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Children are being forced to grow up too quickly in a culture that refuses to recognise that human beings are naturally dependent on one another, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned yesterday.
Dr Rowan Williams condemned the pressure on children to become “active little consumers and performers” at the earliest opportunity.
Preaching at Canterbury Cathedral, Dr Williams said contemporary life had become characterised by a basic impatience about learning. He said that too many people, including the elderly and children, were expected to stand on their own feet without support from outside.
“We send out the message that if you’re not standing on your own two feet and if you need regular support, you’re an anomaly. We’ll look after you (with a bit of a sigh), but frankly it’s not ideal,” he said.
The message being sent out to children today was: “We shall test you relentlessly in schools, we shall bombard you with advertising, often highly sexualised advertising, we shall worry you about your prospects and skills from the word go. We shall do all we can to make childhood a brief and rather regrettable stage on the way to the real thing, which is ‘independence’, turning you into a useful cog in the social machine that won’t need too much maintenance.” Parents should learn to enjoy their children’s dependence on them, instead of forcing them prematurely into independence.
He also referred to the sufferings of children being used as child soldiers and caught up in conflicts around the world, such as “the meaningless and savage civil wars in places like Congo and Sri Lanka — children who are abducted, brutalised, turned into killers, used as sex slaves”.
The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, also addressed the pressures faced by young people. Preaching at Westminster Cathedral, he said: “Each of us is called to grow and mature from an infancy of faith into a mature willingness — like Mary’s — to be instruments not of our own ambition, but of God’s will.
“This is our struggle, for while we long for peace there is still conflict within our hearts. Conflicts fill the news and cause injury and death to those in Afghanistan and Iraq who are so much in our prayers at this time. While we long for a sense of community, so many youngsters resort to gangs and gang violence to bolster their weakened sense of identity. While we long for reconciliation there is still such bitterness in our bloodstream.”
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, also preached on the theme of offering refuge to the oppressed and those fleeing persecution.
The “revolutionary” story of Christmas proclaims the reign of God over all other rulers, the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said. The first Christians had chosen Jesus as their Lord over Caesar, he said. “Caesar was lord through conquest and oppression and violence. Jesus was Lord because He had come to bring justice and non-violence to the Earth.
“So these birth stories are not at all what they seem. They proclaim the lordship of Jesus and the reign of God over and against the rulers of this world — so much for keeping religion and politics apart.”
In his sermon at Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, he said: “To say Jesus is Lord is to join Him in His fight against everything and anything that dehumanises and degrades human beings.
“It’s pretty revolutionary stuff — and when we come and worship at that crib, we need to realise exactly what we are signing up to.”
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Stop forcing children to grow up too quickly, says Archbishop of Canterbury - Times Online
Dr Rowan Williams condemned the pressure on children to become “active little consumers and performers” at the earliest opportunity.
Preaching at Canterbury Cathedral, Dr Williams said contemporary life had become characterised by a basic impatience about learning. He said that too many people, including the elderly and children, were expected to stand on their own feet without support from outside.
“We send out the message that if you’re not standing on your own two feet and if you need regular support, you’re an anomaly. We’ll look after you (with a bit of a sigh), but frankly it’s not ideal,” he said.
The message being sent out to children today was: “We shall test you relentlessly in schools, we shall bombard you with advertising, often highly sexualised advertising, we shall worry you about your prospects and skills from the word go. We shall do all we can to make childhood a brief and rather regrettable stage on the way to the real thing, which is ‘independence’, turning you into a useful cog in the social machine that won’t need too much maintenance.” Parents should learn to enjoy their children’s dependence on them, instead of forcing them prematurely into independence.
He also referred to the sufferings of children being used as child soldiers and caught up in conflicts around the world, such as “the meaningless and savage civil wars in places like Congo and Sri Lanka — children who are abducted, brutalised, turned into killers, used as sex slaves”.
The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, also addressed the pressures faced by young people. Preaching at Westminster Cathedral, he said: “Each of us is called to grow and mature from an infancy of faith into a mature willingness — like Mary’s — to be instruments not of our own ambition, but of God’s will.
“This is our struggle, for while we long for peace there is still conflict within our hearts. Conflicts fill the news and cause injury and death to those in Afghanistan and Iraq who are so much in our prayers at this time. While we long for a sense of community, so many youngsters resort to gangs and gang violence to bolster their weakened sense of identity. While we long for reconciliation there is still such bitterness in our bloodstream.”
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, also preached on the theme of offering refuge to the oppressed and those fleeing persecution.
The “revolutionary” story of Christmas proclaims the reign of God over all other rulers, the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said. The first Christians had chosen Jesus as their Lord over Caesar, he said. “Caesar was lord through conquest and oppression and violence. Jesus was Lord because He had come to bring justice and non-violence to the Earth.
“So these birth stories are not at all what they seem. They proclaim the lordship of Jesus and the reign of God over and against the rulers of this world — so much for keeping religion and politics apart.”
In his sermon at Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, he said: “To say Jesus is Lord is to join Him in His fight against everything and anything that dehumanises and degrades human beings.
“It’s pretty revolutionary stuff — and when we come and worship at that crib, we need to realise exactly what we are signing up to.”
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Stop forcing children to grow up too quickly, says Archbishop of Canterbury - Times Online
