The Family: Pressures And Prospects
The insecurity of modern parents has generated a plethora of books on “how to be a better parent” and “how to rear better children.” Many of these books are merely the sharing of experiences. Others are based on psychological principles to be applied in the context of the home. A few are the product of experimental research.
Teenage Rebellion (Revell) is in the latter category, and was written by a Kansas City pastor and a practicing child psychologist. Using results of a questionnaire given to 110 young people, Truman E. Dollar and Grace H. Ketterman examine the causes of teenage rebellion and then offer parents—primarily fathers—counsel on how to prevent similar problems from arising among their sons and daughters. Readers with different perspectives may disagree with the authors in some areas, but this pastor/counselor team has brought to light many areas of child rearing that parents may have overlooked or ignored. Though based on a limited population sample, Teenage Rebellion is a valuable treatise. Don Highlander’s Positive Parenting (Word) has as its subtitle, “How to love, motivate, and discipline your child to grow up happy and responsible.” Believing that positive encouragement is the key, the author stresses the importance of relationships within the family, and describes in 13 perceptive chapters how these may contribute to the development of emotionally healthy children, prepared to take on responsibility and enjoy a meaningful life. Highlander has done all parents a service, and readers will gain new insights as they come to grips with his prescription for success. Positive Parenting is a good book for church libraries.
Two brothers-in-law, Josh McDowell and Paul Lewis, teamed up to write Givers, Takers and Other Kinds of Lovers (Tyndale). Their material is well documented, and the quotations in chapter 1 are alone worth the price of the book. In the succeeding chapters, McDowell and Lewis analyze contemporary sexual mores and contrast present attitudes with true love. Singles will find the chapter on “What Makes Dating Fun?” of practical value. Throughout, there is a valuable emphasis on growth, directed both to individuals and couples. Much of the book is aimed at college students who, in the pressure of their studies and the uniqueness of their situation, need what these authors have to say.
Bruce Narramore’s Adolescence Is Not an Illness (Revell) is a popular survey of the problems peculiar to this age group. Each chapter is brief, and does little more than show parents what to expect from their children during these years. It also shows parents how to maximize their children’s potential for growth. Areas of common conflict discussed include such realities as coping with peer pressure, dating, sexuality, discipline, disinterest in spiritual things, money, and negativism. One wishes more had been written, and parents with children at this stage probably need more counsel than what is provided here, although it does lay a foundation for this period of a child’s development.
In a similar vein is Almost Grown (Harper & Row), by James R. Oraker and Char Meredith, which is more extensive and equally practical. Treating the physiological, intellectual, social, and spiritual perspectives of adolescents, the author covers the tenth through nineteenth years and convincingly integrates New Testament teaching with the problems and opportunitities of these young people. Almost Grown is heartily endorsed by James Dobson, and worthy of serious consideration.
The focus shifts from children to their parents in James O. Palmer’s The Battered Parent and How Not to Become One (Prentice-Hall). The author discusses ways a parent may avoid unpleasant altercations with a child and prevent discipline problems from developing into full-scale hassles. He hopes to eliminate situations that wreak havoc on a parent’s psyche. One section deals with preparing children for the trauma of divorce and the disintegration of the things that comprise the basis of their emotional security.
John H. Westerhoff III’s Bringing Up Children in the Christian Faith (Winston) places the responsibility for nurturing a child’s faith squarely on parents. Without pretending to have the answers, Westerhoff charts a course for parents on rearing their children from the cradle to the time they leave home. Spiritual principles are intermingled with psychological insights in a most beneficial manner. The result is a helpful, though brief, treatment.
Finally, Herbert Wagemaker focuses specifically on the nature and use of correction in Parents and Discipline (Westminster). Of specific value is his chapter on “Identity.” Here, rather than dealing with the traditional divisions of personal identity—autonomy, sexuality, internalized morality, career choice, and actualization—Wagemaker breaks new ground as he makes a plea for freedom and the creation of an atmosphere in which sons and daughters may grow to full maturity.
Books on marriage and parenting still top the list of the nation’s “best sellers,” which seems to grow longer and more specialized with each passing year. The works discussed here do make a contribution, however, and some of them touch on areas previously overlooked by others.
Reviewed by Cyril J. Barber, professor of bibliography, International School of Theology, Arrowhead Springs, California.
Remarriage As God’S Gift
Remarriage: A Healing Gift from God, by Larry Richards (Word, 1981, 133 pp., $7.95), is reviewed by Charles Cerling, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Tawas City, Michigan,
Evangelical thinking about divorce has been cast in concrete since the early fifties, with the works of John Murray, Guy Duty, and Charles Ryrie forming the basic framework for that thinking. Subsequent writers have agreed with them or merely modified their basic positions. Dwight Small attempted to shatter the concrete with The Right to Remarry, but the book was so dependent on Small’s dispensational theology that it did little to change thinking.
Now Larry Richards has written a book that deserves to be described as “a watershed,” or “monumental.” The reason is that for years our thinking about divorce has been primarily exegetical. We have never applied theological concepts of sin, grace, and creation of man as a sexual being with companionship needs to our view of divorce. Richards does so, and comes to conclusions that combine sound, traditional exegesis with compassionate theology. Future discussions on a biblical view of divorce will not be held without reference to Richards.
What does he say that deserves this praise? While maintaining that God’s ideal is permanence, that God himself gives permission for divorce and remarriage without sin in only two circumstances—adultery and irremedial desertion—Richards also says that God in his grace recognizes that human sin (“hardness of heart”) will so damage a marriage relationship that the partners will find it necessary to divorce. He does not suggest this as the easy way out. It is rather a conclusion drawn by a couple after hard work on their part, or on the part of one, to save a failing marriage because of their earlier sinful actions. God’s ideal of permanence is therefore fully upheld. At the same time, however, our sinful weaknesses are highlighted against a background of God’s gracious action in permitting us to sin, then forgiving us and giving us another chance to succeed. A pivotal point in this argument says that God, who permitted divorce in the Old Testament as his gracious dealing with hardheartedness, will much more offer grace in the New Testament-era to those who through hardheartedness go through divorce.
To understand Richards, the reader must understand the two definitions of sin he uses: it is both willfully violating God’s will, and falling short of God’s standard. Thus, it is wrong willfully to flee a marriage when God has commanded permanence. However, if a couple faces divorce because they have fallen short of God’s ideal, even though this is sin, God, in his grace meets the couple, forgives their sin, and permits them to try again through remarriage.
In making this new analysis of the biblical teaching on divorce, Richards will anger many people. They will be particularly angered in that he says this understanding takes divorce from the realm of church judgment and makes it a matter of individual conscience guided by the teaching of Scripture.
I appreciate what Richards is attempting to say; however, he fails to set this into the context of church discipline. If there is one major weakness in the book, it is this. Is there a time when a church should discipline a person for divorce? If divorce and remarriage are exclusively the decision of the couple—even of just one of the individuals involved—how can the church administer discipline?
How Can We Save America?
A Christian Manifesto, by Francis A. Schaeffer (Crossway Books, 1981, 150 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Michael J. Woodruff, an attorney in Santa Barbara, California.
Although vietnam has receded from view, the subject of civil disobedience has returned in a different context after an absence of approximately a decade. In his new book, A Christian Manifesto, Francis Schaeffer addresses the Christian community about the need for Christian presence in society. He calls for action, even to the point of civil disobedience and war, to preserve freedom and the Christian heritage of America. It is a strong memorandum, which generalizes about the current posture of law and government.
Schaeffer’s treatment of Supreme Court decisions on religion will likely disappoint legal scholars. In fact, the dicta in the Torcaso v. Watkins footnote did not define secular humanism but rather implied that there could be a brand of religiously imitative humanists if their organized ritual were like that of the 1956 organization, Fellowship of Humanity, in Oakland, California. The Supreme Court’s position on a broader definition of religion to include nontheistic religions is not yet clearly stated. To date, however, it has taken into account the social reality of a changing religious climate in America.
This work will provoke questions about the implications of what Schaeffer says. For example: Should Christians literally fight for their rights and take up arms—as the Arkansas survivalists have done? Does antagonism toward “secular humanism” preclude the possibility of including the pre-Huxley humanist position within the Christian tradition following Erasmus? Is a new domestic civil war over values inevitable? Can Schaeffer’s opposition to a theocratic state be heeded or even understood by the New Right?
If people are demonstrating in the streets a year from now over political, economic, and social issues, will this book help Christians to act responsibly, in a way that will not contribute to chaos or abet anarchy? I think it is clear that the days ahead require Christians “to speak common sense apprehensibly [with] a calm, direct, fairminded tone,” as Joseph Sobran has recently written.
Francis Schaeffer’s words add strength to the view that Christians must act if society is to reflect important Christian values in law and government. These words will also help fuel the debate over the form of such action and the content and concern behind it.
More Than A Machine
Our Fragile Brains: A Christian Perspective on Brain Research, by D. Gareth Jones (IVP, 1981, 278 pp., $8.95), is reviewed by Lloyd Billingsley, a writer living in Poway, California.
It is always refreshing to find a specialist in a highly complex field who is also a Christian. D. Gareth Jones, professor of anatomy and human biology at the University of Western Australia, is such a man, and his volume, Our Fragile Brains, gives a fascinating perspective on a largely unknown subject.
In tackling this huge subject, Jones covers everything from the physical structure of the brain to brain surgery, altered consciousness, and brain control. Many charts, diagrams, and interesting photographs supplement the text. These useful data are backed with well-reasoned digressions about how all this relates to the biblical view of man, freedom, dignity, and current reductionist trends. He sounds warnings concerning the consequences of viewing man as a machine, and about the effects of drugs. There is even a helpful section on transcendental meditation. The author’s mastery of the subject and love for it are very evident. The reader comes away more impressed with God’s creation and certain of the impossibility of the randomness doctrine that so permeates contemporary thought.
Although written for “nonprofessionals,” Our Fragile Brains is quite technical in places. However, this is probably preferable to having this subject trivialized. The interested reader, most likely a student or professional, will be stretched by this work while those of more casual interest will acquire some weighty apologetics and insights. Certainly, all who read it will be better able to marvel that they are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
What Price Ego?
The Man Who Could Do No Wrong, by Charles Blair (Chosen, 1981, 233 pp., $9.95), is reviewed by Gordon Oosterman, a teacher at Calvin College and Western Michigan University.
There is a thesis abroad that Protestant churches in Anglo-America can be divided into two general categories. One comprises congregations wherein the ongoing words of the gospel are essentially embodied over many years while pastors, baptisms, funerals, and families come and go. The other category is made up of news-making congregations. These bodies started with a very few people under adverse circumstances, and, with a long-staying pastor who has personal charisma, have risen in meteoric fashion to attract the attention of their locale and quite possibly the national news media as well. Those who are familiar with this latter group can readily supply names from California to Ohio, from Oklahoma to Florida.
If this is a valid thesis, the congregation and main character of this book fall unquestionably into the latter classification. The congregation is Calvary Temple in Denver, and the pastor is Charles E. Blair, who, a few years ago, was found guilty in court of “17 counts of fraudulent and otherwise prohibited sale of securities.” For this he was fined $12,750 and placed on five years’ probation.
This is neither a comfortable book to read nor an easy one to evalute. It is for the most part biographical, excessively so, with rags-to-riches overtones. Yet if the reader gets to the last few chapters, or even begins reading there, the book is worth both the time and effort to ponder the tragedy. I call it tragedy, because this man was not trying to steal money or deceive others. He was and is genuinely interested in the cause of the gospel and the care of the needy. These concerns led his congregation to become involved, with a “babes-in-the-woods” mentality, in several business interprises. One of these was the Charles E. Blair Foundation. This pastor-dominated church, despite its governing boards, did not realize the implications of its involvement. The bottom line appears on page 215, where the pastor recalls his testimony in the courtroom:
“As president of these three corporations (Life Center, Calvary Temple, and the Charles E. Blair Foundation), did you know the details of what was going on?”
“No.”
“Don’t you think, as president, that you should have known?”
“Yes.”
Predictably, the secular press had a field day with the unpleasant details. To the credit of both pastor and congregation, much was done to honor obligations and work out matters with due Christian concern. The last pages are particularly incisive. Here Blair thinks aloud, without the cocksureness that characterized his earlier days when he was unduly preoccupied with his “image.” He belatedly ponders the difficulties in distinguishing God’s will from deceptive ego-trip motives. He realizes increasingly a congregation’s need for a meaningful system of checks and balances, as well as for the services of experts who can responsibly write checks and balance ledgers.
This is a good book for people serving on church boards. It will make them more aware of their responsibility to prevent the church from disgrace because of sloppy stewardship. It is also a good book for impetuous pastors bent on erecting buildings as indirect monuments to themselves. It is further good for pondering which of the two church models referred to is more in keeping with the New Testament church.
