In addition to home life, my participation in public school, Christian church, and Boy Scouts prepared me for adulthood. Those well-developed institutions with their leadership, curriculum, and activities were there for me in the 1950s and 60s. I had a few bumps along the way, but was successful in most of my pursuits leading to adulthood.
In school, I made good grades. I participated in sports, class leadership, school plays, and the debate club. It was a very good public education at the time. My parents (who never finished high school) were grateful for their six children having such an opportunity. They insisted we acknowledge the gift of education by respecting our teachers and following school rules. I was told that if I got into trouble at school, I would get twice the punishment at home.
Our church was Missouri Synod Lutheran. As part of weekly services, we recited the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed as memorized statements of belief in God, Jesus, the Church, sin, and redemption. I recited the Lord’s Prayer (given by Jesus as an example of what to pray for) more often than on Sunday mornings. It emphasizes the holiness of God and asks for sustenance (“our daily bread”). We ask for forgiveness of our debts, trespasses, and sins as we forgive those who “trespass” against us. We pray for protection from temptation and evil. I knew the Ten Commandments also. These are some of the spiritual beliefs and ethics I acquired as a young man getting ready for adulthood.
My secular lessons on civil engagement came from the Boy Scouts during the 1960s. The Scout Oath I took as a member of this national organization was “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” The Scout Law mentioned reads, “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”
I earned enough merit badges to become an Eagle Scout. Two noteworthy merit badges are Citizenship in the Nation and Citizenship in Community, which were both required. The Nation badge emphasized knowledge of the U.S. government with its three separate but equal branches for checks and balances, its foundational documents (Constitution, Bill of Rights), and the citizen responsibilities, including rights, duties, and participation in democracy. The Community badge emphasizes an understanding of local community demographics, government, and institutions that make the community operate in a positive way. The updated requirements for this badge include diversity, equity, inclusion, different identities, and ethical leadership.
I optimistically took these lessons and beliefs to heart as I entered the adult world during the Vietnam War with its sharp controversies. I had a hard time finding the morals and ethics I learned during childhood in the shootings of college students at Kent State, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, and John and Bobby Kennedy.
What I saw and felt in that time of my life was marginalized groups demanding to share in the promises of American democracy as defined by its Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Black Panther Party, American Indian Movement (AIM), and women’s rights organizations were changing the 1950s landscape, which I was born into. The pushback from established beneficiaries of white Christian Americans was swift, violent, and persistent. The lessons, ethics, and beliefs taught to me as a child by the adult world did not match how those very same adults and institutions acted in the face of others wanting to share in American opportunities. In the following years, some progress was made for women, gaining partial equity and reproductive rights, Black Americans saw civil rights laws passed in Congress, and Native Americans were finally granted the right to practice their own religion without imprisonment. The gap between words and actions was beginning to close. Marginalized groups were gaining access to opportunities.
By 2017, that positive trajectory had become seriously impaired. The push-back from white, privileged power brokers takes hold. The same prayers and creeds are being spoken in the churches, but increasing numbers of ministers preach exclusionary hatred in a direct rebuttal of the Lord’s Prayer (forgiveness of others). Christian Nationalists act more like Old Testament characters. Many Christians promote loyalty to their earthly church and its minister, which undercuts the teaching of Christ and rejects stewardship of God’s creation. Women begin to lose rights over their own bodies. Public education is attacked for teaching evolution, critical thinking (“mentally awake” in the Scout oath), and full American history (Citizenship Merit Badges). Book banning, like 1930’s Europe, starts to happen in the Land of the Free.
This uncivil assault on established legal procedures continues with ICE deporting people to foreign prisons without due process. The current president of the US blatantly states he has no restrictions on his actions except his own morality, which is difficult to ascertain.
The Rule of Law and three equal branches acting as checks and balances is not currently operational. The Ten Commandments (Thou shalt not kill,…bear false witness,…covet) are publicly flaunted at the federal level by the current administration. The Lord’s Prayer asks to be “delivered from temptation.” Temptation of what? Money? Power? Cruelty? In the same prayer, we ask for sustenance (our daily bread). How does this basic human request embedded in a mainstay of Christian prayer square with food resources being denied children and low-income families by the current American administration? Do those policy makers pray for daily bread on Sunday and deny it to Americans the rest of the week? I wonder if the ICE officer who killed Renee Good knows the fifth of the Ten Commandments, “thou shall not kill.” It appears that authoritarian ideology has replaced Christian values.
If this Christian nation can memorize and recite these oaths, creeds, and prayers but does not reflect those ethics in actions, institutions, and leadership, there is a great sickness in America. Jidda Krishnamurti said, “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society,” meaning genuine mental and moral health means recognizing societal sickness and resisting adaptation, rather than fitting into a flawed system.
What are our children receiving as lessons from the current events, news, and social media? My guess is that societal chaos is more instructive than church and Boy Scout training. It has been a hope of American parents that their children would have “more” opportunity, prosperity, and happiness. Given the current authoritarian trends, the next generations will have more, much more, but of despair, fear, violence, and subjugation. Authoritarian rule is a dark, violent force that crushes humans in body and spirit. Surely we do not want that for our future generations. Christ (not necessarily Christians), public education, and Boy Scouts all express well-meaning values, ethics, and morality. It is up to us adults to ensure, in various ways, a positive future for the next generations by boldly acting with positive, well-meaning actions. We must model the society we want for our children and grandchildren.
