Written by Kenneth Kremer

We live in a godless age. Historians have dubbed it The Post-Christian Era. Believe it or not, we have been living in a secular culture for a half-century. Who knew?

Some of us are still having a hard time accepting this fact. Others have accepted it, but have no clue how to deal with it. A few lash out in anger and frustration, without knowing who the enemy is. But on the whole, most people have assimilated this radical shift in norms without a lot of fuss. They have moved on, living with a new set of ethical standards that have redefined the moral life in godless ways.  

Leaders in secular education have taken note of our nation’s moral bankruptcy by responding with a robust discussion about national character. They are reacting to the erosion of traditional moral and ethical standards in commerce, business, medicine, politics, education, amateur and professional sports, the judicial system, and the armed forces. There is a general consensus that our national moral decline is real and pervasive. Some argue it has reached pandemic levels. As a result, the vocabulary of the public square has acquired a new term: character education (CE). The hope is that our nation’s public schools will be able to right the ship of character. But in a culture that is reticent to revisit old questions about moral absolutes, incapable of agreeing on the seat of moral authority, and sorely lacking a reliable roadmap to point the way, this secular discussion is a non-starter for God’s people.

A Godly Worldview
God provided a clear approach to living the moral life. He told his people to teach it to their children in the Shema, a Hebrew concept that captures the absolute moral authority of Deuteronomy 6:3: “Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey …” For the children of Israel, hearing-and-obeying was understood as a single, seamless behavior. One could not exist without the other.

The Shema’s first full-bloom appearance comes in conjunction with the giving of God’s law.[1] God commanded Moses—the people’s pastor—to teach the Shema’s moral rigor to parents. God gave parents the honorable responsibility for passing his sacred truth on to the next generation. Generation after generation of Hebrew children had to be taught how Yahweh delivered his people from Egyptian slavery. Israelite parents might seek help from their rabbis, but the Shema was an unambiguous mandate. Parents were expected to talk daily about matters of faith and ethics with their own offspring and in the privacy of their own homes. In time, this would become a key part of the Hasidic worldview and a family priority.

Today, many Christian families are quietly circumventing the daily faith-and-ethics conversations about right and wrong. Many admit to feeling inadequate, incompetent, and ill-equipped for serving as the spiritual leaders of their own households. They are bewildered by the contradictions between their church’s religious worldviews and the lifestyles promoted by the popular culture. Many are privately willing to say they prefer to defer the faith-and-ethics conversation to the experts—pastors, staff ministers, and Christian educators—highly trained individuals who can run circles around their lay members’ modest levels of biblical literacy. Others address their inner turmoil by trying to find an elusive point of balance between biblical morality and the values that dominate the world in which they live.[2] Too late, a few will eventually discover the unforgiving truth that moral issues cannot be resolved by compromise.

Perhaps the Shema has been wrapped in the myth that it was only intended for Old-Testament Jews, or that it only outlines a role for the family and not the church, or that parents can be replaced by professionals. In any case, the moral force of the Shema edges ever closer to obscurity. We need to talk about what that means for us and our families.

What’s at Stake?
There is no excuse for spiritual negligence, either for apathetic parents or ministry plans that enable faithless parenting instead of training, equipping, and encouraging godly parenting. This much must be said: when the conversation finally happens, it will require more courage than we’ve been able to muster in a half-century. Have we forgotten to teach with words and actions the moral courage of Christ, who died for us? Is it possible that our daily communication with one another is failing to integrate the power of the gospel with the lives of our own dear family members?

Whether we add the word Shema to our vocabulary, wear phylacteries [3] on our foreheads, or post a mezuzah [4] on our garden gate; the Shema is still a critical teaching of God’s enduring Word.[5] He is patiently trying to get our attention: hear-and-obey. But he also wants the next generation to know what he has done, and never to forget. If we fail to teach our children to love Jesus, the world will teach them not to.

Kenneth Kremer is a retired WELS teacher, editor, and author. An adjunct instructor for MLC’s graduate studies program, Kremer teaches a course entitled, “Family Issues in Education.” His latest book, Embracing Godly Character: The Christian Community’s Response to a Godless Culture, (Concordia Publishing House, 2018) is available from CPH or from Amazon Books. Join the conversation at embracinggodlycharacter.com .

References
[1] Discover the Shema’s golden thread throughout the Old and New Testaments from the following texts: Exodus 20:1-17; Numbers 15:37-41; Deuteronomy 4:1, 9-10; Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Deuteronomy 11:2, 7, 13-21; Deuteronomy 32:45-47; Joshua 22:5 and 24:15; 1 Samuel 3:2-10; Psalm 78:4-7; Proverbs 22:6; Isaiah 6:9-12; Malachi 3:14-18 and 4:1-6; Luke 2:40, 46-47 and 51-52; Mark 10:13-16; Ephesians 6:4; 2 Timothy 1:5.

[2] Isaiah 42:23-25.

[3] Prescribed in a literal interpretation of Deuteronomy 6:8, phylacteries are small leather boxes worn on the foreheads and forearms of young Jewish males. The little boxes contain favorite texts from the Torah inscribed on a small scroll. The young males-in-training of orthodox Jewish sects can still be seen proudly wearing phylacteries today.

[4] A mezuzah is a placard that has been permanently posted on a main entrance—a door or gate—to a Jewish home. The placard contains a favorite portion of the Torah. This tradition, first established in Deuteronomy 6:9, is still practiced by orthodox Jews.

[5] Matthew 28:20.