Thoughts from the paper 5

As I read Csinos' discussion of children as found in Paul's Epistles, I didn't feel like it shook up my thinking that much but the more I thought about it the more I realize that it most certainly shakes up traditional/fundamentalist/evangelical thinking about the parent/child relationship. I don't know that recognizing that " parents and children stand alongside one another in their appropriate places under God" [Csinos, p 113] is intended to displace the need for child training and discipline, as appropriate, but rather to infuse definition and method with a new attitude and respect that works both ways, not only for the child as an individual and a person and as a representative of Christ Jesus and Father God but the child as one who stands before Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - someone God respects and listens to - a child with the capabilities to choose. Let's face it, if we as adults are in training to live our faith as a discipled and disciplined life it seems only Biblical and natural to draw our children in, too. And maybe that's enough. Maybe that will cover the training and discipline - teaching children respect and kindness.

But children obeying parents "in the Lord," that qualifier suggesting that children have standing before God, not only challenges hard core patriarchal parenting attitudes but it opens up another question ... Do the author's comments affect the ongoing discussion in the church about "the age of accountability"?