The way of anxiety involves keeping up with the expectations of a particular class of people (rightly identified as cultural elites). The elites demand a newly prescribed script for family life and childhood. Long periods of time in school are often coupled with highly scheduled extracurricular activities intended to bolster college applications and resumes. The overwhelming ambition is for one’s children to be admitted to the “right” college, which in turn must result in a high paying (generally white-collar) career. The child must become a worker acceptable to the wider system. As one classical liberal arts teacher observed, some parents seem to hope there is a cubicle warmed and ready as a workplace for their offspring. Is that all Christians want for their children?
Parents are under pressure to comply with the expectations of various experts and administrators who occupy positions of influence. Of course, as is now obvious, these expectations keep changing as the cultural demands rapidly morph, ensuring that few parents are ever progressive enough. On the cutting edge of the culture, yesterday’s hero is today’s villain, so parents and their children must keep altering their speech, manners, loyalties, and beliefs to remain in good standing. Worries over job loss and social ostracism are paramount. Parents are encouraged to pursue a way of life that is profoundly anxious, unmoored from the permanent, and unchanging. Live by lies, because that is the only way to get by.
The way of courage holds that social standing and material gain should be secondary to the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful—especially when children are involved.
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St. Jude's Anglican Church
We are a parish of the Reformed Episcopal Church. We have been worshiping together in the greater Richmond area for over a decade. We’d love to have you join us for Christian worship in the rich Anglican tradition.
