What should religious education be?
Yesterday, Margaret Fraser, the interim pastor at West Richmond Friends, delivered a message called "'I've had enough.' - God". The scripture was Isaiah 1:10-20.
At first God admonishes the people of Sodom and Gemorrah for their excessive sacrifices, which are detestable to him, and their prayers, which he doesn't hear. He tells them he will not commune with them because their hands are full of blood. Then he offers directions:
16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
Yesterday, Margaret Fraser, the interim pastor at West Richmond Friends, delivered a message called "'I've had enough.' - God". The scripture was Isaiah 1:10-20.
At first God admonishes the people of Sodom and Gemorrah for their excessive sacrifices, which are detestable to him, and their prayers, which he doesn't hear. He tells them he will not commune with them because their hands are full of blood. Then he offers directions:
16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
This is the part of the scripture which stuck with me. A clear instruction to seek justice and defend the oppressed.
Before the message Margaret raised a joy: two members of the meeting had had their gifts in ministry recorded the day before at the sessions of the New Association of Friends. They were among six people to be recorded as ministers, and all six had graduated from Earlham School of Religion. "Exactly what the school was founded for," said Margaret. I appreciated her emphasis on ESR as a place where gifts in ministry are identified, cultivated, and encouraged, not just a place where people learn about scripture and engage in thoughtful contemplation. They are being prepared to go out and create God's kingdom on earth.
I think this should be the mission of religious education at every stage. I believe there should be an emphasis on helping children/adults gain a sense of what their gifts are, and on providing opportunities to practice using these gifts.
Another element of religious education should be a training in dialogue. My experience as a literature teacher and among Friends tells me that peace comes from understanding, and understanding comes from dialogue. And successful dialogue takes careful training and practice. Some of the most important and productive (in terms of building understanding) classes I taught in Ramallah were ones in which I hardly spoke at all, and students, in discussion, spoke to each other. My ear was not even important, except as a moderating force. The direct conversation among students was what counted.
Given these two emphases, on gifts and on dialogue, I think religious education could look like this.
For young ones: Play! Play that allows them to get to know their own strengths, physical and mental, and to ascertain the strengths and limitations of other children in their community, and accommodate for them. They would learn how to be with others - an important precursor to dialogue.
For middle school and high school students: Study of the Bible, so they can discuss with each other the ideas presented their in the context of their own lives. Scripture study would provide fodder for discussion and dialogue among the group. I'd also be interested to practice Socratic seminar methods with students of this age, giving them a text, not necessarily a religious text, to read and then to discuss according to Socratic Seminar methods, which encourage listening, drawing each other out, bringing in quieter voices, and working collectively toward common understanding, if not common opinion.
I also think middle/high school students should get involved in a social justice issue of their choice. They should decide how they want to use their gifts and their skills in dialogue to answer God's call to "seek justice and defend the oppressed." They might raise awareness within the meeting or within their schools on an issue; organise a benefit of some kind; contact and meet with local and state legislators; approach a certain company or organisation with advice on how to better serve the community; launch a campaign to fight injustice in law enforcement or labor practices... whatever they were drawn to. In the MAT we talk about the importance of giving students real tasks with a real audience for their work. Getting students of religious education involved in the Quaker practice of social justice work would, I hope, rouse their energies.
For adults, it seems religious education should be about seeing how we can live more like Jesus each day. Scripture study and spiritual fellowship, in which members are built up and encouraged and tested by their fellow students, seems a good route for keeping up focused on God when life provides many other legitimate distractions (family, jobs, community).
Last week in a sermon I listened to the pastor drew attention to Leviticus 19:18 with this oft-referenced commandment:
18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.
The pastor then said, "Don't forget the commandment that immediately precess this one: (Lev 19:17)
"Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbour frankly so you will not share in his guilt."
Galatians 6:1 tells us to "restore a person gently" when she is in sin. We need to be there for each other, to listen with sympathy, then to resolutely turn that person's attention to God. We need to subject ourselves to this same scrutiny by opening up in small group study, I believe.
Religious education should build us up and challenge us. It should be joyful and painful. It should bring us closer to one another and closer to God.
Before the message Margaret raised a joy: two members of the meeting had had their gifts in ministry recorded the day before at the sessions of the New Association of Friends. They were among six people to be recorded as ministers, and all six had graduated from Earlham School of Religion. "Exactly what the school was founded for," said Margaret. I appreciated her emphasis on ESR as a place where gifts in ministry are identified, cultivated, and encouraged, not just a place where people learn about scripture and engage in thoughtful contemplation. They are being prepared to go out and create God's kingdom on earth.
I think this should be the mission of religious education at every stage. I believe there should be an emphasis on helping children/adults gain a sense of what their gifts are, and on providing opportunities to practice using these gifts.
Another element of religious education should be a training in dialogue. My experience as a literature teacher and among Friends tells me that peace comes from understanding, and understanding comes from dialogue. And successful dialogue takes careful training and practice. Some of the most important and productive (in terms of building understanding) classes I taught in Ramallah were ones in which I hardly spoke at all, and students, in discussion, spoke to each other. My ear was not even important, except as a moderating force. The direct conversation among students was what counted.
Given these two emphases, on gifts and on dialogue, I think religious education could look like this.
For young ones: Play! Play that allows them to get to know their own strengths, physical and mental, and to ascertain the strengths and limitations of other children in their community, and accommodate for them. They would learn how to be with others - an important precursor to dialogue.
For middle school and high school students: Study of the Bible, so they can discuss with each other the ideas presented their in the context of their own lives. Scripture study would provide fodder for discussion and dialogue among the group. I'd also be interested to practice Socratic seminar methods with students of this age, giving them a text, not necessarily a religious text, to read and then to discuss according to Socratic Seminar methods, which encourage listening, drawing each other out, bringing in quieter voices, and working collectively toward common understanding, if not common opinion.
I also think middle/high school students should get involved in a social justice issue of their choice. They should decide how they want to use their gifts and their skills in dialogue to answer God's call to "seek justice and defend the oppressed." They might raise awareness within the meeting or within their schools on an issue; organise a benefit of some kind; contact and meet with local and state legislators; approach a certain company or organisation with advice on how to better serve the community; launch a campaign to fight injustice in law enforcement or labor practices... whatever they were drawn to. In the MAT we talk about the importance of giving students real tasks with a real audience for their work. Getting students of religious education involved in the Quaker practice of social justice work would, I hope, rouse their energies.
For adults, it seems religious education should be about seeing how we can live more like Jesus each day. Scripture study and spiritual fellowship, in which members are built up and encouraged and tested by their fellow students, seems a good route for keeping up focused on God when life provides many other legitimate distractions (family, jobs, community).
Last week in a sermon I listened to the pastor drew attention to Leviticus 19:18 with this oft-referenced commandment:
18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.
The pastor then said, "Don't forget the commandment that immediately precess this one: (Lev 19:17)
"Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbour frankly so you will not share in his guilt."
Galatians 6:1 tells us to "restore a person gently" when she is in sin. We need to be there for each other, to listen with sympathy, then to resolutely turn that person's attention to God. We need to subject ourselves to this same scrutiny by opening up in small group study, I believe.
Religious education should build us up and challenge us. It should be joyful and painful. It should bring us closer to one another and closer to God.
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