Authority in Perspective by Tara Schorr

I have been giving considerable thought lately to the administration of authority.  I have been grieved by some of the things I have seen done in it’s name, and have been pondering questions and Scriptures.  What is a healthy expression of authority?  How is it that Scriptures are employed to back up practices or systems that are clearly abusive?  Where is the balance between boundaries and anarchy?  How can Truth be proclaimed to set captives free from both slavery and rebellion?

As it so often happens, while I considered these things I realized how much it correlated with Charlotte Mason and the way she described the treatment and training of children.  Mason hit the nail on the head when, discussing a mother who mishandled her role, she wrote, “She confounded the two principles of authority and autocracy” (Vol 3 pages 13-14).  Certainly autocracy, having absolute rule, domineering and controlling another human being created in the image of God, is wrong.  Yet, to various degrees, that is often the presumed understanding of how authority is implemented.  Further on she states, “Mrs. Hare, like many another ruler, would appear to have erred, not from indolence, and certainly not harshness, but because she failed to define to herself the nature of the authority she was bound to exercise” (Vol 3 page 15).

Defining the nature of authority seems to be the best place to start.  Mason reminded us that even Jesus came as a servant to do His Father’s will, and that any form of authority here on earth is entrusted to us for definite tasks.  This imposes mandates and limitations, according to the accomplishing of the assignment.  Paul talked about this very thing in 2 Corinthians 13:10 when he stated, “Therefore, I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.”  If Paul had used his title or position of being an apostle to tear people down, it would have been an illegal use of his authority, not given to him or endorsed by the Lord.  This clearly shows boundaries in the expression of authority.  Mason not only applied those limitations to severe examples that would normally cross people’s minds, but also to the too lenient ones.  For instance, it is an unauthorized use of authority to allow children to skip doing their lessons, to play too many video games, or eat too much junk food, because that is harmful to them and our commission is to ensure their best welfare.

Another important thing to consider is the intended paradigm and structure.  We have a tendency to apply these kinds of principles with an hierarchal mindset.  The gift of teaching, along with the other gifts, was given by God to help equip others, and it was meant for a Kingdom of Heaven cultural context.  In other words, the relationships are modeled after a loving family, not a boss and employers.  It is supposed to be enabling and releasing, not managing or using.  Jesus addressed this when He told His disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.  Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to be great among you, let him be your servant.”  Paul further illustrated this in 1 Thessalonians 2:6-8 by saying, “Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.  But, we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.  So affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.”

Blessed are the meek, especially those with positions of leadership.  The word meek literally means “strength, or power, under control.”  The greater the sphere of influence or rule, the greater the power one has to restrain.  Mason used the charming example of Queen Elizabeth [I], admirably citing, “the meekness of one who has been given an appointed work, the readiness to take counsel with herself and with others, the perception that she herself was not the be-all and the end-all of her functions as a queen, but that she existed for her people, and the quick and tender open-minded sympathy which enabled her to see their side of every question as well as her own––indeed, in preference to her own” (Vol. 3 page 17-18).  It takes a trained and concentrated effort to hold yourself back and to prefer those in your charge, when you could just lay down the law and be applauded by the world for doing so.

Paul was trusted with more authority than we can imagine.  His teachings are still being used to transform lives all around the world.  Yet, by accepting the call on his life, he knew he was signing up for great hardship.  Nobody understood that better than Paul, since he was most zealous to persecute and kill believers.  Each day he walked out his calling he acquired more enemies, and suffered more.  That kind of commitment helps to purify motives.  I believe that kind of pouring out of our life is the pattern held up for all to live by.  After all, the One who has and will have the greatest authority forever, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, was the One who sacrificed the most.

There are commands given to temper those who rule, as well.  Fathers were instructed not to provoke their children to anger.  Even though offenses are inevitable, Jesus warned those that caused children to be offended that it would be better to have a millstone around their neck and to be thrown into the sea.  God is pretty particular about how children should be treated, and we would do well to take the time to assess ourselves.

These are the principals that should inform our daily lives, actions, and decisions.  Are we being watchful over our students so that they are challenged in a positive way?  Are we impatient and expect things from them that we haven’t properly trained them enough in?  Do we care about their feelings, even if they seem insignificant from our adult perspective?  Do we put them first, above our own comfort and convenience?  Do we really listen to them?  Are we nurturing and affectionately loving them through the fun, the tedious, and the challenging?  Are we regularly weighing and adjusting according to their development and growing maturity?  Are we being tender when bringing correction?  Do they feel safe with us, and know that in all things we have their best interests in mind?

I’m taking a fresh look at these things, and at my interactions with my children.  The busyness of life and the pressure of goals can eclipse some of these more important issues.  They need to be intentionally brought to the forefront at regular intervals.  This is what determines the kind of relationship that will exist between teacher, mentor, or parent and child.  This is what will either crush, or cause a child to grow in wisdom, character, vibrancy of life, and thrive.

© Tara Schorr 2012

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Charlotte Mason’s Prescription for Modern Social Ills by Tara Schorr

One doesn’t have to look far to see the devastating effects that modern society has had on relationships.  Divorce rates are through the roof, and that is for the decreasing number of people who still choose to get married in the first place.  People can hop from friend to friend, church to church, or club to club with a consumer mentality that approaches all of life like a wine-tasting party.  Try it, get whatever enjoyment out of it that you can, spit it out, and then critique it as you move on.

God’s purpose for creating us was for fellowship.  We have a need for intimacy with God and to be united with others in love as a part of the fabric of our beings.  The consequence of the current lifestyle is a wake of brokenness, inability to trust, feelings of isolation, and searching for fulfillment in unhealthy ways. Thus, it is critical that our children be equipped to enter into God’s plan for relationships.

I have heard that teens these days are so lacking in intimate relationships that they will refer to somebody as “a really good friend” because they have put clichés in code as comments on their MySpace page.  I have also heard the growing murmur rising about the decline in healthy communication since the obsession with text messaging has taken our culture by storm.  Email has also gotten its fair share of blame in the public conversation.  I wonder however, if it is unreasonable to say that the education that most are receiving, with vocabulary deficient and dumbed-down texts, contrived shallow materials with which to think upon, and the lack of discussion of ideas (even to the extent that many schools now forbid talking during lunchtime), is also contributing a lion’s share to the destruction of our community life.

As Charlotte Mason educators, our little pupil’s minds are filled with adventures, great ideas, inspiring heroes, and appreciation of beauty.  That richness of soul affords them much more interesting conversation than being limited to talking about a video game that is played obsessively and never touches on thoughts with any consequence or lead to an intimate connection.  It seems that the deeper things to which a Charlotte Mason student is introduced awaken their own depths.  Additionally, they are equipped with the language to express it in an articulate and engaging way.  Surely this is a foundation that serves to facilitate and strengthen fellowship.

The most important ingredient I see that Charlotte Mason included in her recipe of life with children is duty to God and duty to man.   Even the word “duty” is hardly ever used these days, let alone lived out as an example before us.  Charlotte Mason had a hearty sprinkling of that word throughout her writings.  She charged a child’s authority figures in terms that left no uncertainty in statements such as “you will see that it is because of the possibilities of ruin and loss which lie about every human life that I am pressing upon parents the duty of saving their children by the means put into their hands. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that ninety-nine out of a hundred lost lives lie at the door of parents who took no pains to deliver them from sloth, from sensual appetites, from willfulness, no pains to fortify them with the habits of a good life.”  There would be a transformation in our culture if that advice were heeded.
A community that embraces a sense of “duty to man” would understand commitment.  People would keep their word, following through even when it was inconvenient or stopped being fun.  There would be greater honor for one another, consideration of how actions impact others, and self-control; all things that God uses to bring us life, blessing, and to grow us up.

Many stories of days gone by have heroes that are moved by a sense of duty that puts others first and shine with nobility.  We are struck with reverence for those heroes and their actions resonate in our hearts as ones that are right and true.  We are inspired to rise to that standard because inside something is telling us it is greatness.  So, why do the masses shy away from instilling such character?

I believe many are harmed by abusive authority.  For some it was authority that tried to instill right behavior without regard to the fact that they were working with people.  In the church-world we would call it legalism.  There is such a fear of legalism that we don’t know how to embrace discipline or administer it.  For others it was authority that was negligent in training or supervising.  I appreciate how Charlotte Mason presented the whole picture by always approaching children as persons, even when speaking of duty, as demonstrated in this quote:  “Be courteous, be candid, be grateful, be considerate, be true; there are aspects of duty enough to occupy the attention of mother and child for every day of the child-life; and all the time, the idea of duty is being formed, and conscience is being educated and developed. At the same time, the mother exercises the friendly vigilance of a guardian angel, being watchful, not to catch the child tripping, but to guide him into the acting out of the duty she has already made lovely in his eyes; for it is only as we do that we learn to do, and become strong in the doing. As she instructs her child in duty, she teaches him to listen to the voice of conscience as to the voice of God, a ‘Do this,’ or ‘Do it not,’ within the breast, to be obeyed with full assurance. It is objected that we are making infallible, not the divinely implanted conscience, but that same conscience made effective by discipline. It is even so; in every department of life, physical or spiritual, human effort appears to be the condition of the Divine energizing; there must be a stretching forth of the withered arm before it receives strength; and we have every reason to believe that the instructed conscience, being faithfully followed, is divinely illuminated.”  Can anything else so beautifully illustrate how life-giving grace can walk hand-in-hand with the proper training of our students?

I want the atmosphere of my school to be infused with that kind of honor, depth, and intimacy.  I want my kids to aspire to that degree of nobility of character.  I want to impart a value of relationships by modeling it in the way that I interact with them.  How about you?  If we take this mandate afresh to heart we might just save a life from emptiness, loneliness, being a quitter, casual sex, irresponsibility, divorce, broken relationships with their own children, and many other devastating things.  Instead, they might live righteously, thriving in family and community, being stable, and reliable.

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