Good Advice for Smacking People Around
"A lot of damage has been done in citing Proverbs 22:6 to parents," says Richard Beck on his blog.
I have to agree. If you're not familiar, that's a verse that says (NASB):
Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.
It's been used to put a lot of pressure on parents to keep their kids in the faith. If you do it right, they won't stray from your fine instruction. If they misbehave or wander from the officially approved dogma, well, that's on you, Mom and Dad.
We also abuse Proverbs 31 to put a lot of pressure on women. That chapter waxes long about the qualities of a fine woman, and much Christian-brand ink has been spilled to try to convince Christian women that as daughters of God, they ought to exhibit all those qualities -- and that any struggles they face in their family life is simply a result of not conforming their personalities and lives to those qualities perfectly(*).
This seems especially pernicious when combined with an attitude that Scripture is absolute and perfectly true in every way in every detail under every circumstance.
You guys -- the book is called Proverbs, not "Inviolate Laws of the Universe". As evidence, consider Proverbs 26:4-5, or any of a huge pile of other places in the book where consecutive verses contain proverbs that directly contradict one another. This book is in conversation with us and with the rest of the Bible, especially Ecclesiastes, Job, and Psalms.
There's a reason we give introductory physics students simple problems in mechanics that don't include complicating factors like friction, rotational inertia, air resistance, the gravity from the asteroid Nakanomakoto, relativity, or quantum mechanics. Those simple problems reveal things that are true, but only under certain conditions, and they don't tell the whole story. If we treat those simple mechanics problems as the whole of physics, as the whole truth on the matters they touch on in any way, we will impoverish our understanding of the universe most of the time, and quite frequently end up dogmatically asserting things that are flatly incorrect.
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ADDENDUM: At some point, I'm going to have to refer to Proverbs in conversation as "The Book of Spherical Cows of Uniform Density". (It's an engineering joke(**).)
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(*) Ignore for the moment that the "woman" of Proverbs 31 are depicted as working outside the home, providing for her family, volunteering to help the needy, and is an activist in her community. These are all things that good Christian women shouldn't do. Because reasons.
Also, ignore all of the specific individuals of women in the Bible called out as worthy of emulation who are nothing like the "woman" in Proverbs 31 (and who, for that matter, bear little resemblance to each other).
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(**) Bob is frustrated that no matter what he tries, he can never seem to manage to cook his steak properly. He asks his engineering friend, Mike, if there's any advice he can lend. Mike whips out some paper, does a few quick thermodynamic calculations, and makes some recommendations.
Bob follows them, and the steak turns out great! He asks Mike how he managed to work it out. "Well, first of all," Mike replies, "you have to imagine a spherical cow of uniform density..."
(Engineers often make simplifying assumptions in their work that don't reflect reality, but still yield results that are "close enough". For the record, I never claimed that engineers have good jokes.)
I have to agree. If you're not familiar, that's a verse that says (NASB):
Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.
It's been used to put a lot of pressure on parents to keep their kids in the faith. If you do it right, they won't stray from your fine instruction. If they misbehave or wander from the officially approved dogma, well, that's on you, Mom and Dad.
We also abuse Proverbs 31 to put a lot of pressure on women. That chapter waxes long about the qualities of a fine woman, and much Christian-brand ink has been spilled to try to convince Christian women that as daughters of God, they ought to exhibit all those qualities -- and that any struggles they face in their family life is simply a result of not conforming their personalities and lives to those qualities perfectly(*).
This seems especially pernicious when combined with an attitude that Scripture is absolute and perfectly true in every way in every detail under every circumstance.
You guys -- the book is called Proverbs, not "Inviolate Laws of the Universe". As evidence, consider Proverbs 26:4-5, or any of a huge pile of other places in the book where consecutive verses contain proverbs that directly contradict one another. This book is in conversation with us and with the rest of the Bible, especially Ecclesiastes, Job, and Psalms.
There's a reason we give introductory physics students simple problems in mechanics that don't include complicating factors like friction, rotational inertia, air resistance, the gravity from the asteroid Nakanomakoto, relativity, or quantum mechanics. Those simple problems reveal things that are true, but only under certain conditions, and they don't tell the whole story. If we treat those simple mechanics problems as the whole of physics, as the whole truth on the matters they touch on in any way, we will impoverish our understanding of the universe most of the time, and quite frequently end up dogmatically asserting things that are flatly incorrect.
---
ADDENDUM: At some point, I'm going to have to refer to Proverbs in conversation as "The Book of Spherical Cows of Uniform Density". (It's an engineering joke(**).)
---
(*) Ignore for the moment that the "woman" of Proverbs 31 are depicted as working outside the home, providing for her family, volunteering to help the needy, and is an activist in her community. These are all things that good Christian women shouldn't do. Because reasons.
Also, ignore all of the specific individuals of women in the Bible called out as worthy of emulation who are nothing like the "woman" in Proverbs 31 (and who, for that matter, bear little resemblance to each other).
---
(**) Bob is frustrated that no matter what he tries, he can never seem to manage to cook his steak properly. He asks his engineering friend, Mike, if there's any advice he can lend. Mike whips out some paper, does a few quick thermodynamic calculations, and makes some recommendations.
Bob follows them, and the steak turns out great! He asks Mike how he managed to work it out. "Well, first of all," Mike replies, "you have to imagine a spherical cow of uniform density..."
(Engineers often make simplifying assumptions in their work that don't reflect reality, but still yield results that are "close enough". For the record, I never claimed that engineers have good jokes.)
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