“THE Divine Liturgy is not the only place the Gospel should be heard. We should read it everyday. Let a day pass without bread, but not without the Gospel.”
Metropolitan Avgoustinos of Florina
THE RELIGIOUS UPBRINGING
OF CHILDREN
By Archpriest S. Shchukin
CONCLUSION
SOME PARENTS might object that we impose all the religious upbringing on the parents. Yes, we cannot hide the fact that in the emigration nearly all of it does depend on the parents, because we do not have sufficient church educational facilities. But if parents do not want their children to be turned into Americans and Canadians (Westerners in general one suspects!) with no memory of their heritage, then they cannot avoid this burden. Of course, the easiest way is simply to let the children follow the general course, and study for those things which will be to their material wellbeing. Many follow this course, justifying themselves with the idea that before all else they are obliged to get settled materially so that they can educate their children. However, this view is NOT Christian, but rather Communist, because Communism believes that “conditions,” that is our material establishment, “determine understanding,” - that is not our view of the world. Taking this course, parents gain material benefits, but lose their children’s souls. For such a “mess of pottage” Orthodox people sell the Christian birthright of their children.
The Christian view of things is different; it is not in outward circumstances, but it is the soul of a person which determines his life, even with regard to material wellbeing. Man is not an animal, he does not live “by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Our Faith, that is our relationship to God, determines our life, our work, our family and our upbringing of our children. Riches and wellbeing do not guarantee that children are adequately brought up, and they often corrupt and ruin their souls. Saint John Chrysostom says: “To beget children is a matter of nature, but to form and bring them up in virtue is a matter for the mind and for the will.” The mind and will of the parents, strengthened by their Christian faith, have greater significance in this respect than any material riches. This again means that the main responsibility for their children lies with the parents.
Some parents say that we are demanding almost the impossible of them; living in a foreign land, they are incapable of bringing up their children in the way they could in their homeland. However, what is impossible for man is possible to God, and we even see instances where, as regards their religious upbringing, families in the emigration have done better than they used to in Russia. But we are inclined always to compare ourselves with American families. Of course, they live in their native country; they have one language, one school, and their chances of success are better - and we are envious of this. But if we investigate further we shall see that the results of a middling American education especially with regard to religion are anything but a success. The situation with the young in America today is very alarming, inasmuch as neither the school nor the family is able to counter the negative influence of cinema, television, comics and the rest of it. The better people in America are disturbed by the moral decline, by the alcoholism, [drug abuse], and the growth of criminality among the young. Some explain this as a crisis in religion, others as the failure of the family, and yet others as a deficiency in schooling. In regard to this very phenomenon, a book by Admiral Rickover, the creator of the nuclear submarine, came out in 1963 under the title, “American Education - a National Failure.” This is the greatest loss. I would suggest that in our country, as in all free societies, the family’s self-determination with regard to education should be recognised, regardless of the school system.
So, it is not right to take examples from American families, but it is necessary to reflect why our very best efforts are demanded of us in the education of our families. First of all, we, as Orthodox, have higher aims in our religious upbringing; secondly, here we must go against the current, and that demands greater efforts of us; thirdly, living in the times that we do, exceptional efforts are required of the believing Christian in bringing up their children in the True Faith. Essentially, we can no longer speak simply of religious upbringing, but we must address an unremitting fight for the souls of our children. Because of this, two and three times the effort is required of parents, lest our children follow the wide path of spiritual degeneration and lose their religious and cultural holiness.
The spiritual life of our children is a most important treasury, entrusted to us by God. As Orthodox parents, pastors and teachers, we have to be unshakable; nor must we be afraid of making sacrifices for the sake of our children. Not only do we have a responsibility before history as a nation, but we also have to give an answer for the way we brought them up before God. And we shall then deserve to proclaim before Him the words of the Prophet Esaias: “Behold, I and the children, which God hath given me.”
Translator’s note: Fr Shchukin apparently wrote this article in the 1960s, and he was addressing Russian emigrants in America of the first generation. Bear this in mind in reading his article. When he speaks of America, he obvious does not mean solely the Lost Colony, but the society of the heterodox West as a whole, a society which now, forty years on, is largely not even heterodox, but post-Christian. The essential import of his words, although his expression is somewhat dated, is now even more pressing.
