That Thy Days May Be Long On This Earth...
22nd March 2024:
Googling the innocuous Sentence, "Is it wrong to refuse to listen to your parents?" reveals much about a dynamic shift of our culture, specifically in its reverence for authority. The majority of the top 30 sites listed are anti-parental influence (or authority), "why you should not listen to your parents' advice," with a few outliers suggesting that even as children, say, under age 12. The fact that they occupy the first thirty positions of Google search suggests that these are the more satisfying responses to this biblical issue of honoring one's parents in the narrower realm of merely listening to them.
But, what does it mean to "listen to your parents?" Listening does not necessarily entail any kind of implicit command to obey them. If you are above the age of 12, I would not think or suggest that you should feel God-bound to obey every utterance of your parents, or even any, unless they are saying something that could be from any brother in Christ, a clear echo of some Scriptural injunction.
Rather, they seem to share a common zeitgeist theme, "Do not trust your parents or anyone in authority. (reminiscent of the theme of the book of Judges, "And every man did what was right in his own eyes.")
It is only the
Site A: Why You need to Stop Listening to Your Parents: Kevin goes to Hong Kong, in defiance of his parents. He has East Asian parents and so it seems that he may labor under a strong recent cultural heritage of heavy filial duty expectations, even when growing up in the United States, which verily exalts the self, teaching and celebrating a radical ethic of individualism (which we do not find in the Bible, a text which consistently teaches a perfect need to humble the self).
From Kevin's blog, when his father opposes him going for a 4-month work internship at Hong Kong, his knee-jerk response lacks self-reflection and draws exclusively upon his U.S. cultural ethical framework to arrive at his liberating conclusion when he summarily dismisses from the set of "people who mattered" the one parent who opposed his internship abroad, his father:
Text Key:
A. Quotes From Kevin's Encouraging, Well-Intentioned Blog:
B. Biblical Deviations in Kevin's Reasoning in Red:
I FIRED MY DAD THAT DAY.
But, God Is Not Mocked.
Rather, God makes no mistake when He assigns a son to a father and a mother. God's character includes all power and perfect goodness. God has a desire for all His human creatures to flourish, even those whom He foreknows to be ones who will never submit to His will. Therefore, God gives each new baby the very best set of parents for that child. We cannot read the Bible and conclude otherwise. So write that you "fired your Dad," is to behave within the radical imagination that you have the authority to usurp the authority of the very one who created you. This is nothing but the Book of Judges revisited.
Looking back, my dad wasn’t a bad person; he was doing what he thought was best for me. I’m grateful for my parents getting me to where I am today.
"Maybe I was a “bad” Asian son for speaking up, but I knew this was the right decision. My friends and my mom supported me. The people supporting me were the people that mattered."
If your parents disagree with you, realize 3 things…
Instead take responsibility and don’t half ass your own dreams, goals, and desires. Reparent yourself. his Kevin here
The New Kid On The Block (brought to you by PostModernism):
The contemporary cultural climate of society in the United States has been steadily shifting away from respect for authority and instead, an increasingly radical deference to individual determinations on how much to recognize authorities in every sphere, but particularly in the spheres of authority established within the Bible: A. God's authority, B. the authority of the church leadership, C. The headship of a Man over his wife, D. The Father as head of the family, D. Civil and social authorities.
In the last few decades, we have created a funny authority in the United States' experiment in radical individualism: The authority of scholarly experts recognized by society, which suffuses law, and the selection process for hiring people in prominent positions of government, larger corporations, and other gate-keeping functions.
However, this authority of experts has recently lost ground to a new leadership, a populist mass usurpation based upon the vague, amorphous & inchoate ideologies which are scarcely defined, or redefined:
a. diversity
b. equity
c. inclusion
d. social justice (radically redefined to mean its opposite vis-a-vis the Bible and tradition of Western Culture),
e. anti-racisim (with micro-aggressions, required sworn adherence to honor codes for medical schools (c.f. WSJ article, "Ban DEI Quackery in Medical Schools," 19 March 2024, page A15, by Greg Murphy and Stanley Goldfarb.
“Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name, 'social justice'.”
― The Quest for Cosmic Justice
“In its pursuit of justice for a segment of society, in disregard of the consequences for society as a whole, what is called “social justice” might more accurately be called anti-social justice, since what consistently gets ignored or dismissed are precisely the costs to society.”
― The Quest for Cosmic Justice
Websites Attempting a biblical, Comprehensive Exposition or Approach:
A. How To Honor Your Parents As Adults And Why You Should. By Becky Sweat March 29, 2023
https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/how-to-honor-your-parents-as-adults-and-why-you-should
B. Honor Your Father and Mother ... As An Adult? By John Whittaker, JohnWhittaker.net
https://renew.org/honor-your-father-and-motheras-an-adult/
C. 8 Ways Adult Children Can Still Honor Their Father and Mother
https://www.crosswalk.com/family/parenting/grandparenting/ways-adult-children-can-still-honor-their-father-and-mother.html
Summit Counseling FAQ’s (6 of 9): How Do I Know If My Life Struggle Merits Counseling?
https://bradhambrick.com/faq6/
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