the abuse of power among church leaders approximates the abuse of power among leaders elsewhere. Power always brings privileges, and all too frequently these privileges are abused.

Using and Abusing Power

The idea of power is complex. Every living human being possesses power. That is to say, every living person has some capacity to act on the environment and effect change—some more, some less. Some people are strong physically, intellectually, spiritually, politically, socially and so on. They have more power. Others are weak. They obviously have less power. Society dictates how certain kinds of power are distributed. Some people are awarded more power, some less. That means that some are dominant and others must defer. In most societies police officers are assigned power. In business bosses are assigned power. In religion pastors and priests are assigned power. In all our social arrangements, power is unequally distributed.

This unequal distribution of power is not the problem so far as the Bible is concerned. “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). The problem arises when those with power use that power to hurt others. When the power arrangements in church and society produce injustice, then God comes against the power abusers and to the aid of the victims. As God’s people, we must have the same attitude.

The Old Testament prophets spoke frequently on God’s behalf against the political and religious power abusers of their day: “For three sins of Damascus, and even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges . . .” (Amos 1:3). When those who were abusing power did not repent of their sin, God stepped in to judge them and work justice for the victims. “The Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock. . . . I myself will search for my sheep and look after them” (Ezekiel 34:10-11).

Jesus continued God’s justice work as he spoke out against the ecclesiastical power abusers of his day and offered help to their victims: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of God in men’s faces” (Matthew 23:13). “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders” (Matthew 23:4). “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

God not only distributes power and allows society to make power arrangements but also demands that those in power act responsibly. Specifically, God calls those in power to use it to serve those subject to them. Isaiah says to the power brokers of his day, “If you do away with the yoke of oppression . . . and if you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed . . . the Lord will guide you always” (Isaiah 58:9-11). That is to say, those in power with the ability to serve the needy are obliged to do so. Jesus put it this way: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. . . . Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:25-26). Jesus has no problem with someone becoming powerful so long as the power of greatness is exercised in servanthood.

Healing Abuse

Anyone with power over others is a potential abuser. Parents have power over children, husbands over wives, bosses over workers, police over citizens, pastors over church members. Before God, these positions of authority, privilege and power come with obligations. Jesus himself models how to carry out these obligations. Jesus exercised authority and power over his followers by washing their feet and laying down his life for them. He was among them as one who served. Paul says that if we possess power and authority of any kind we are to follow Jesus’ example. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Phil. 2:5-7).

Abuse should not become the next cause or the witch-hunt of the nineties. We must be careful to discern patterns of abuse from incidents of mistakes. However, Jesus was certainly not silent on this issue, and we should, as always, follow his example. Any type of abuse continues because of ignorance and silence. As we responsibly discuss it, we can identify and stop it. As we learn to spot and correct abusive leaders and systems, we can also identify and support healthy, nonabusive leaders and systems. In addition, we can bring understanding and healing to many who remain shamed and wounded by past abuse.

The cure for abuse is spiritual healing. This begins with knowing the truth. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The truth is that God is angry at abuse perpetrated in the divine Name. God stands ready and able to heal the effects of such abuse and to turn bad family and church experiences into wisdom and power in our lives.

References and Resources

K. Blue, Healing Spiritual Abuse (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993); P. R. Gaddis, Battered but Not Broken: Help for Abused Wives and Their Church Families (Valley Forge, Penn.: Judson Press, 1996); Bruce A. Chadwick and Tim B. Heaton, eds., Statistical Handbook on the American Family Violence (Phoenix: Onyx, 1992); Linda Schmittroth, ed., Statistical Record of Children Crimes (Washington, D.C.: Gale Research, 1994).

—Ken Blue

Accountability, Relational

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It used to be popular to say, “No one is an island,” reflecting a cultural understanding of connectedness and responsibility between people. But it is different today. Simon and Garfunkel’s plaintive 1960s folksong preached, “I am a rock; I am an island,” reflecting the extreme of our society’s rugged individualism. It is in this environment that accountability has almost disappeared and loneliness has become dominant.

Designed for Accountability

Rugged individualism goes against God’s design for human society. We were designed to be interconnected and complementary to each other. Even though the word accountability does not occur in most Bible translations, the concept is foundational. Male and female were designed to “become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). People of faith are to answer to one another (Acts 15:1-4; James 5:14-20).

A very clear picture of accountability is presented by Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church. Here he uses the image of a builder to describe all people of faith. He then describes how what we build will be measured and the quality or lack of it will bring either reward or loss. He clearly explains how responsible we are to God for all we are and do (1 Cor. 3:10-23).

Meaning of Accountability

What does accountability actually mean? Some contemporary definitions include the following:

Reckoning. Computation. A statement explaining one’s conduct. (Webster’s Dictionary)

Accounting denotes certain theories, behavioral assumptions, measurement rules and procedures for collecting and reporting useful information concerning the activities and objectives of an organization. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

Accountability looks back to some deed done or attitude held. Obligation looks forward to moral demands that need to be met in relationships. (Cole, pp. 734-35)

Our cultural understanding suggests that accountability is best designed when it encourages desirable performance. This process is served by the disciplines of bookkeeping or the classifying of data and activities in order to measure them against agreed-upon standards and expectations.

But in the community of faith it is much more. Accountability for believers is more dynamic. It is organic in nature and expressed through relationships, networks and systems. It is developed through visibility as in commissioning or storytelling, reporting and case-study processes. Further it is developed through strong relationships and creating a “confessing” environment among congregational or small-group leaders, thereby encouraging it among others (James 5:16). Reflection questions can be used in small groups to help people self-audit and mutual friends inquire of each other. Finally, accountability is demonstrated through stewardship and audit rhythms through annual reports, budgets, building upkeep, staff reviews and so on that are magnetic, enriching and clarifying.

Accountability in Scripture

There are examples of accountability in Scripture. Jesus exhibited accountability to his Father as he prayed and reviewed his work in his high priestly prayer (John 17:1-25). He illustrated our accountability to particular kinds of people by his concern for “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40). Ananias and Sapphira were held accountable for their manipulation of money and reputation in the early church and were punished for their violation of the group’s integrity (Acts 5:1-11).

Paul and Barnabas demonstrated their understanding of accountability when they voluntarily reported to the Jerusalem council regarding the controversy about non-Jews coming into the faith through their new work in Antioch (Acts 15:1-35). Paul declared, “Each of us will be accountable to God” (Romans 14:12 NRSV). Rewards and penalties will be administered in light of whether we construct our lives on the foundation of Jesus Christ or something less (1 Cor. 3:9-17). James held his churches accountable for their treatment of widows, the poor, the wealthy and sinners (James 1:9-11, 18; James 3:12-18; James 5:7-8, 17-18). John demonstrated that evil will be judged and recompensed in absolute and final ways (Rev. 20:1-5).

Outcomes of Accountability

Accountability is essential to healthy living. Herein we find protection from our worst tendencies. Sin has given us the terrible ability to misuse every good thing. Belonging to a body of faithful believers shields us from the worst manifestations of this condition. Living in relationships that call for responsibility to others brings balance and complementarity in our areas of weakness and encourages love, forgiveness, insight, protection and care. We are designed for and are called to this, and herein we thrive. Being held responsible to each other in the faith is a human demonstration of our creation nature as those who belong to God and who delight in that relationship.

» See also: Accountability, Workplace

» See also: Church in the Home

» See also: Confronting

» See also: Discipleship

» See also: Fellowship

» See also: Friendship

» See also: Networking

» See also: Small Groups

» See also: Spiritual Growth

References and Resources

G. A. Cole, “Responsibility,” in New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology, ed. D. J. Atkinson et al. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1995), pp. 734-36; D. L. Watson, Covenant Discipleship: Christian Formation Through Mutual Accountability (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 1991).

—Pete Hammond

Accountability, Workplace

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Accountability is not a new concept. Deeply ingrained in the prophetic mind of the Old Testament was the understanding that God holds the leaders of Israel accountable for the care and nurture of his people. For example, God says to the shepherds of Israel, “who only take care of themselves! . . . I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock” (Ezekiel 34:2, 10). Where there is expectation, there is also accountability. This is true for family life, for church membership, for volunteer work, in organizations and in business.

How am I doing? Am I going anywhere? Am I growing? Am I learning? These are the questions of accountability. The expectation of progress, change or movement carries with it the element of accountability.

Accountability and Mission

Accountability therefore rests on a corporate purpose. Without a goal, objective, mission or expectation, there would be no need for accountability. It comes into play as soon as someone desires to change from the status quo to a new level of reality, experience or accomplishment, a future against which the present is compared. Accountability accepts responsibility for movement from the present in line with the purpose and measures progress toward the mission. It does this whether the responsibility is a self-expectation or the expectation of others.

Accountability and Responsibility

Accountability is in fact the flip side of responsibility. While we often use the concept of accountability to refer to the measurement of specific action or behavior in pursuit of the mission or objectives, it might be more appropriate to keep accountability closely linked with responsibility. It is only when a person is understood (and understands himself or herself) to be responsible for a particular action or progress that he or she is accountable. So accountability measures the progress or growth for which a person has accepted responsibility. It assumes that we want to grow, that we expect some movement which we want to measure, unless of course we want to stay in a steady state, in which case accountability seeks to measure that we have not lost ground!

While it is possible to be held accountable by another for a responsibility assigned, accountability and responsibility are most powerfully linked when they are owned. Ownership is the intentional internalizing of responsibility so that a person holds himself or herself accountable. When responsibility is owned, when accountability is internalized, it becomes a personal commitment and a powerful motivating force within the person.

Accountability and Commitment

Peter Block, in his excellent book The Empowered Manager, calls attention to the difference between commitment and sacrifice. When responsibility is imposed from outside and not owned by the person responsible, it requires sacrifice. The individual must sacrifice his or her personal vision to pursue a vision owned by someone else. This is neither satisfying nor motivating. Responsibility is assigned by someone else, and accountability is measured by someone else. On the other hand, ownership of responsibility leads to commitment. When the individual owns responsibility for the purpose, accountability flows from personal commitment. This is the highest form of motivation. The individual is accountable to himself or herself to fulfill the accepted responsibility as an expression of his or her own personal vision.

Accountability and Power

This distinction becomes painfully important in organizational settings where responsibility is given (and accepted), where accountability is expected, but the authority or resources necessary to fulfill the responsibility are not provided. This is the classic definition of powerlessness and leads to a significant loss of motivation and performance. It is critically important that the appropriate authority and resources be available to enable the person to fulfill the responsibility. Otherwise accountability is personally frustrating and organizationally meaningless.

In an organizational setting it is important to distinguish between accountability for results and accountability for tactics or strategies. Responsibility is best shared when it focuses on results and allows the individual to invest himself or herself in the determination of the best way to achieve those results in line with the organization’s mission and values. If too much specificity is involved in this, there is little responsibility given and thus little accountability. The assumption here is that responsibility can and should be shared, recognizing that this does not release those drawn into its exercise from responsibility and accountability.

Whether in business or volunteer church work, accountability structures need to be clearly defined. This can be one to one in spiritual friendships, through small groups, by means of performance reviews and through formal accountability groups, such as those outlined in David Watson’s book Covenant Discipleship.

Accountability at its best is the ownership of responsibility for results with self-evaluation and self-correction as one moves toward the accomplishment of a purpose or the living of a vision. It assumes personal integrity and organizational trust and loyalty.

» See also: Organization

» See also: Organizational Culture and Change

» See also: Organizational Values

» See also: Play

References and Resources

P. Block, The Empowered Manager (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987); D. L. Watson, Covenant Discipleship: Christian Formation Through Mutual Accountability (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 1991).

—Walter Wright Jr.

Addiction

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In the past the term addiction was reserved for the compulsive and uncontrolled use of certain psychoactive substances, notably alcohol, cocaine, narcotics and other mood-altering drugs. In recent times the term has been used as an overall label for a set of diverse addictive behaviors to objects, people, relationships, ideas or pursuits. So we now talk about addictions to food, work, sex, perfection, religion, ministry, gambling and even computer games. It is commonly believed that there is an underlying similarity among the entire spectrum of addictive behaviors—that all addicts desire a sense of well-being, a temporary heightening of self-esteem, a transient experience of ecstasy, a state of oblivion or some measure of relief from pain or tension.

The Addictive Process

The first step in a potentially addictive process is the individual’s encounter with the addicting “object” and the mood-altering experience it produces, the so-called peak experience. This affects different people in differing degrees. Those who are more susceptible to addictive behaviors tend to seek repetition of the peak experience until they become mentally obsessed by this emotional craving and preoccupied by the euphoric recalls, often fed with fantastic imaginations. Because of the mental obsession, the individual begins to lose contact with self and the environment; this is most obvious in the person’s denial of his addictive relationship to the peak experience by saying, “I am not an addict.” Other forms of denial may present themselves as a tendency to minimize the problem, to find an excuse for the preoccupation or to blame others for it.

The next stage in the addictive process is a loss of control. This is manifested not only in the frequent mental recall of the peak experience but also in an escalation of the frequency of acting out. In this stage, seeking peak experiences has become a behavioral obsession, and the individual usually develops observable personality changes, becoming defensive and irritable. Although the addictive behavior may still be within socially acceptable limits, the individual begins to feel shame and remorse and may make repeated resolutions and compulsive attempts to control his or her own thought patterns and behaviors. There is a need to create an illusion to oneself and to others that he or she is still in control.

Nevertheless, repetitions of the peak experience require an increasing amount of the addictive object (for example, alcohol) to be established and maintained. (This process is known as tolerance—a form of physiologic habituation in which the nerve cells become less sensitive and responsive to repeated stimuli so that an increase is required in order to produce a similar level of satisfaction.) When this stage is reached, the addicted individual’s loss of control becomes obvious, as it is accompanied by personal and social breakdowns. Often the addicting behaviors have to be interrupted abruptly due to a number of possible reasons, including financial exhaustion or repeated troubles with the law leading to incarceration. The individual will experience a state of withdrawal that can be mentally, emotionally and physically terrible. The physical withdrawal from some substances can be life threatening.

Psychosomatic Interpretation of Addiction

Throughout the last century, a number of theories have been advanced to explain the causes of addiction. One approach starts from the observation that addicted persons commonly exhibit one or all the following attributes: (1) exaggerated emotions and inability to deal with them, (2) difficulty with forming and/or maintaining normal relationships, (3) inability to look after oneself and (4) low self-esteem. A psychodynamic interpretation following the Freudian tradition suggests that the addicted person may be seeking to counterbalance an unfulfilled need experienced in infancy or a developmental defect due to either a physical or a psychological deficiency; in this view an addictive behavior serves as an affective prosthetic designed to strengthen the individual’s self-esteem. In this sense, addictive behavior is seen as a form of self-medication.

Disease Model of Addiction

While the psychodynamic model is valuable in explaining certain psychological aspects of addiction, it tends to disregard any biological factors as possible determining forces in addictive behaviors. In contrast, the biologic/disease model views addiction as a form of physiologic-genetic abnormality more or less beyond the control of the individual. This has been proposed since 1933 as a cause for alcoholism, with the result that hospitals were opened to treat alcoholics. The biological basis of addiction has since been corroborated by an enormous amount of neurophysiological and genetic research.

One of the most fascinating and significant studies was undertaken by James Olds and Peter Milner, who accidentally discovered in 1954 that stimulation of certain parts of the brain in experimental animals was able to elicit a pleasurable response. When allowed to self-stimulate through an electrical device, a variety of animals would seek these stimulations until they collapsed from exhaustion.

These brain areas are now referred to as reward centers or pleasure centers, and the activities within these centers are mediated by neurotransmitters such as serotonin, GABA and a number of opioid peptides. It is postulated that defects in these centers are linked to a loss or impairment of the sense of well-being and induce in the animal or human a craving for a substance(s) or activity that will relieve the feeling of dysphoria. Heroin, cocaine and amphetamines are known to interact with these centers, making them good candidates for substance abuse. Studies have also shown that activity-related elations and mood upswings associated with physical exercise, such as jogging, are related to an increased release of certain opioid/peptides (for example, endorphins known to be active in these brain centers), thus making health conscious compulsive joggers classic addicts.

Addiction and Heredity

Furthermore, to some extent deficiencies and imbalances in the pleasure centers have been shown to be inheritable. A degree of heredity in addictive behavior was postulated as early as the 1940s, when studies showed that the children of alcoholic parents often underestimated the amount of alcohol they consumed and usually drank considerably more than others before sensing any effect. Recent genetic research has shown that children of alcoholics have an unequal and increased susceptibility to alcoholism or other addictive behaviors when compared to their peers, even if they are raised by a nonalcoholic family.

In a thorough study based on the statistical analysis of the families of 2,651 alcoholics and 4,083 nonalcoholics, parental alcoholism was correlated specifically to alcohol problems in the children. Other adoption studies have shown a high incidence of alcoholism among the children of alcoholic parents, even if they are raised in a nonalcoholic home. These and other studies strongly suggest a possible genetic predisposition for addictive disorders, although the biological mechanism has yet to be elucidated. While the biologic/genetic model is scientific and rational and provides clear explanations for a relatively complex phenomenon, it is too much influenced by a modern paradigm of biomedicine and as such is reductionistic. Specifically, it overlooks social context and personal responsibility in health and sickness.

The Sociocultural Context of Addiction

The sociocultural/behavioral model emphasizes the impact of the social and cultural environment upon the behavior of the individual and its role in the development of an addiction. This approach regards addiction as a socially acquired habit carried to the extreme. Because family plays the most significant role in one’s psychosocial well-being, the stability of the family and particularly its interactive patterns, between parents and between parents and children, may be regarded as the main psychosocial determinant for addictive susceptibility. On the whole, research has shown that a family in which adolescents are living with both biological parents represents a low-risk family environment because it allows secure attachment patterns to be established; children growing up in such an environment are less susceptible to addictive behaviors than those living with single parents or stepparents. High-risk family environments are those in which anxious and fearful parents are extremely protective and restrictive, emotionally abusive parents are contradictory and misleading in communication, or parents are physically and emotionally abusive. Marital and psychiatric problems or conflicts with the law on the part of the parents are also factors in promoting addictive behaviors in children. Outside the family, societal values and worldviews also contribute to a person’s sociocultural milieu and thus play crucial roles in causing addictive behaviors. An example of the influence of social values is seen in the spread of eating disorders, which is correlated to the idealization of slimness in modern society.

Spiritual Basis of Addiction

Finally, there is the moral/spiritual model. This interpretation takes into consideration the importance of human desire as a basic determinant of human life. It views human desire as created by God and for the purpose of relating to God (Genesis 1:26; Psalm 42:1-2; John 17:5). Saint Augustine’s prayer “You have made us for yourself, and our soul is restless until we find rest in you” testifies to this basic human desire. But this desire has been distorted by our sinful nature. When we are disengaged from desiring God, our proper desire is derailed. Turning away from the Creator, we look for created things, objects and relationships to replace God (Exodus 20:3-5; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Cor. 8:4). We seek peak experiences and tend to indulge in them even when they are harmful to ourselves and others. Ultimately, human desire is corrupted to lust, worship to idolatry, devotion to addiction. This model views all addictions as sinful and all sins as addictive. A true test of grace is, therefore, freedom from all our addictions. The Christian life is a pilgrimage from lust to desire and from addiction to freedom.

It is unlikely that an adequate theory of addiction will be provided by any one single model. To the extent that humans are created and redeemed to be whole (see Healing; Health), any satisfactory analysis of addictive disorders must include biological, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions.

Recovery

The first step to recovery is to overcome the denial of addiction, not only by the addict but also by the significant others, who often act as codependents. This may involve painful but necessary confrontations, for which prayer, education and counseling are useful preparation. Next, a modification of one’s sociocultural milieu by avoiding addictive environments (for example, bars, casinos) and joining a specifically antiaddiction group (for example, Alcoholics Anonymous) is important. There is also a need to develop new skills and activities to fill the void after addictive behaviors are removed and to relearn to attend to such basic needs in life as relationships, family, physical health, housing, work and finances. At the same time, one needs to develop new skills to cope with stress, tension and inner hurts involved in feeling one’s true self, which has been masked by the addictive process in the past.

The popular Twelve Steps is a powerful and indispensable program in addiction recovery. Christians may recapture its Christian roots and put the biblical foundation back into this program. Many have witnessed it to be a life-transforming spiritual journey in which they have met God. Admission of one’s powerlessness and surrender to God (steps I, II, III; Proverbs 3:5-6; Romans 12:1) is followed by an honest self-examination and a taking of one’s personal moral inventory (step IV; Psalm 139:24; Lament. 3:40). Confession of wrongdoings and asking for forgiveness ensue (steps V, VI, VII; Psalm 37:4-5; James 4:10; James 5:16; 1 John 1:9), which also includes making restitution to those who have been harmed (steps VIII, IX; Luke 19:8). Ongoing recovery involves an ongoing journey of sanctification by continuing personal inventory and confession whenever necessary (step X; 1 John 1:7-8), and this means daily prayer and meditation to maintain conscious contact with God and to seek his will and power to carry it out (step XI; Col. 3:16). Having been visited by grace and set free, one also tries to share the good news with others who are in bondage and reach out to others who may need help (step XII; Galatians 6:2).

» See also: Drivenness

» See also: Drugs

» See also: Healing

» See also: Health

» See also: Spiritual Conflict

» See also: Spiritual Disciplines

» See also: Spiritual Growth

References and Resources

G. May, Addiction and Grace (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988); J. E. Royce, Alcohol Problems and Alcoholism (New York: Free Press, 1989); The Twelve Steps—A Spiritual Journey (San Diego: Recovery Publications, 1988).

—Edwin Hui

Adolescence

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Adolescence is the period of life between childhood and adulthood in which life-affecting changes occur. Many academics have called adolescence an invention of modern society. They claim that people in more primitive and earlier times, even as late as the nineteenth century, did not view people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five as being in a special time of growth and development. Certainly this time period was not filled with the stresses and struggles that we often associate with contemporary adolescence. While there is some truth to their assertion, one can find many historical references to the fact that the period we call adolescence is significantly different from childhood and adulthood. Some references go back as far as Socrates, who decried the behaviors of youths in his day. It would be worthwhile for us to acknowledge these changes and work with them to facilitate the growth and development of youths from childhood to adulthood.

A Time of Inner and Outer Change

Adolescence is a special time of development in all areas of a young person’s life. Development occurs as youth grow from less to more mature in all areas of their lives within their own social and cultural environment. Because of their development in several domains, adolescents sense new powers, abilities, interests and processes at work in them. Exploring these new avenues leads to new creations both internally within the adolescent and also externally between the adolescence and his or her world.

Internally, adolescents restructure and develop values, and ultimately a new understanding of the self, of “who I am.” This occurs in the six domains of human development: physical—growing from a child’s body to an adult body; cognitive—developing the ability to think abstractly (perform formal operations); social—learning to recognize and accept adult social and sex roles; affective—gaining control of one’s emotions; moral—moving from making egocentric moral judgments and actions to those that are other-centered, then principle-driven and ultimately agape-based; spiritual—forming a personally owned, examined and internalized faith.

Externally, adolescents make many changes in their relationships with others. These changes take the forms of new processes by which adolescents relate to their entire world, new modes of behavior, new relationships and experiences, and new feelings and meanings about others and the external world.

These internal and external processes and relationships produce intrapersonal disruptions, changes, stresses and at times turmoil, as well as interpersonal conflicts between self and parents, relatives, friends, siblings, teachers and many other authority figures.

In short, adolescent development is the process within the total personhood from approximately age twelve through twenty-five by which various structural and development changes occur at identifiable stages along the way.

Adolescent development is manifested in various forms of behavior, some of which are socially acceptable. Other forms are questionable, and some are socially and personally destructive.

Culture and Adolescence

The world of adolescence in both Western and non-Western societies is composed of major dimensions or factors that are characteristics of any subculture. The astute youth worker or parent will want to keep in mind that youth subcultures go through dynamic changes. What might be in vogue today may be out tomorrow; something new will become all the rage for anywhere from a few weeks to a few years or even longer. Only one thing is certain. Youth culture does not remain static; it is in a constant state of flux.

How can one address the needs of youth when the subculture is constantly changing? By becoming a social anthropologist, that is, one who studies youth culture and seeks to understand what is going on. All cultures have certain common factors, but particular subcultures exhibit them in unique ways.

Consider these major dimensions (for 1-8 see Sebold):

Values and norms. These are the basis for decision-making and behavior. They are usually unique to youth and are often not understood by adults.

In-group language, their argot. Youths have their own words and language to communicate with each other that are unique to their own culture and time. This language is not shared by children or adults. In this way adolescents keep their secrets and keep out nonadolescents from their world.

Distinct channels of mass communication. MTV is their station. Rock music radio stations are also theirs. They have their own magazines, Internet pages and forums. This is how they communicate with each other and how the subculture of adolescents is made more homogenous worldwide.

Unique styles and fads. Adolescents have distinct hair and clothing styles, mannerisms and so on. These styles are usually fads that change often within a year or two.

Sense of solidarity. Adolescents feel like they are in their own clan, and they are correct to a large degree. They are segregated into schools, offered low-paying after-school jobs and generally kept separate from the adult world. They hang out together because they are pushed by social institutions.

Status criteria. They have developed a way of measuring successful achievement, ownership and use of their subcultures’ status symbols—language, fads, values, channels of communication and identification with their subculture. People who do not measure up are often shunned or treated badly because they do not confirm to the criteria.

Influence and power of leaders. Adolescents are influenced by heroes and charismatic leaders, especially those that are disdained by adult cultures.

Subcultural institutions. Specialized institutions meet the needs that the main culture cannot, or does not, desire to meet; the entertainment/recreational industry caters to teens by offering youth-oriented magazines and electronic malls.

Geography. This is where adolescents reside and, almost equally important, where they go to learn, hang out, work, have fun, recreate, be entertained and play. They have their own locations, be it a street corner, someone’s house or a mall. It is their own bit of turf. Almost all American high schools have particular sections on their campuses where various subgroups assemble.

Use of technology. Mechanical and electronic technology allows adolescents to escape (or leave) their immediate surroundings and go somewhere else literally or figuratively. Teens escape by means of cars, bikes, skateboards, body/surfboards, radio and TV stations (MTV), youth-oriented movies, video games, amusement parks and concerts. Of great and increasing importance to adolescents are the Internet and other electronic means of communicating with those of like mind.

In many ways adolescents today are in their own world. They are a subculture to themselves. This world is only more complicated by the fact of the irregular but sure development from immature to more mature persons. What youth need today, as in any other day, is loving acceptance of them as real human beings, not some sort of otherworldly creatures that have to be tolerated until they “grow up.” Adolescents are people now. They are people whom God loves, for whom Christ died and in whom the Holy Spirit may dwell. Christian teens are spiritually gifted people called into ministry just as are adults.

Jesus as an Adolescent

Jesus was a teenager! For many, this might be a revelation. Luke 1 and Luke 2 tell of his conception, birth and growth as a normal human being. This does not denigrate Jesus’ divinity; he was entirely God. Luke is careful, however, to tell us that Jesus was also very much a total human being. Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 4:15 also state explicitly that Jesus was just like any other human being. In fact, the writer of Hebrews makes it very clear that Jesus had to be human. If he were not, then he could not identify with us, and his reconciling act of redemption would not be complete.

What is most amazing is that Jesus’ adolescent behaviors in Luke 2:51-52 are similar to those that many teenagers evidence today—and with the same reactions from their parents as Jesus had from his! So the temple narrative provides parents with a great deal of encouragement that their own adolescents, whether they are twelve or twenty-two, are quite normal. Adolescents themselves can find comfort in this story if they recognize that the problems Jesus encountered are similar to their own, and that he can be a model for how to handle similar ones today.

The age of twelve was critical for a Jewish male. This age was the transition from childhood to adulthood, much like modern adolescence is for today’s youth. In Jesus’ day life was less complex, temptations were less prevalent, and society was of one mind in how to raise up children into adulthood, so adolescence may have been less turbulent than now. Yet it was at the age of twelve that Jesus went to the temple, full of the excitement that anyone his age would have contemplating the holy city and the temple rituals associated with the Passover feast.

The narrative of Jesus in the temple illustrates all six of the previously stated major developmental domains or areas.

Physical development. Jesus was evidently a physically mature person, enough for him to take care of himself alone in the capital city of Jerusalem for at least three and perhaps up to five days. Perhaps he even looked older than the normal twelve-year-old.

Luke states: “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52; see also Luke 2:40). Jesus grew up physically just like any other human, and just like young people today. This verse along with Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 4 suggests that Jesus’ physical body went through the same growth and development as any other adolescent. If this is so, then we can assume that he developed structurally and muscularly like any other teenager. His body proportions changed from a boy to a man. He began to grow body hair and develop sexually just like any normal youth. His voice changed from a child’s to that of an adult. He developed hand-eye coordination so that he could pound a nail in the carpenter shop in Nazareth without destroying either the wood or his fingers. He could run and play and had lots of energy. He probably ate as much as possible so that his parents wondered if he had a bottomless pit for a stomach.

Cognitive development. According to Jewish custom, Jesus would at this age begin to study the Law (Talmud) and to take on the responsibilities associated with the Law. His parents evidently felt he could be trusted to make informed judgments about what to do. They had to have allowed him much unsupervised time in Jerusalem, otherwise how could he have been left behind? Jesus evidenced independence from his parents, seeking out his own interests and concerns. He knew enough about himself and what he was about to begin to enter into dialogue with the teachers in the temple.

Mary and Joseph did not seem to understand Jesus. First they thought he was with the pilgrims on the return trip; then they looked for him all through the city. Seemingly in exasperation and not without some sense of hopelessness, they finally went to the temple, not really expecting to find him there. We can almost hear one of Jesus’ earthly parents saying to the other, “Well, we’ve searched everywhere and can’t find him. Let’s start where we last saw him and go from there.” And surprise of all surprises, there he was!

Why did Jesus go back to the temple? He was like any other cognitively growing adolescent. He had questions about life, about his experiences in the temple, about what he saw and heard as he went through the feast of the Passover. One wonders what he might have been thinking if he recalled the words of Isaiah 53 and of the suffering servant of other parts of Isaiah. His parents found him among the teachers in the temple, listening to them and asking them questions. He was using his mind to inquire and learn. One can only speculate as to his questions. It would seem natural that he had questions about the Feast of the Passover which they had all just experienced. Whatever he asked and said, he amazed those around him with his understanding, insights and replies. The teachers and other adults present treated him as a person on a par with themselves. They did not dismiss him as some little child. They allowed him to interact with them. Adults are amazed when a younger person today, like Jesus, listens carefully, asks thoughtful questions and offers responsible answers. So Jesus surprised those teachers in the temple.

In typical adolescent fashion, he was developing a sense of self-identity and mission that would eventually lead him to Calvary. But in the temple, he knew that he was not just the son of Mary and Joseph. He, like adolescents today, had begun to distinguish self from others, to know what he was not and what he wanted to become, and to articulate that self-identity even though in only partial ways. His reply to Mary is instructive about his self-identity. He distinguished between Joseph and his heavenly Father and the need to be in his Father’s house, and by implication, to be about his Father’s instead of his father’s business.

In one sense, Jesus demonstrated what many adolescents want to demonstrate, namely, that they are growing up; they do not want to be considered children any longer; they are searching for new and exciting experiences to test their own sense of identity and development. Jesus’ young life was awakening to his mission and to the very essence of his being.

Social development. Jesus’ parents evidently thought he was a “social” person, that he was somewhere with the crowd of friends and family on the return trip to Nazareth. They must have considered other occasions when Jesus would be gone for a long part of the day and had no great concern for his safety. They probably thought, He’s probably with his friends. Jesus, however, wasn’t with his usual associates; he was holding his own with teachers and priests. Evidently, he could talk and interact socially with many people in such a way that they did not think to consider his young age and his apparent lack of supervision.

Today’s youth are similar to Jesus. They are increasingly socially adept in various situations. With the advent of the first totally TV generation already in history, and now a second and even third TV generation, adolescents around the world are ever more sophisticated in situations that would have totally discomforted their grandparents of the 1950s. Today’s adolescents surprise many adults when given a chance to ask questions and state their thoughts or insights. The problem many adolescents face is not that they lack social skills but that adults will not carry on a serious conversation with them. Often most of the communication from adults to youth is in the form of commands or prohibitions. The “Just Say No” campaign is a good example of well-meaning adults’ failure to recognize the social and cognitive development of today’s youth and the temptations surrounding them. Merely telling youth not to do something without giving them a chance to talk, share, inquire and question is a recipe for failure.

Affective development. Both Jesus’ parents and Jesus himself showed affective, emotional development in the incident in Luke 2 (see Emotions). His parents showed their astonishment and exasperation, if not even panic. Upon finding him in the temple, seemingly calmly interacting with the teachers, his mother let out a typical “Jewish mother” shout. She exclaimed, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” She was emotionally upset. It is no wonder: Jesus had been missing for three or more days, depending on how one counts the days in the text. There had been no hint of where he could be. They were upset, and rightly so. They did not understand why he had done what he had done.

This is a common plight of just about every parent in the world when it comes to their adolescent sons and daughters. Parents continually ask the emotionally laden question “What have you done and why did you do it?” The often-asked question of parents is “What has become of our little boy/girl? You used to be so good. Now look at you. We don’t understand what is happening to you.”

Jesus, on the other hand, showed typical adolescent lack of thought about what consequences his actions might have for other people’s feelings. He was looking for new experiences; he was caught up in the emotion of the event, finding great personal satisfaction by being in his Father’s house. There is no suggestion that “the devil made him do it” or that he was driven to stay in the city by the Holy Spirit. It was his free choice, flowing from his decision to encounter more of the great delight that he found at the temple. Undoubtedly he was excited by the big city of Jerusalem compared to the small town of Nazareth. The activities of the Feast of the Passover with its sacrifice and meals stirred his heart, mind, and soul to reflect on the lamb that was slain. His response would be similar today to an adolescent who attended the Super Bowl and then sneaked his way on the team airplane.

Moral development. Moral development focuses on the way one decides what actions to take and which actions are considered good or bad. Children usually make moral judgments based on what is best for themselves. If they are punished, they know something is bad. If they like what they are doing and there is no punishment associated with it, then it must be good. In the temple story we see Jesus making a moral judgment that it was fine for him not to tell his parents where he was, to remain in Jerusalem without permission, and not to be accountable to any earthly person except himself. He was focused on his own needs, identity, and desire to interact in the temple. He did not think about his parents and their needs. This should sound familiar to parents worldwide. Jesus evidenced typical moral judgments of a twelve-year-old. He may have been physically mature, precocious in intellectual or cognitive development, and well adept at social relationships, but he was typical of early adolescence when it came to moral development.

When Mary rebuked him by her comment, Jesus responded with mild rebuke to her in the form of a question: “Why were you searching for me? . . . Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Regardless of Jesus’ sinlessness, he responded typically of someone at his stage of moral development. Unfortunately, that response is often taken by authoritarian parents as being disrespectful, insolent and therefore offensive.

If we understand Jesus’ developmental stage, we would not see it this way. Jesus’ response to his mother’s question should be taken as it is meant to be understood: a statement of a well-meaning young person who cannot understand why his parents were all upset by what appeared to him as innocent behavior. They should have know where to look for him. Why? Because Jesus knew what he was doing and where he was. He assumed, like most adolescents, that his parents would somehow know what he was thinking if he was thinking it. It takes a higher level of moral development for a young adolescent to be able to switch places with others to learn how they might understand a particular moral situation. Jesus was not mature enough at this point to do so and therefore responded in a typical way to his mother’s excited question and statements.

Jesus demonstrated the way many adolescents make their moral choices. They view things only from their limited moral viewpoint: it takes time for normal adolescents to move from their immature egocentrism to a more mature stage.

Jesus, however, willingly submitted to his parent’s authority. Though he had just alluded that Joseph was not his father, yet he went with his parents to Nazareth and was obedient to them. He recognized that they had authority over him and that his role was to obey that rightful authority. Jesus’ sinlessness comes to the fore at this point. Although all adolescents are tempted and often succumb to defying their parents’ authority, Jesus, being tempted to do the same at the temple, did not. This is where Jesus’ actions differ from those of adolescents: he did not consider his parents’ lack of understanding of him, his actions and motives as sufficient grounds to disobey them. Parents would very much like to see Jesus’ behavior copied by their own adolescent children.

Spiritual development. Jesus’ faith development was evidenced in several ways in the narrative. He was in the temple with the teachers, obviously interested in the faith of his parents and nation. His cognitive and social development helped him to be comfortable asking questions, listening and processing the teachers’ comments. He also was seemingly quite at home in his “Father’s house.” It seems by implication that he had spent a good amount of the days separated from his parents in the temple. His developing sense of who he was and what he was to do was growing on him. One can imagine the intense look on his face and the thoroughness of his questions as he sought to understand what was being taught.

Like all adolescents, Jesus had a genuine interest in religious things, more so since he grew up in a society that enculturated the Jewish faith from infancy through adulthood. To be Jewish meant believing in the one true God of Abraham and the law of Moses. Today the vast majority of adolescents have a sense of religion and a high interest in spiritual matters. Few are truly atheists, especially younger adolescents. Not until young people arrive in university or college classes do they begin to “lose their faith,” or at least begin to have serious doubts about what they have been taught.

Because Jesus was human, likely he had doubts about many things as he grew up. His faith development, however, continued and did not waver. Luke states, “And Jesus grew . . . in favor with God and men.” His strong identification of himself with his Father’s house indicated that his faith development was more mature than that of most adolescents his age. Yet while he was precocious in faith development, he was not totally off the normal faith development scale. He had questions to ask about his faith. Many youth have a strong identity with God and do not waver into unbelief even though they may have doubts from time to time. Many youth have a strong spiritual sense that continues to cause them to seek God and to keep on growing. It is not until the “cares of this life” in adulthood come upon them that they begin to lose some if not much of their enthusiasm for spiritual things. More than one adult has commented on the spiritual enthusiasm of youth by saying, “Just wait until they get to be adults and they see how difficult it is to be a Christian in the world. They’ll not be so excited about Christ then.” If we assume that spiritual and faith development get thwarted by the cares of this world, perhaps these adults are correct. The message of Jesus’ own life and the teachings of the Epistles suggests that while lack of continual spiritual development may not be too unusual, it is by no means the biblical norm. Jesus showed us that a young adolescent could be actively engaged in his own faith development and that such action is normal and welcomed.

Adolescence is a normal part of human development, as Jesus’ example shows. Adults need to recognize the signs of normalcy in the lives of all the adolescents with whom they have contact. Adults should help adolescents along their developmental paths so they may continue as smoothly as possible in their growth and development into more and more mature adolescents and then adults.

» See also: Faith Development

» See also: Family

» See also: Life Stages

» See also: Parenting

» See also: Spiritual Growth

References and Resources

D. P. Ausbel et al., Theory and Problems of Adolescent Development (New York: Green and Stratton, 1977); M. Brake, The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures: Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll (Boston: Kegan Paul, 1980); J. M. Dettoni, Introduction to Youth Ministry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993); D. Elkind, All Grown Up and No Place to Go: Teenagers in Crisis (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Welsey, 1984); T. Lickona, Raising Good Children: Helping Your Child Through the Stages of Moral Development (New York: Bantam, 1983); D. Offer, E. Ostrove et al., The Teenage World (New York: Plenum, 1988); S. Parks, The Critical Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1986); L. Parrott, Helping the Struggling Adolescent (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993); Q. Schultz, R. M. Anker et al., Dancing in the Dark: Youth Popular Culture and the Electronic Media (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991); H. Sebold, Adolescence: A Social Psychological Analysis (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1984).

—John M. Dettoni

Adornment

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Adornment is a mark of humanity. Seashells and lilies of the valley do not need decoration, and it is an affectation to clothe animals, who are never naked. Clothing is a gift of God to humankind.

Adornment Initially Provided by God

In the beginning husband and wife were at ease with one another and naked before God without shame (Genesis 2:21-25). After the original sin, Eve and Adam felt exposed and tried to cover themselves with makeshift aprons of fig leaves (Genesis 3:7). God’s first act of mercy was to provide the man and woman with leather coats so they would be less vulnerable in God’s good world to the cursed thorns, the heat, the cold and the violence and decrepitude that humankind now would be busy resisting (Genesis 1:26-31; Genesis 3:14-21). To this day clothing is a blessing that protects the privacy peculiar to us human creatures made in God’s image.

Adornment and Celebration

When a person is grieving or depressed, you feel like Job that being stripped down to your nakedness is somehow elementally appropriate (Job 1:21). But when it is time to be happy, married or festive, or time for a song about Christ’s victory over sin, you want to be dressed up (compare Isaiah 61:10-11; Rev. 7:9-17). The Old Testament reports extensively on the splendid finery prepared for the high priest Aaron to don after he was ritually purified (Exodus 28-29). The elaborate vestments and perfuming oils certified that Aaron’s official “naked purity” and the priests who mediated God’s forgiveness to God’s people were covered over by the holy glory of God (Exodus 39:27-31). Such attention to careful adornment is probably behind the practice of praising God on the Lord’s Day in “your Sunday best,” since all God’s people are now priests, thanks to Jesus Christ’s mediatorial sacrifice (1 Peter 2:1-10; Rev. 1:5-6).

Adornment as Temptation

Any of God’s gifts to humankind can be perverted by our vanity. The show of a leg, a hairstyle or the jewelry of women and men is evil if it supplants hope in the Lord’s mercy or distracts us from heartfelt love of the neighbor. Then adornment stinks in God’s nostrils (Psalm 147:10-11; Isaiah 3:16-26; 1 Peter 3:1-12). It is typical of false leaders, said Jesus, to wear elaborate suits (Matthew 23:1-12).

Adornment and Joy

It is significant that Christ mentions clothing in the same breath that he says our heavenly Father knows we need food and drink but advises we not chase it down the way godless people do (Matthew 6:19-34). If a person follows secular fashions in order to put himself or herself on display as a conspicuous consumer or simply dresses in a humdrum manner for all occasions, the clothes betray the man and disclose where the woman’s heart is. Both aesthetes who are dressed to kill and ascetics who reject the God-given opportunity of adornment to enhance our bodily lineaments go wrong. Humans are called upon to thank God for clothing, to use cotton, flax, wool and animal fur and skin to protect ourselves from evil, and to reflect that we are corporeally a good-looking godly man or boy or a glorious girl or woman of God—in short, that we are beautiful. Homespun, imaginative ethnic apparel can often be more normative and comely in the Lord’s eyes than reigning secularized Western couture if the dress brings an ordinary, peaceful joy of nuanced glory to one’s neighbor.

» See also: Body

» See also: Culture

» See also: Dress Code, Workplace

References and Resources

J. Craik, The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion (London: Routledge, 1994); A. Lurie, The Language of Clothes (New York: Random, 1981); M. Starkey, Fashion and Style (Crowborough, U.K.: Monarch, 1995).

—Calvin Seerveld

Advertising

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Years ago Marshall McLuhan said, “Ours is the first age in which many thousands of our best trained minds made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind . . . to manipulate, exploit, and control” (p. v). Given its pervasive and persuasive character, advertising is without doubt one of the most formative influences in popular culture, shaping values and behavior and telling people how and why to live. It is estimated that the average North American is subjected to over one thousand advertisements daily in one or other of the media (television, radio, magazines, newspapers, billboards, direct mail) covering everything from perfume to automobiles, from fast food to insurance.

Advertising is simply any paid form of nonpersonal presentation to promote products, services or ideas, sometimes, but not always, in a way attractive to the person the advertiser wishes to influence. In a market economy, advertising can supply information needed for the people to make an informed choice. But on the other hand, advertising is frequently used to persuade people or even seduce them to believe that what they want is what they need and that consuming a particular product will in some way change them. In other words, advertising tinkers with identity and values.

Not a Recent Invention

While many people think advertising was invented on Madison Avenue in New York City during the post-World War II boom, advertising is as old as civilization. Ironically one of the oldest pieces of advertising from antiquity that can be viewed today is an inscription of a woman in the pavements of ancient Ephesus (modern Turkey) advertising the nearby brothel. But even before this, in ancient Egypt (3200 b.c.) the names of kings were stenciled on temples, and runaway slaves were “advertised” on papyrus. Advertising took a giant step forward with the invention of movable type and the printing of the Gutenburg Bible (a.d. 1450). It could then be endlessly repeated and mass-produced. Not long after this, an English newspaper advertised prayer books for sale, a forerunner of the newspaper ad. While it can be argued that people have always been trying to persuade others to do, buy or experience something—from town criers to preachers—it is unquestionable that rapid industrialization, urbanization, the proliferation of media and now the information superhighway have escalated advertising to a central role in culture formation, perhaps even in spiritual formation, since it is a major player in establishing values and defining meaning-giving experiences.

As a form of communication, advertising has some good intended effects, some recognized by commentators on the Third World scene, where advertising has found almost virgin territory. Besides sometimes giving people information to make choices when there is more than one product or service offered, advertising is often used to promote desirable social aims, such as savings and investment, family planning, health-promoting products (such as antimalarial drugs), lifestyles that will reduce AIDS and fertilizers that will enhance crop production (MacBride, p. 154). Advertising helps the media to be autonomous from politics—not a small matter in some countries. But when we consider the overall impact, it is less clear to most observers that the effects of a highly commercialized culture are beneficial. Nowhere is this more evident than in the West.

The Not-So-Subtle Message

The intended effect of advertising is not merely to make a sale but to awaken or produce predispositions to buy an advertised product or service (Britt, p. 195). To advertise “Coke Is It” is not simply to sell a brand, but to have us think of branded, packaged goods when thirsty, not just plain water. It also alters our perceptions so that when we experience that branded beverage, we will see it a certain way, associating fizziness with youthfulness and joy. The total effect of advertising is to preoccupy society with material goods and services as the path to happiness and the solution to virtually all problems and needs. Commercial persuasion appears to program not only our shopping patterns but also the larger domain of our social roles, language, goals, values and the sources of meaning in our culture.

Advertising does this very effectively for several reasons. It is (1) pervasive, appearing in many modes and media; (2) repetitive, reinforcing the same and similar ideas relentlessly; (3) professionally developed, with all of the attendant research sophistications to improve the probabilities of attention, comprehension, retention and/or behavioral impact; and (4) delivered to an audience that is increasingly detached from traditional sources of cultural influence like families, churches or schools. A stunning example of the deceptiveness of advertising is the story of American cigarette ads in the 1960s. Backed by massive television budgets, they implied that filtered brands were good for our health. Smoking rates among teenagers continued to grow even after the famous report of the surgeon general in 1964.

Unintended Consequences

Not surprisingly, such an intrusive and all-pervasive system of communication has been negatively critiqued by academics and social scientists who are concerned with the effects of advertising on role-modeling, child development, social behavior and even religious belief. A Yale psychologist confessed, “Advertising makes me miserable” by an intensified pursuit of goals that would not have been imagined save for advertising (Dollard, p. 307). People are induced to keep productive in order to keep consuming, to work in order to buy because we are always in need of more. This has the serious (unintended) side effect of displacing feelings from people to objects and an alienating effect in which the self is perceived not as a child of God or as a person in community, but as an exchange commodity. Life is trivialized, not dignified, when someone becomes evangelistic about mundane material objects like mayonnaise.

Nowhere may interpersonal relations be more affected than in the home as the roles of both women and children as consumers get expanded and redefined. Advertising has become an insolent usurper of parental function, “degrading parents to mere intermediaries between their children and the market” (Henry, p. 76). Relations with neighbors, the proverbial Joneses we strive to keep up with, are increasingly based on envy, emulation and competition. Advertising works on the tension-arousal and tension-reduction (with the use of the product) process. In the case of the poor and marginalized, the inaccessibility of the products being offered “may create in some viewers feelings of frustration sufficient to make them engage in antisocial acts” (Myers, p. 176).

Advertising, for almost as long as it has existed, has used some sort of sexual sell, sometimes promising seductive capacities, sometimes more simply attracting our attention with sexual stimuli, even if irrelevant to the product or the selling point. While less graphic than pornography, advertising is more of a tease than a whore, for sexual stimulation is moderated and channeled. Nevertheless, the overall effect represents a challenge to standards of decency, a devaluing of women and a revaluing of the body. Erik Barnouw notes that we now see women caressing their bodies in showers with a frequency and reverence of attention that makes “self-love a consecrated ritual” (p. 98).

Advertising also affects the credibility of language. S. I. Hayakawa notes that “it has become almost impossible to say anything with enthusiasm or joy or conviction without running into the danger of sounding as if you were selling something” (p. 268). Advertising is a symbol-manipulating occupation. For example, “Christmas and Easter have been so strenuously exploited commercially that they almost lose their religious significance” (Hayakawa, p. 269). Because virtually all citizens seem to recognize this tendency of ad language to distort, advertising seems to turn us into a community of cynics, and we doubt the advertisers, the media and authority in all its forms. Thus we may also distrust other received wisdoms from political authorities, community elders, religious leaders and teachers of all kinds. But without trustworthy communication, there is no communion, no community, only an aggregation of increasingly isolated individuals, alone in the mass.

Religious Significance

Some anthropologists view advertising in terms of rituals and symbols—incantations to give meaning to material objects and artifacts. Advertising defines the meaning of life and offers transcendence in the context of everyday life. Our commercial-religious education begins early with jingles, slogans and catch phrases, the total commercial catechism, so that children learn the “rite words in the rote order.” So direct exhortations are employed, literally a series of commandments, a secular litany that Jacques Barzun identified as “the revealed religion of the twentieth century” (p. 53). “You get only one chance at this life; therefore get all the gusto you can!” is a theological claim and a moral injunction. Toward this end advertising appeals to the traditional seven deadly sins: greed, lust, sloth, pride, envy and gluttony, with anger only infrequently exploited or encouraged. Since these words are frowned upon in the advertising community, they must be given a different spin. Lust becomes the desire to be sexually attractive. Sloth becomes the desire for leisure. Greed becomes the desire to enjoy the good things of this life. Pride becomes the desire for social status (Mayer, p. 128). In this way advertising cultivates what Paul called “the works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:17-23; Galatians 6:8 NRSV). Morality is subverted; values are revised; ultimate meaning is redefined.

The Ethics of Persuasion

All this happens largely without the viewer knowing it. Those who defend the present state of the advertising art claim that the most far-reaching advertising campaign cannot force someone to buy something he or she does not want. The citizen is supposedly immune to persuasion. But advertising is by definition intrusive, so intrusive that the real message communicated on television or in magazines is often the commercials. This successful commanding of attention makes the attempt to concentrate on the remaining content of media “like trying to do your algebra homework in Times Square on New Year’s Eve” (Hayakawa, p. 165).

Such intrusion, first into our consciousness and then into our inner voices, distracts us from the serenity of solitude and thereby inhibits self-awareness. The repetitive, fantastic, one-sided and often exhortative rhetorical styles of advertising combine to blur the distinction between reality and fantasy, producing a state of uncritical consciousness, passivity and relative powerlessness. Nonwants becomes wants; wants become needs. Advertising would never have taken hold the way it has without the American (and ultimately the Western) psyche having undergone a change in the direction of viewing itself therapeutically. We need help; advertising offers it. Not only this, but morals and values get adapted to the message: indulge, buy, now and here. As Barnouw observes, “The viewer’s self-respect requires a rejection of most commercials on the conscious level, along with some ridicule. Beneath the ridicule the commercial does its work” (p. 83).

It does this work in ways that are ethically questionable. Advertising is advocative through giving incomplete information, half-truths or careful deceptions, by being insistent, exhortative and emphatic. It appeals essentially to emotions, seducing people to indulge themselves now rather than defer gratification, reducing life to the here and now, if not the moment. It reinforces social stereotypes, aggravates sexism, racism and ageism. In idealizing the “good life” advertising makes us perpetually dissatisfied. Can it be resisted?

Battling Seduction

The myth of immunity to advertising’s inducements is clearly a delusion for some or perhaps many or even most of the public, including Christians. So the first thing we need to do is admit that we live in an advertising environment. Then what?

First, Christian organizations and churches need to repent of their own seductive advertising. The end never justifies the means. Keeping the televangelist on the air does not justify half-truths and appeals to the flesh. Many relief organizations use rhetorical devices and selected “truths” to get money for their great cause. A good first step would be for Christian organizations to establish an ethical code for their own advertising to be published along with their financial statements.

Second, the church or groups of people can lobby or use legitimate channels of political expression to press for the closer regulation of advertising. Some obscene ads have been effectively banned by consumers boycotting certain suppliers, although an unintended side effect is sometimes more publicity for the product itself, as happened with some of the Calvin Klein ads (Faltermayer, p. 64).

Third, Christians working in the advertising industry need the prayerful support of their church as they are stewards of the culture and shapers of morals. There is no place in the world where it is easy to work as a Christian (even the church), but there is no place so demonized that a Christian might not be called to work there. The well-known novelist and apologist Dorothy Sayers worked for many years in advertising and turned the experience to good literary and theological effect.

Fourth, individually we can become more critical of advertising, reflecting on what we see and hear and discussing the intended and unintended consequences as families and groups of friends. One of the most important facets of Christian education in the family is to learn how to more than survive in the world. This will normally involve limiting time watching television, deliberately excluding commercials where possible and discussing the values implicit in advertising.

Fifth, in place of the seven deadly sins, which are often cultivated by the advertising industry, we should cultivate the seven cardinal virtues—wisdom, justice, temperance, courage, faith, hope and love (see Organizational Values; Values). Spiritual conflict is a fact of life in this world, but if we live in the Spirit and are firmly rooted in a genuine community of the Spirit we can battle the world, the flesh and the devil victoriously. Paul said, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Galatians 5:16 NRSV).

Sixth, the recovery of solitude, sabbath and spiritual disciplines are crucial to regaining and keeping our true identity. Most people in the Western world need to reduce the input they receive from the media, take periods of fasting from television, magazines and advertising, in order to regain perspective. If we get over a thousand messages each day to buy and consume, we need equally to hear God speak through Scripture and the stillness of our hearts. The advertising world cultivates discontentment; true spirituality leads to contentment whether we have much or little (Phil. 4:12). By recovering God at the center through worship, we are protected from both being manipulated and becoming manipulators.

Seventh, we need to recover shopping as a spiritual discipline: not shopping impulsively, not shopping thoughtlessly, not buying on the strength of advertisements but doing our own research on products and services with the help of others and objective surveys.

Advertising is clearly not an omnipotent master, nor is the consumer a helpless puppet. But the cumulative effect of an advertising environment cannot be avoided. The analogy of rain is appropriate. Individual raindrops are benign and have little noticeable impact, like individual advertisements inducing us to consume. But when heavy rains come, defensive gear is needed. In a deluge individuals become preoccupied, and in extreme conditions, overwhelmed. Advertising has such influence not only because of its saturation impact but because it normally addresses many of life’s common issues, while other institutions, especially the church, have all too often neglected everyday life—eating, sleeping, playing, working, relating, washing and so on. The issue posed by advertising today is simply who will become the social and spiritual guide.

» See also: Consumerism

» See also: Culture

» See also: Need

» See also: Shopping

» See also: Simpler Lifestyle

References and Resources

E. Barnouw, The Sponsor: Notes on a Modern Potentate (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978); J. Barzun, “Myths for Materialists,” Chimera 4, no. 3 (1945) 52-62; S. Britt, “Advertising,” in Encyclopedia Americana (Danbury, Conn.: Grolier, 1989) 1:195-206; J. Dollard, “Fear of Advertising,” in The Role of Advertising, ed. C. H. Sandage and V. Fryburger (Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1960) 307-17; C. Faltermayer, “Where Calvin Crossed the Line,” Time, 11 Sept. 1995, 64; S. Fox, The Mirror Makers: A History of Twentieth Century American Advertising (New York: Morrow, 1984); E. Griffin, The Mind Changer: The Art of Christian Persuasion (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1976); S. I. Hayakawa, Language in Thought and Action (New York: Harcourt, 1964); J. Henry, Culture Against Man (New York: Random, 1963); S. MacBride, Many Voices, One World: Communication and Society, Today and Tomorrow (New York: Unipub-UNESCO, 1980); M. Mayer, “The American Myth and the Myths of Advertising,” in The Promise of Advertising, ed. C. H. Sandage (Homewood, Ill.: Irwin) 125-33; M. McLuhan, The Mechanical Bride (Boston: Beacon Press, 1951); J. G. Myers, “Advertising and Socialization,” in Research in Marketing, ed. J. Sheth (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1978) 1:169-99; R. W. Pollay, “The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising,” Journal of Marketing 50 (April 1986) 18-36, portions quoted with permission; R. W. Pollay, “On the Value of Reflections on the Values in ‘The Distorted Mirror,’” Journal of Marketing 51 (July 1987) 104-9.

—Richard Pollay and R. Paul Stevens

Affirming

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The Boston Marathon is among the world’s best-known races. One of the most infamous portions of the 26-mile, 385-yard course is “Heartbreak Hill.” Thousands of spectators gather there to cheer on the near-collapsing runners. During one race a young man was near total exhaustion as he approached the foot of Heartbreak Hill. Halfway up the hill an older man, in better shape, came alongside the younger man, put his arm around him and spoke quietly to him. Together step by step, they painstakingly made their way to the top. This is a picture of affirmation. To affirm is to endorse someone who needs consolidating or firm up what is crumbling. The writer of Hebrews calls us to “strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees” (Hebrews 12:12). We do this primarily with words, but sometimes through actions.

The Bible not only encourages us to affirm but also contains stories of how people were affirmed. For example, the story in Exodus 17:8-13 is a picture of enormous struggle and the weariness that comes from striving to reach up to God. Certain destruction is averted by coming alongside of committed family and friends. When the Amalekites attacked Israel from the desert, Moses sent Joshua into battle. Moses withdrew to the mountain for the labor of oversight and intercession with God. He discovered that when he held his hands and staff up to the Lord, Israel prevailed in the battle, but when he let his hands down, the Amalekites prevailed. Soon Moses’ hands were so heavy that he could no longer raise them in victory. His brother and brother-in-law moved him toward a resting stone and helped him lift his hands to the Lord. As a result, Joshua defeated Amalek. Moses’ action was affirmed in a very practical way.

In the New Testament mutual affirmation is one of the normal ways of ministering love to one another in Christian fellowship. Paul himself is a wonderful example of this in the way he endorses those to whom he writes, always encouraging them in the opening lines of his letters, even those who were not affirming, but criticizing him (as, for example, the Corinthians).

Affirming Others in Daily Life

In a survey parents were asked to record how many criticisms versus affirming comments they made to their children. The results were alarming: they criticized ten times for every affirming comment. In one Florida city teachers revealed that they gave 75 percent more criticisms than verbal blessings. The Institute of Family Relations reports that it takes four affirming statements from a teacher/parent to offset the effects of one criticism to a child. William Barclay comments:

One of the highest duties is the duty of encouragement. It is easy to pour cold water on . . . enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. (p. 95)

We should also affirm each other in the church. Knowing some of the difficulties our church leaders would be facing in the beginning of the new year, I wrote the following blessing for them:

Enough joy to keep you pure.

Enough slings and arrows to keep you courageous and watchful.

Enough anguish to keep you vulnerably human.

Enough hope to keep you faithful daily.

Enough failure to keep you humble.

Enough sleep to keep you rising early pray.

Enough wealth to keep you generous to others whom few are generous to.

Enough confusion to keep you wondering and dreaming.

Enough success to keep you eager.

Enough friends to keep you encouraged.

Enough enthusiasm to keep you expectant.

Enough hardihood to keep you willing.

In this way I sought to affirm in advance the work they would do and struggles they would have.

Practical Ways to Affirm Others

In intimate relationships, we can lose intimacy by overfamiliarity. Often it is good to return to treating each other as we did when we first met. We are polite, affirming and interested. Our conversation is more focused on the other than on ourselves. For married couples who find their affections broken and in need of affirmation, this idea can help.

Ask to see what God is doing and comment on it. Seeing others through our Lord leads to discernment. We can affirm others and be there for them in their hour of need. Seeing another’s need in the light of God’s love for him or her frees us to respond in that love, making us safe, giving and serving.

Understand that seeing the good in someone is a spiritual discipline! It is uncreative and lazy to find a person’s weaknesses. This is probably why we do it so often. However, to see the good in another and to make comment are a great encouragement.

Practice “positive gossiping” (see Gossip). Exchanging positive affirmations about our family, friends and colleagues distributes warmth to all. A couple who did this each night about their children allowed the children to fall asleep hearing their parents brag about them. Sometimes it is awesome to overhear your name spoken well of.

Observations are always more powerful than compliments. Compliments can make you feel worthless and are often discarded before they are fully enjoyed. A therapist, after giving an affirmation, wanted his client-friend to remember it. Upon hearing the dismissive thank-you, the therapist said, “This is not a compliment; it is an observation.” This is more likely to be valued as being true and authentic.

Catch someone doing “good.” When my daughter was four years old and quite proud of her long brown hair, she was observed by the church grouch stroking her locks during worship. Wanting to protect her from a reprimand, I leaned over, but heard, to my surprise, “Christine, you have beautiful hair and are a beautiful girl. I love how you sing.” Later, my daughter said, “That nice lady caught me doing good!” That is affirmation!

Dump the “yes, buts.” A “yes, but” is a hidden criticism behind a halfhearted compliment. Drop them both. Also, evaluating and comparing one person with another is almost always unaffirming. Address people on their own merits.

Recognize that affirmation is a challenge. When someone is well affirmed, it often is psychologically upsetting! People are not used to the straightforward challenge of an affirmation. Affirmations challenge how a person thinks about himself or herself; it confronts discrepancies in how one views life.

Affirmation is a friendship skill. It warms both the giver and the receiver to the relationship. Friendships are built and sustained by affirmation. So too are good marriages and parenting. Author Lawrence Peters (The Peter Principle, p. 82) has noted that you can tell a real friend by the fact that when you have made a fool of yourself, he or she does not feel you have done a permanent job. Affirmation is the ability to maintain a relationship with a friend who has failed.

When we affirm each other, God too is there affirming us: “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17). The ultimate affirmation is from God at the end of the race: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23 NRSV). But even before the end of the race, God affirms us in the context of everyday life through God’s servants—whether knowingly or not—and through the hug of the Spirit within.

» See also: Blessing

» See also: Blessing, Family

» See also: Family Communication

» See also: Friendship

» See also: Love

References and Resources

W. Barclay, The Letter to the Hebrews: The Daily Study Bible (Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press, 1955); R. F. Capon, The Parables of Judgment (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989); X. Leon-Dufour, Dictionary of Biblical Theology (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1970); B. Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up and Burnt-Out (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah, 1990); L. Peters, The Peter Principle (New York: Morrow, 1969).

—Paddy Ducklow

Aging

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Every species has a definite life span, and human beings are no exception. Aging is an inevitable concomitant of life. As the preacher put it: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die” (Eccles. 3:1-2 NRSV). Human beings age rapidly. The human body attains its peak of efficiency early. The rate of scar formation begins to decrease as early as age fifteen. Eventually, there are inescapable signs of physical decline: failing eyesight, impaired hearing, shortness of breath, high blood pressure; often associated with these is a measure of mental deterioration: memory lapses (an inability to remember the recent past while retaining intact older memories) and frequent repetitiveness. The final stage of the aging process is that of second childhood: when a semiliquid diet replaces solid food, the digestive function becomes the focus of attention, and one becomes increasingly dependent on the care of doctors and nurses.

The aging process, being biologically determined, is part of God’s providence and is to be accepted with grace. Somerset Maugham, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, was obsessed with the matter of his longevity and sought desperately to arrest the aging process. During the last twelve years of his life he regularly submitted to a series of rejuvenation treatments (involving life-preserving injections) at a clinic in Switzerland. It is doubtful whether they extended his physical life. What is not in question is the moral and intellectual deterioration that was such a sad feature of his final years.

Not everyone resorts to such desperate expedients; more popular is cosmetic surgery. Medical science suggests, however, that self-acceptance is the best antidote and cure for the discomforts that are inseparable from growing old.

Aging from a Sociological Point of View

Sociologists note the significant involvement of older people in politics and religion as well as their active membership in clubs, lodges and auxiliaries. Golden-age clubs and senior-citizen groups, which provide recreational, educational, health and welfare services, cater to an aging population and have an important role to play. There are also widely read magazines for seniors, such as Modern Maturity.

The older people are, the fewer the social roles open to them. Older people retire from work, their children leave home, their peers die, and their contacts with others tend to contract and lessen. Social activity, however, remains greatest among those who are in good health and who come from a higher, rather than a lower, socioeconomic background. For those with a living spouse, the marital relationship continues to be of central importance, making possible a variety of joint activities. Shakespeare speaks of the seven ages of humankind. He paints a sad and poignant picture of human beings in their dotage: “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything.” Though the aging process is often sad, it can also be strangely beautiful, for Christians believe that “at evening time there shall be light” (Zech. 14:7 NRSV).

The extraordinary advances in medical science, together with the availability of new drugs, have had a dramatic effect on such things as life expectancy. An increasingly aging population is a social challenge. Most of the elderly are women. Furthermore, there is a growing disparity between the age of retirement and the time when all biological effects of aging begin to make themselves felt.

Aging from a Biblical Perspective

The classic description of the aging process is that given by the preacher in Eccles. 12. He provides a beautiful and poetic description of progressive fading and failing in each of the several faculties of the body. It is a picture of sad and ineluctable deterioration and decay.

We are exhorted to remember our Creator in the days of our youth “before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened,” before “the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; when the doors of the street are shut” (Eccles. 12:2, 3-4 NRSV). The marvelous beauty of the imagery cannot disguise the fact that what is being described is the painful loss of one’s capacity to work, walk, eat, see and hear. The exhortation then is to look beyond all earthly vanities, to face the fact of our coming mortality: when “the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it” (Eccles. 12:6-7 NRSV). So, in matchless language, the remorseless decay of all our faculties and their final dissolution are portrayed.

Other passages of Scripture highlight additional facets of aging. The psalmist describes divine companionship in the green pastures and by the still waters and also in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23). The apostle Paul uses the image of a tent to speak of the body: a time is coming when the tent must be pulled down, to be replaced by “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1 NRSV). In the meantime, those who are aging know that their times are in God’s hands (Psalm 31:15). Each age has its own glory. If the young are given the privilege of seeing visions, the old are given that of dreaming dreams (Joel 2:28). If there is the happy remembrance of things past, there is also the joyous anticipation of what is yet to be: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

» See also: Body

» See also: Church Family

» See also: Empty Nesting

» See also: Grandparenting

» See also: Retirement

» See also: Sickness

» See also: Soul

References and Resources

R. Blythe, The View in Winter: Reflections on Old Age (Baltimore: Penguin, 1981); S. M. Chown, ed., Human Aging (Baltimore: Penguin, 1972); N. Coni, W. Davison and S. Webster, Aging (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992); D. Hobman, ed., The Impact of Aging (London: Croom Helm, 1981); R. A. Kenney, Physiology of Aging (Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, 1989); P. Tournier, Learning to Grow Old (London: SCM, 1972).

—Barton Babbage

Allowances

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Many people believe that the best way parents can give their children a financial education is to give them practical experience through an allowance, “a sum regularly provided for personal expenses” (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1974). As you cannot learn to read without books, you cannot learn how to handle money if you never touch it.

The Bible contains much about training up children in the way of the Lord (for example, Deut. 6:6-7; Ephes. 6:4), and personal finances are as important an area in which to lay down a godly life pattern as any other. There are many general references to handling money in the Scriptures, and many of these can be applied to the raising of godly and wise children. For example, insights such as “Whoever loves money never has money enough” (Eccles. 5:10 NRSV) and Jesus’ comment on the sacrificial generosity of the widow’s offering (Mark 12:41-44) are vital parts of a child’s home “curriculum.” The specific commandments against stealing and coveting that, according to Deuteronomy, are to be impressed upon children are certainly to the point. The passages in Proverbs about money are also applicable (for example, Proverbs 1:19; Proverbs 3:9; Proverbs 13:11, 22; Proverbs 15:16; Proverbs 28:8). Certainly handling personal finances is one of the key ways in which a child needs to be trained. In our increasingly complicated and stressful economic world, as much practice with money as possible before adolescence is particularly essential.

Two Kinds of Allowances

We must be clear on terminology: some parents apply the word allowance only to regular money given to a child that is not tied to any chores but just reflects the child’s membership in the family. Most families expect contributions by the child to the cleanliness of his or her own body and bedroom and usually encourage some participation in household work, but the allowance is never seen as a direct reward for any duties. It is never removed as a punishment for “sins” of omission or commission in the area of chores or personal responsibilities. With this approach, which we might call the true allowance, additional funds can still be received by the child for assignments in the household that they take on voluntarily (for example, grass cutting).

Other families downplay or eliminate the type of allowance just described in favor of a pay-for-work approach. While the parents with this mindset agree that personal hygiene, tidying one’s closet and doing school assignments should be their own reward, they arrange (often in dialogue with the child) regular, age-appropriate duties that are real contributions to the household (for example, dusting, laundry and gardening) to which all or most of the allowance is directly linked. This approach, which could be called the cooperative family economy, clearly puts emphasis on the Scriptures that teach against laziness (for example, Proverbs 10:4; 2 Thes. 3:11-12) and about the dignity of work.

For at least two reasons those taking this approach should not give up on some expression of the true allowance: (1) to avoid turning childhood into a job and caregivers into managers and (2) to help regularize and control the inevitable gifts of money (for small treats) that flow from parent to child during a week. Why not collect these “gifts” into a simple, true allowance and eliminate a lot of bother? On the other hand, for the biblical reasons already stated, true-allowance parents should also pay attention to the value of “money for work,” recognizing that even young children can make a significant contribution to a family economy. In practice the two approaches often come together in child rearing, with a true allowance being emphasized in the earlier years and working directly for a share of the family income being stressed more with teenagers.

Guidelines

There are many specific systems used by parents to manage the distribution of family income. The following commonsense guidelines can be applied by all parents.

Progressive. Increase weekly money as the children get older, with consequently more responsibility for making purchases for themselves (for example, teenagers purchasing clothes, personal grooming products and entertainment). One rule of thumb suggests a number of dollars each week equal to half the child’s age, but each family needs to decide for itself what is realistic and reasonable.

Consistent. It is extremely important to give the allowance regularly, in full and at the same time each week (consider how adults would respond to an employer who operated any differently). Wisdom can be applied to the best timing (Sunday or Monday evening avoids the temptation of Saturday shopping sprees), and extending advances should be kept to a minimum (having to save for a costlier purchase is usually a better discipline).

Independent. The benefit of an allowance as a training tool is maximized if the “allowance” part includes freedom in spending. Though it is difficult to see children “wasting” money on sweets or trinkets, there is no better way for them to learn to make decisions, plan ahead and determine value. Parental guidance or caution is not thereby eliminated, but parents must be prepared to let their children grow through mistakes.

Positive. The temptation to use an allowance as a bribe or punishment (“Do this or else no money”) should be avoided. The important thing is not to change the rules midstream and unilaterally and thus begin to create a negative image around what should be a gift (true allowance) or compensation (cooperative family economy). Other strategies to change a child’s behavior unrelated to the allowance should be used (for example, removal of privileges for breaking curfew).

There will always be differences of opinion about how to handle allowances. For example, some people create complicated ways to distribute the allowance over several categories (tithing, a family “tax” for group outings, long-term savings and personal spending). The most important thing is to involve children as much as possible in setting up the system and the amounts in the context of an appreciation of the overall state of family finances, to embody the practice in wider teaching about God’s will for money and stewardship, and to establish good attitudes and behaviors from the earliest age: “If the groundwork has been correctly laid, there’s little cause to worry” (Weinstein, p. 89).

» See also: Family Goals

» See also: Family Values

» See also: Gift-Giving

» See also: Money

» See also: Stewardship

References and Resources

J. R. Peterson, It Doesn’t Grow on Trees (Crozet, Va.: Betterway Publications, 1988); G. W. Weinstein, Children and Money (New York: Charterhouse, 1975).

—Paul W. Lermitte and Dan Williams

Ambition

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Ambition is normally associated with the ardent desire to have high position or a place of influence though it can, simultaneously, be a passion for excellence and improvement (Schnase, pp. 10-11). The passion for personal advancement, so widely cultivated in the secular world, places the Christian in an ambiguous situation. In the workplace there is wide acceptance of the creed that one should be challenged at all times and keep “moving up.” In professional ministry the call to a bigger church is generally understood to be God’s will. Is ambition positive, neutral, destructive or fallen but redeemable? When General Booth spoke of the founding of the Salvation Army as prompted by the “urgings of an undying ambition” (see Schnase, p. 11), was he simply using the wrong word? This everyday issue touches people at many critical points in their lives—considering a new job, coping with discontentment at home, developing new friendships, struggling with comparisons made with others on a rising career trajectory and wondering why enough is never enough (see Drivenness).

The Biblical Data

The word used for “fleshly” or “selfish” ambition in Galatians 5:20 is eritheia. Originally this meant “work done for pay” and came to mean accepting position and office, not from motives of service, but for what one can get out of it. It is related to the word jealousy, which started out well—as “the desire to attain to nobility”—but came to mean “the desire to have what someone else has” (Barclay, pp. 47-48). Since zelos is the word from which our English word zeal comes, jealous, self-seeking ambition may be thought of as “zeal gone bad.” James speaks of “selfish ambition” as earthly, unspiritual and demonic “wisdom” (James 3:13-16). The Lord himself warned against seeking first place (Matthew 20:26-27), desiring power, prestige and wealth (Luke 14:10). Jesus called his disciples to a life of self-sacrifice that gives priority to God’s kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33).

Since Scripture is somewhat ambiguous on the subject of ambition, it is not surprising that many Christians are confused. Paul warned against unbridled appetites (Phil. 3:19) and the danger of loving money (1 Tim. 6:10). But there are also positive statements like the one approving those who set their hearts on being an elder—a godly ambition (1 Tim. 3:1). While Paul counseled against being conformed to the mindset of the world (Romans 12:2) and rejoiced to see his enemies preach the gospel even though they wanted to make life more difficult for him (Phil. 1:18), he was ambitious to have a harvest among the Romans (Romans 1:13) and to evangelize Spain. It has often been suggested that when Paul got converted, so was his ambition: “What Paul can teach us is that there is a gospel-centered way to speak about competitiveness, a way to be ambitious for the sake of Christ, a way to raise the desire for success above the level of self-interest or ideology” (Kuck, p. 175).

The Old Testament is rich in examples of both unholy and holy ambition. These are often given to us without comment, leaving us to read between the lines for their positive or negative effects. Joseph’s dreams were not simply an expression of a subconscious superiority complex; they were a part of his having a legitimate vision of greatness under God. Though at first Joseph wrongly used his dreams as weapons against his brothers (Genesis 37:1-11) and only later learned to let God be the architect of their fulfillment, his dreams were a powerful motivating factor in his life. Jacob, in contrast, was rightly ambitious to have the Lord’s blessing but resorted to stealing and subterfuge to get it (Genesis 25:19-34; Genesis 27:1-40), thus fulfilling his prophetic name (which means “heel-grabber”). Gideon had the holy ambition of wanting to save Israel, Joshua of conquering the land, Nehemiah of restoring the kingdom and Paul of planting a self-propagating church in every major center of the Roman Empire.

Unfortunately passages like Matthew 6:33 that encourage holy ambition are usually applied exclusively to Christian service roles in the church and evangelistic activity in the world rather than to the promotion of kingdom values in the home, workplace and community. Having an ambition to provide extraordinary service to customers and to provide fair compensation packages to employees can be as holy as desiring to plant a new church in a presently unreached area. Indeed, selfish ambition may be easily disguised in a Christian service career and praised as godly zeal.

Any consideration of ambition must take into account the function of personality. More important, however, is the way ambition becomes an expression of our spirituality and therefore an important dimension of self-knowledge and self-discipline in everyday life.

Bad and Good Ambition

As a work of the flesh, selfish ambition is present when we define ourselves by our achievements, rather than by our character. For many men, and increasingly for women, the choice of career represents an “idealized fantasy of who one is or might become . . . the medium through which these dreams are enacted and judged” (Ochberg, p. 3). Defining our identity by achievement is, in the end, self-defeating as it leads either to a frenzied, driven life spurred by diminishing returns of past successes or to despair when we realize we can never become that wished-for self. Because our motives are so mixed, the search for a satisfying and challenging career is less like fitting a peg into its slot and more like compressing an unruly spring into a container and wondering how long it will stay (Ochberg, p. 4).

At the root of this spiritual pathology is the autonomous self trying to find meaning in life by its own action rather than as a child of God. Symptoms of this selfish ambition are relentless striving with an inability to rest, discouragement at the lack of recognition obtained for one’s hard work, predatory competition (even in Christian leadership), use of the present situation (and people) as a stepping stone and an “endless itchiness for other possibilities” (Schnase, p. 17). The Bible leaves little room for exalting human achievement and constantly points us in the direction of exulting in God’s achievements. But our motives are always mixed, and a theology of grace accepts humanness just as it is. At the same time it points to something better. Because ambition is not uniformly evil, it is a risk worth taking.

Life without ambition would be largely passive and complacent, victim to the latest manipulating persuader or discouraging turn, rather than directed toward a goal. As a redeemed passion, ambition gives force to a life direction of seeking God’s purposes in family, workplace, church and community. Ambitious people take initiative and are future oriented and consistently motivated: “Ambition gives color to our dreams and places before us an appetite for the possibilities of life. Ambition gives us strength of character to turn aspirations into reality through muscle and sweat, mind and imagination” (Schnase, p. 14). Ambition can be redeemed through orthopathy, that is, the conversion of our passions to line up with God’s pathos, what God cares about. A truly Christian conversion is concerned not only with orthopraxy (true and right action) but also with orthopraxy (true and right affections).

Converting the Passions

As the Galatians 5:16-26 passage makes plain, simple trust in Jesus does not immediately eliminate the battle within. Ambition is a reflection of this inner struggle.

Ongoing reconquest. After initial conversion the Christian normally experiences an ongoing reconquest of the person through walking and living in the Spirit (Galatians 5:15, 25) and maintaining a crucified perspective on our fallen human nature (the flesh; Galatians 2:3; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 6:14). The latter is not self-crucifixion, mortifying one’s bodily life, or self-hatred but fully and continuously agreeing with God’s judgment on our autonomous self-justifying life. Since such a life puts God to death and crucifies Christ in our hearts, it is worthy of death. Negatively, walking according to the Spirit means not setting the mind on or doing the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:5; Galatians 5:19-21) nor doing the deeds of the flesh, but putting these desires and deeds to death by the Spirit (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:16-18, 24-26). Also, the one who walks by the Spirit does not boast in human achievement (Phil. 3:3-6), human wisdom (1 Cor. 2:1-6) or righteousness (Romans 2:17-19; Galatians 2:15-21). Thus, walking according to the Spirit means a renunciation of the desires and deeds of the flesh, including the temptation to define our identity and self-worth by “getting ahead.” In a positive statement, walking according to the Spirit implies that the Christian “keeps in step” (Galatians 5:25) with what the Spirit is already doing. This involves setting one’s mind on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5) and allowing the Spirit to produce character fruits (Romans 12-14; Galatians 5:19-21) and to empower works of holiness (Romans 12:9-21; compare Isaiah 58).

Inside godly ambition. Several life patterns in the New Testament surround and illuminate the process of the conversion of our ambitions: self-control, contentment, faithfulness, neighbor love and praise. Self-control is bringing one’s whole self into harmony so that we are in charge of our own life—thoughts, feelings, appetites, drives and bodily needs. Some people claim they want Christ to take control of their lives, but this may be something less than the full dignity of being a self-controlled child of God. Self-control is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23), a byproduct of a life lived in harmony with God’s purposes and for God’s glory. Ironically we are most likely to be freed from compulsive ambition and addictions when we give up trying to accomplish the conversion of our passions by self-justifying self-discipline and focus on following Jesus and glorifying God.

Contentment is not antithetical to godly ambition, but it is incompatible with selfish ambition. Ambition and contentment must coexist peacefully in the Christian soul (Shelley, p. 3). Paul was able to confess that he had “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Phil. 4:12). He gained this through trust in God (Phil. 4:13) and the practice of continuous thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6). Paul claims he had “learned” contentment; it was not something automatically gained through conversion or by an ecstatic Spirit-filling. It is sometimes argued that we should be content with what we have but not content with what we are. This seems to shortchange the full conversion of our passions, a conversion involving the pruning of unworthy ambitions to encourage godly ambitions. This is best done in the company of other believers who can hold us accountable and, when necessary, name the lie in our stories. In this way we can be released from the slavery to more, better and bigger.

Faithfulness feeds the godly ambition and is complementary (Galatians 5:22). Eugene Peterson described the faithful life as a “long obedience in the same direction,” a life neither passively quiet nor frantically busy. In the marketplace ambition can be good if it is used for the common good and is harmonized with the advancement of others (Troop, p. 25), a life pattern I call neighbor love. In 1 Cor. 3-4 Paul raises the crucial question of evaluation, or God’s praise, in the context of a congregation that compared its leaders and prided itself on spiritual advancement. He argues that “each will be rewarded according to his own labor” (1 Cor. 3:8), stressing that any difference in work will be for God to reward and judge at the final judgment (1 Cor. 3:10-15; compare Matthew 25:21). No one else is capable of finally evaluating a servant of God: “Even the servant’s own self-evaluation means nothing. Only one opinion matters—that of the Lord” (Kuck, p. 179), a factor that is relevant not only for Christian service workers but Christians tempted to unholy ambition in the workplace or political realm.

Self-control, contentment, faithfulness, neighbor love and praise all contribute to the redemption of ambition, for they liberate ambition from paralyzing self-centeredness. J. S. Bach had it right. He wrote over every manuscript what we can write over balance sheets, sermons and shopping lists: “SDG,” which means soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). Coupled with this should be the statement by the playwright Anton Chekhov: “One would need to be a God to decide which are the failures and which are the successes in life” (Kuck, p. 174).

» See also: Calling

» See also: Career

» See also: Drivenness

» See also: Spiritual Conflict

» See also: Spiritual Growth

» See also: Success

» See also: Work

References and Resources

W. Barclay, Flesh and Spirit: An Examination of Galatians 5:19-23 (London: SCM, 1962); J. Epstein, Ambition: The Secret Passion (New York: Dutton, 1980); D. Kuck, “Paul and Pastoral Ambition: A Reflection on 1 Cor. 3-4,” Currents in Theology and Mission 19, no. 3 (1992) 174-83; R. L. Ochberg, Middle-Aged Sons and the Meaning of Work (Ann Arbor, Mich.: U.M.I. Research Press, 1979); R. Schnase, Ambition in Ministry: Our Spiritual Struggle with Success, Achievement and Competition (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993); M. Shelley, “From the Editors,” Leadership 11, no. 3 (1990) 3; J. Troop, “High Hopes,” Christianity Today 30, no. 14 (1986) 24-25.

—R. Paul Stevens

Anniversaries

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Remembering significant events on an annual basis is something as old as humankind. Even before calendars were invented, people used the annual cycle of seasons and the rhythms of the work year—planting, cultivating and harvest—to recall significant marker events. Israel celebrates Passover (the annual remembrance of deliverance from Egypt; Deut. 16:6), and the church celebrates the festivals of Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving. Nations celebrate their day of independence, the queen’s birthday or the day the constitution was approved. In the same way each individual life is annually marked with significant events, the most obvious being one’s birthday. Married people celebrate their wedding anniversaries. Some pastors celebrate the anniversary of their ordination. Christians sometimes celebrate the day of their baptism. All these are happy occasions.

Most people have anniversaries inscribed in their souls that are difficult to celebrate: the anniversary of a spouse’s, parent’s or child’s death, the day one was raped or fired or the date that the decree came through on the divorce. Even if these dates are not written on the wall calendar, they are inscribed on the calendar of the heart. Most people have an annual emotional cycle that forms the seasons of the soul, both summer and winter. These too are worthy of theological and spiritual reflection.

Sacramental Events

Celebrating important marker events in one’s life serves the yearly cycle in the same way as sabbath serves the weekly: it gives perspective to the rest of the time and points us godward. It invites contemplation. It focuses affirmation. It is a way to redeem time. So having a birthday party or a special anniversary dinner for one’s beloved is a way of remembering the significance of the original event and deepening the meaning. This is especially so if it is an occasion of corporate prayer and recounting the mercies of God. Parents may use the anniversaries of a child’s marriage to express and deepen their “letting go” of son or daughter in order to “cleave” (Genesis 2:24 KJV), as well as to express and welcome the entry of a daughter- or son-in-law into the family. Some people with a radical conversion celebrate the anniversary of their new birth or the day they stopped drinking.

In the Hebrew way of living, remembering is not simply digging back the past; it is making something from the past present to us now. This is the real meaning of remembering the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:25-26; see Communion). So there is sacramental significance in remembering. It becomes a means of grace both to the person or relationship so honored, as well as to those who honor them. Families, as part of their family traditions, do well to establish a few significant anniversaries that will become the means of recounting the goodness of God and reinforcing family values. Why not keep an anniversary of the day you moved into your home or the day Dad came home from the hospital for good? But what can we do with our negative anniversaries?

Healing Painful Memories

Some misguided Christians think that denying painful anniversaries is a mark of advanced spirituality. They never talk about the loss and pretend that it is “all over.” But like a cork pushed down in water, such painful wounds surface in compensatory behavior: inappropriate emotions, depression, withdrawal from situations that bring back memories, conspicuous lack of reference to deceased people, unwillingness to risk being loved again or rebound relationships. Often this happens around the date written on the emotional calendar. Most commonly an unhealed past leads to a wall of defense built around the person. Grieving, as we know, is a long-term process, and it is literally true that we never really get over a significant loss; we adjust to it. But the adjustment cannot happen if there is denial. So anniversaries can help expound this part of our soul life as well.

Significantly Israel’s “church” year included painful memories and a remembrance of the bitter experiences in Egypt (see Sugar/Sugary), just as the modern remembrance of the Holocaust and the birth of the state of Israel has an edifying function. In the same way people can find creative ways to celebrate painful anniversaries. They do this not to keep the pain alive and nurture the root of bitterness (Hebrews 12:15) but to put it into perspective and allow God to heal. For example, the annual remembrance of a death can become an occasion for a family to recall the contribution of that person, telling stories, thanking God for their lives, and when unforgiven sins are remembered, to “let go.” A meal is a great time to do this. The mixture of tears and laughter on such occasions is emotionally healing and spiritually edifying. Some people find it constructive to write a letter to a dead or divorced spouse expressing thoughts, regrets and gratitude, a letter that will afterward be burned.

Extremely painful marker events, such as a rape or unjust dismissal, may require continuing counseling and inner healing with an experienced friend or counselor. But even these extremely bitter experiences can be healed, especially if they are not cocooned in a cloak of secrecy and denial. Having dinner and conversation with an intimate friend each year at “the time” can be a healing sacrament of remembrance. There are some wounds and events that in this life will never be forgotten, but they can be forgiven and substantially healed. And the process of getting there is part of God’s agenda for our spiritual growth and maturing.

Celebrating anniversaries as individuals is based on good theology. God is sovereign and has a wonderful purpose (not a plan) for our lives. Nothing has happened to us that cannot be incorporated into his good purpose for us. He is a saving and healing God. We are not a bundle of accidents or a victim of fate. God’s grand purpose, not the stars or horoscope, defines our life path. Each person is a unique creation (Psalm 139), and celebrating the marker events of our unique life path is a way of celebrating creation and Creator at the same time.

Not only is celebrating anniversaries good theology; it is good spirituality. It helps us find God at the center of our lives. True spirituality is gained, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “by living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God” (Bonhoeffer, p. 15).

» See also: Birthdays

» See also: Festivals—Christmas

» See also: Festivals—Easter

» See also: Festivals—Thanksgiving

» See also: Partying

References and Resources

D. Bonhoeffer, letter from Tegel Prison in 1944, quoted in M. Morrison, “As One Who Stands Convicted,” Sojourners 8, no. 5 (May 1979) 15-19; M. E. Hazeltine, Anniversaries and Holidays: A Calendar of Days and How to Observe Them, 2d ed. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1944).

—R. Paul Stevens

Anxiety

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“Don’t Worry—Be Happy” was the title of a song that swept the pop charts in 1988. Why was it so popular? I suspect because this phrase expresses one of the deepest yearnings of the human heart—to be free of all anxiety. Is such a yearning realistic? Is all anxiety bad for us? Thirty years in the psychologist’s chair has taught me one important lesson: anxiety is intricately interwoven with the essence of living. You cannot expect to live and be free of all anxiety.

“Don’t be anxious; anxiety is the exact opposite of faith”—so reads a tract, written by a popular preacher, that I came across recently. How realistic are such admonitions? Are these writers attacking all forms of anxiety or just some?

How is it possible for some to see anxiety as an essential emotion while others see it as a sign of spiritual failure? The answer lies in the fact that there are many forms of anxiety. When Jesus tells his disciples not to be anxious (Luke 12:25), he is referring to that form we commonly call worry anxiety. It is that form of anxiety that incapacitates and serves no useful purpose. Unfortunately, there are other afflictions we also call anxiety that are not so easy to dispose of. Before we pass judgment on anyone for being anxious, therefore, we need to know what form of anxiety we are talking about and understand how it differs from the neurotic form we call worry.

Why Should We Be Free of Anxiety?

Is it because God does not like anxious people? Is it because anxiety is synonymous with a lack of faith and is thus sinful? Is it because anxiety serves no useful function in the human psyche? These are provocative questions. The fact is that anxiety is an enigma. It has many faces, and while we can effectively treat some of its symptoms, we still do not fully understand its function or purpose in human experience.

While worry anxiety is clearly an undesirable disorder, anxiety’s very presence in human experience seems to point us to some larger and useful purpose. To many, including this author, some forms of anxiety are necessary and can be purposeful. Take the mother’s anxiety over her newborn baby. Is it breathing normally? Is it getting enough milk? These anxious thoughts help the mother to care for the baby.

Like pain, therefore, some anxiety is an important emotional “warning system” that alerts us to potential danger. Just as pain is necessary to the body to warn of disease and damage (though we may not deliberately seek it), so anxiety serves to send important messages of impending threat or danger to our emotional well-being. Without it, we would become emotional lepers and be constantly harming ourselves by not heeding emotional danger. To put it in a nutshell: people who have no anxiety are dangerous, tend to be sociopaths and feel no guilt. This is hardly a desirable set of traits!

Such a model of anxiety, however, assumes a perfect world and a mind that has been trained to respond only to healthy anxiety. In reality this wonderful warning system can all too quickly go astray very early. For many, then, too much anxiety is the problem, and their anxiety becomes a painful and debilitating experience. Furthermore, there is now ample evidence to show that the high demands and stress of modern life are taking their toll on and distorting our anxiety warning systems. Natural brain tranquilizers, produced within the brain to keep us at peace when there is no real threat or to enable us to act constructively when in danger, become depleted in our overworked brains. The result is a high incidence of incapacitating, purposeless anxiety disorders. This, as well as purposeless worry, is what Jesus warns us to avoid!

Battling Anxiety

Despite our high level of sophistication and technological expertise, anxiety and its related manifestations remain a major psychological and medical challenge today. The treatment of severe anxiety disturbances puts many at risk for addiction to the medications used. It is no wonder that many Christian leaders are concerned about how this problem is approached today.

Intuitively we know that prescribing massive doses of artificial tranquilizers is not a satisfactory solution. We also know that the incidence of severe anxiety disorders is on the increase. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, panic anxiety disorder is now the number-one mental-health problem in women (Hart, p. 56). It is second in men only to substance abuse. Distress, restlessness, nervousness, fear and panic, competitiveness, crowded living conditions and too much stress make matters worse, not better. The stress of twentieth-century living affects everyone, and part of the price we pay for it is an increase in general anxiety.

And what will the twenty-first century bring? Better and less addicting tranquilizers? Perhaps! Certainly not less anxiety. With problems such as polluted air, contaminated food, the greenhouse effect and nuclear waste (to name just a very few) already staring us in the face, a person would have to be awfully naive not to be anxious about the future.

The Anxiety Picture Today

As a result, scores of people in every neighborhood suffer from persistent anxiety-related problems: difficulty in sleeping, stomach problems and generalized stress. They worry themselves into an early grave or fret away their precious life seeking an escape in alcohol, drugs or shopping.

The anxiety-related disorders we suffer from today include the following: worry anxiety (excessive rumination on imagined or unlikely fears, expectation of the worst and a bracing for an imagined catastrophe), fear anxiety (anxiety over real fears, threats or demands; overconcern about a particular happening that may only have some basis in reality), existential anxiety (anxiety over lack of purpose or nonbeing, awareness of the inevitability of death leading to concern for a meaningful life), panic anxiety (chemical imbalance in the brain due to the lack of natural tranquilizers, causing all systems to become hyperactive and easily panicked; can lead to agoraphobia), phobic anxiety (exaggerated and persistent fears, avoidance of certain places, people or projects), generalized anxiety (unfocused and generalized anxiety that becomes free-floating, often changing its object of concern), and separation anxiety (originating in an insecure childhood, this anxiety arises whenever a person is cut off from home or loved ones).

How Common Are Anxiety-Related Disorders?

Millions of Americans experience incapacitating anxiety every day. For most it lasts long enough, is severe enough and causes sufficient dysfunction to disturb their everyday living and warrant psychological therapy and/or medical treatment. Just how many suffer from some sort of anxiety problem? No one really knows. One estimate puts it as high as forty million (15 percent of the population). According to a recent news report, thirty-five million Americans suffer from periodic panic attacks alone, and this is only one form of anxiety disorder (Hart, p. 3). And while we now know a lot about how to treat the more severe anxiety disorders, there is still much confusion about the best form of treatment.

Many other emotional problems also have their roots in anxiety. Several studies have shown that those who suffer from depression also have severe anxiety symptoms. Clinically, the close connection between anxiety and depression has been known for many years. The problem is further complicated by the fact that some of the medications used to treat anxiety will aggravate depression symptoms and vice versa. This can be perplexing, even to professionals.

Getting Help for Anxiety

Few emotional problems are more common or more debilitating than anxiety. Most of us realize, on the basis of personal experience as well as observation of fellow humans, that anxiety is a pervasive and profound phenomenon in our society. As we approach the end of the twentieth century, its devastation seems to be on the increase. We are anxious as individuals, and an air of anxiety hangs over everything.

Medications that calm the nerves or relax the muscles are helpful and absolutely essential in panic and generalized anxiety. Sufferers from these forms of anxiety disturbance need to seek immediate professional help because the sooner they are treated, the less likely the problem will become permanently entrenched.

But medications are useful only if they buy the time needed to bring one’s life under control—to master fears, reduce stress and susceptibility to anxiety. In the end the problem with all anxiety is a problem of lifestyle, a matter of goals and priorities. No matter how effective treatment is, the problem will recur if major life changes are not made.

Faith and Anxiety

How does one’s faith in Jesus Christ interface with anxiety? It would be grossly irresponsible to say that all anxiety is a sign of spiritual failure. While stress underlies panic anxiety and can therefore be susceptible to the choices we make, separation and generalized anxiety have roots that go way back to early childhood and possibly even have genetic influences. These forms of anxiety need very careful handling, and it usually takes the skill of a well-trained professional to help. Inept help can significantly increase anxiety problems.

Whatever the type of anxiety being experienced, however, the resources of the Christian life are profoundly designed to help us cope with it. Achieving a balanced life is the ultimate goal. Whether or not medication is used, we ignore to our loss the profound effect that spiritual dimensions can have on our emotional well-being. Prayer and Scripture are more than just spiritual resources. They influence how we feel, our values and priorities. Humans are more than physical organisms, and nowhere does a balanced spiritual life affect us more than in the realm of our anxieties.

I am convinced that one reason so many people suffer from acute anxiety in our society is that they fail to make this important connection. Not even our most sophisticated technology, medical or psychological, can free us from an important but painful facet of our existence—our built-in need to be reconnected with our Creator. This need overrides all others, and when it is unmet, there is much cause for anxiety. Because most researchers and therapists ignore this reality, they tend to place too much emphasis on the physical world as a cause of anxiety and fail to address deeper spiritual needs.

Christians are by no means free of the problem of anxiety. Many are even at greater risk than the general population because trying to live a holy life in an unholy world where fragmentation is the norm is not easy. The words of Peter are a strong medicine even today, and we ignore them to our detriment: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NRSV).

» See also: Depression

» See also: Drugs

» See also: Emotions

» See also: Failure

» See also: Health

» See also: Stress, Workplace

References and Resources

S. Agras, Panic: Facing Fears, Phobias and Anxiety (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1985); A. D. Hart, Overcoming Anxiety (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1989).

—Archibald D. Hart