Biblical Respect for Our Elders
by Dr. Karl D. Coke
A
s a boy growing up in the woods of Coos Bay, Oregon, my parents taught me to stand when older people entered the room. It was just part of being obedient. I had no knowledge they had based their request upon Holy Scripture. The procedure is Biblical. The Lord Himself has impressed Leviticus 19:32 upon my heart. I now know this simple obedience to a mitzvah pleases Him, not just my parents. The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:10 to "find out what pleases the Lord." Why? Respecting the elderly is a way one learns to revere the Lord.
There is apparent little respect for elderly people today. Personally, I am frequently pushed aside by children in public places, rarely called "sir," and never have anyone younger than me rise when I enter a room. Since today’s society seems to place little value on life, disrespect is considered normal. We are all victimized daily by television programs whose hate-filled scenes strip society of Biblical values. Now, children shoot parents and fellow classmates while those same television networks ask each other, "What is wrong?" Media executives concerned about ratings tell us that their programming has no impact on our youth. Yet, following a recent student-shooting of parents and classmates, a Chicago newspaper refused to put the article on the front page. They felt it might "influence a copycat" to repeat the crimes.
What has happened to our society? How has our society changed since I was taught to respect the elderly in the 1940’s? What influences have diminished respect in my lifetime? Disrespect did not come instantly, yet it seems to have become pervasive quickly. Who is to blame? Religion, politics, education, films, television, books and music must share the blame. Religion continues to allow Freudian psychoanalysis to replace the preaching of and subsequent obedience to God’s Word. Politicians promise "rights" rather than doing what is right. Educators throw God out with their new-found "age of reason" curriculum. Films portray sex in place of romance, murder in place of solving problems. Rather than report news, television has institutionalized itself as the fourth branch of the USA’s federal government. Books are written without righteous heroes. Music? Music is so rare today that one has to search for it. Subliminal messages intended to be pounded into mindless individuals are passed off as music today. Psychologists blame our parents! Politicians threaten to take away or save social "security." Educators teach all to "question" the authority of their parents. Films portray people as sexual objects which can be exchanged for any reason as one ages. Popular books and music teach disrespect as well. It should be painfully obvious why there is little respect for the elderly today.
An example of a bestselling book is The Nurture Assumption. It’s author, Judith Rich Harris, an authoress of psychological textbooks, attempts to explain why children turn out the way they do. Her premise is that parents have no real impact on their children’s development. She alleges that the people who actually form children’s development are their peers at school and in the neighborhood. On page 351 she says, "Parenting has been oversold. You have been led to believe that you have more of an influence on your child’s personality than you really do." On page 352 she further states, "There is no evidence that the nurture assumption (that parents influence children) has done any real good. But it has done some real harm." This position is exactly opposite that of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Freud taught that his dream analysis led to his discovery of the infantile sexuality complex known as the Oedipus complex, which constitutes the erotic attachment of a child to the parent of the opposite sex together with a hostile feeling toward the other parent. Freud taught that parents do impact their children. His students have kept people on couches for two generations telling psychiatrists why they "hate" their parents. Well, Harris seems to want to relieve the accused parents by telling them they had no influence in the establishment of their children. Freudian psychology has obviously failed, so, Harris is trying the exact opposite explanation! Freud gave disturbed children their parents to blame. Harris takes blaming parents away from disturbed children.
The reason neither Freud nor Harris can solve the dilemma facing disturbed people is that they offer no lasting answers. Harris is an evolutionist who asks us on page 2 to join her on a visit to a "chimpanzee" society, a feminist who always lists "Mother" before "father" (notice even the capitalization), a socialist who wants kids to determine the rules, an educator who very much believes in situation ethics and a fatalist who leaves all up to heredity (genes). Nowhere in her book does she acknowledge God or His Word. Recorded in Section D, USA Today, Monday August 24, 1998, are words with which I agree. Of Harris’ book it states "Eileen Shiff a child development education teacher at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, is ‘incensed.’ She calls the Harris book an ‘attention getter’ ungrounded in research. This book is going to sell big time because it’s absolution for parents who are having trouble with their kids. It’s ‘don’t blame me, blame their friends,’" she says. However, the larger and more permanent danger is that it is one more step in the diminishing of children’s respect for their parents.
Sharon Begley’s article "The Parent Trap" in the September 7, 1998, Newsweek magazine has many poignant statements regarding Harris’ book The Nurture Assumption. On page 54 she quotes Steven Pinker of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who "predicts that ‘The Nurture Assumption’ will come to be seen as a turning point in the history of psychology." On the other hand, also quoted is Jerome Kagan of Harvard who said of Harris’ work, "I am embarrassed for psychology." On page 56 Begley says, "many of the nation’s leading scholars of child development accuse Harris of screwy logic." Of these researchers she further states on page 57 about Harris’ logic of children growing up in the same environment, "even children who grow up with the same parents do not have an identical environment." Harris’ bottom line: "The world that children share with their peers determines the sort of people they will be when they grow up" (p. 56). According to Harris, parents have no impact on their own children. With respect for the elderly almost gone, now Harris offers a theory that nothing your parents ever did for you made any difference. Now, according to Harris, there is no reason to either love or hate them!
All of this utter nonsense continues while our society heads toward self-destruction in part caused by the loss of respect. Society is like a fabric. When one removes any threads of Biblical, Godly behavior from the fabric of society, that fabric is weakened proportionately. Nietzsche, a German philosopher (1844-1900) taught that traditional values (represented primarily by Christianity) had lost their power in the lives of individuals. He was convinced that traditional values represented a "slave morality." He claimed that new values could be created to replace the traditional ones. He told people that they could be liberated from all values except those they deemed valid. In short, he gave permission to destroy the fabric of society. Once before, a society self-destructed because men forsook God’s Word and "did what was right in their own eyes" (Judges 17:6). Did much believes in situation ethics and a fatalist who leaves all up to heredity (genes). Nowhere in her book does she acknowledge God or His Word. Recorded in Section D, USA Today, Monday August 24, 1998, are words with which I agree. Of Harris’ book it states "Eileen Shiff a child development education teacher at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, is ‘incensed.’ She calls the Harris book an ‘attention getter’ ungrounded in research. This book is going to sell big time because it’s absolution for parents who are having trouble with their kids. It’s ‘don’t blame me, blame their friends,’" she says. However, the larger and more permanent danger is that it is one more step in the diminishing of children’s respect for their parents.
Sharon Begley’s article "The Parent Trap" in the September 7, 1998, Newsweek magazine has many poignant statements regarding Harris’ book The Nurture Assumption. On page 54 she quotes Steven Pinker of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who "predicts that ‘The Nurture Assumption’ will come to be seen as a turning point in the history of psychology." On the other hand, also quoted is Jerome Kagan of Harvard who said of Harris’ work, "I am embarrassed for psychology." On page 56 Begley says, "many of the nation’s leading scholars of child development accuse Harris of screwy logic." Of these researchers she further states on page 57 about Harris’ logic of children growing up in the same environment, "even children who grow up with the same parents do not have an identical environment." Harris’ bottom line: "The world that children share with their peers determines the sort of people they will be when they grow up" (p. 56). According to Harris, parents have no impact on their own children. With respect for the elderly almost gone, now Harris offers a theory that nothing your parents ever did for you made any difference. Now, according to Harris, there is no reason to either love or hate them!
All of this utter nonsense continues while our society heads toward self-destruction in part caused by the loss of respect. Society is like a fabric. When one removes any threads of Biblical, Godly behavior from the fabric of society, that fabric is weakened proportionately. Nietzsche, a German philosopher (1844-1900) taught that traditional values (represented primarily by Christianity) had lost their power in the lives of individuals. He was convinced that traditional values represented a "slave morality." He claimed that new values could be created to replace the traditional ones. He told people that they could be liberated from all values except those they deemed valid. In short, he gave permission to destroy the fabric of society. Once before, a society self-destructed because men forsook God’s Word and "did what was right in their own eyes" (Judges 17:6). Did Nietzsche, a Lutheran pastor’s son, think it would not happen again? Nietzsche is wrong! Society dies when you remove any threads which hold it together. Removing one of God’s threads (such as standing in the presence of the elderly) does not bring life to society! Eliminating the threads of God’s morality from society does not free society from God! These things only insure society’s destruction.
What is our society (without God and His threads of morality) faced with today? Atomic proliferation, AIDS epidemic, divorce, war, starvation and financial collapse, to name a few. Will any of these major problems be solved with a society without morals? Which world political leader stands today with the morality to guarantee his word? Today’s world leaders, educated in Nietzsche-infested universities, are without morality. They are without hope. How can I say such a thing? It is simple. None is calling the world back to God. The news media must share in this silence by telling righteous people to "leave their leaders alone!" "They are doing a good job!" "Morality does not matter!" Obviously the media must defend the immoral because they are defending the champions of their own causes. The feminists cannot speak against a predatory leader who passes their legislation. Religious leaders cannot condemn a morally bankrupt politician due to the fear of self exposure.
Respect for righteousness is gone. Television networks openly attack churches. William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has accused ABC of a pattern of attacks upon the Catholic Church. On ABC, a talk-show host ridiculed the Pope, a commentator bashed Mother Teresa during her funeral, an investigative special on cults included pictures of the Vatican, a situation comedy ran during Easter showing a boy obsessed with the bloodiness of the Crucifixion, and a heavily-promoted dramatic series features a young priest questioning fundamental church teachings. This is all being done by a Walt Disney Company-owned television network, ABC.
If you remove respect for righteousness, society breaks down. Respect for righteousness is a thread worth having in the fabric of every society. If you wish to know if any particular thread has been removed from any society, simply look at that fabric. That fabric will not have changed color. It will have gotten weak. Removing threads doesn’t remove color, it removes strength. In today’s Nietzschean society, there is not just less respect, there is no respect. We are not just in a "colorless" society. We are in a "weakened" society. All our senses are telling us we have lost our strength! Since Nietzsche declared himself God, one no longer "hears" the sweet melody of "yes sir" or "yes ma’am." One no longer "smells" the perfume of youth giving way to the elderly. One no longer "sees" the smile caused by a man giving his place to a lady. Gone is the "sweet taste" of "Thank you," "May I" and "Please." We are all bankrupt of the "touch" of helping another across a busy street. In their place we have the senseless pounding of loud drums coming from automobile sound systems which prevent anyone from "hearing" an urgent siren of an emergency vehicle. What we now "smell" is mind-numbing pot, crack cocaine and the incense of the gurus. Our eyes are now forced to "behold" graffiti, pornography called art and endless murders on television. The only "taste" today is "tasteless." "Touch" today carries with it the notion of children and spouses being abused.
Can man live without God? Is it too late to bring respect back into the fabric of society? Have things gone too far? I say it is not too late. I say, "Bring back the thread of rising in the presence of our elderly." Let society know that there are key threads which hold its fabric together. "Reverence for the elderly" is Jewish mitzvah number 206 from the 248 Mandatory Commandments and is recorded in Leviticus 19:32. We need the sound of God reweaving that thread into our fabric. Respecting our elderly leads to respecting the Ancient of Days. Eliminating the one, eliminates the other. Restoring the one will restore the other. Oh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bring us back to our senses!
Dr. Karl D. Coke is a Hebrew teacher whose undersanding of the original lanugages, the history, and the culture of the peoples of Holy Scripture causes the Bible to come alive for his audiences and readers. He is president of Redirection, a ministry that establishes the home as the center for spiritual development among Christian communions. Karl, his wife Karen, and their daughter Kristin live in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he also pastors Restoration Family Fellowship.