Model Asuhan Keluarga Kristen di Masa Pandemi Covid-19

This paper is the result of an analysis of the practical situation of family education in the Christian community in the midst of a global pandemic. When the government has to limit its citizens to stay at home, stay at home, work from home, social distancing, wear masks, wash their hands; then all of this has an impact on difficulties for families. Children learn distance (online) from home. It is the parents who play a bigger role in learning, the burden on teachers and schools is increasingly formalized. Christian parents face formidable challenges in realizing their vocation and role in today's situation. Based on the research conducted, various efforts should be made by Christian parents in terms of Christian parenting during the Covid-19 pandemic, including Restoration of initial love, which is rooted in the love relationship between husband and wife that has been blessed by God and restoration of love with God, restoration of an initial love for children, proven patience, preparation of good nutrition for all family members, and continuing to share love, as a model of exemplary care for children. This paper was written using a descriptive method, namely through the use of literature or literature sources, especially with regard to the parenting style of Christian’s parents during the pandemic. Abstrak: Tulisan ini adalah hasil analisis terhadap situasi praktis pendidikan keluarga komunitas kristiani di tengah pandemi melanda dunia. Ketika pemerintah harus membatasi warganya untuk tinggal di rumah saja, stay at home, work from home, social distancing, harus pakai masker, cuci tangan; maka semua ini berdampak kesulitan bagi para keluarga. Anak-anak belajar jarak jauh (online) dari rumah. Orang tualah yang lebih banyak berperan dalam pembelajaran, beban guru dan sekolah semakin terporalisasi. Para orang tua Kristen menghadapi tantangan berat dalam mewujudkan panggilan dan perannya dalam situasi seperti sekarang ini. Berdasarkan penelitian yang dilakukan maka ditemukanlah berbagai upaya yang hendaknya dilakukan oleh orang tua Kristen dalam hal pengasuhan yang kristiani di saat pandemi covid-19, antara lain: Pemulihan kasih mula-mula, yang berakar pada dasar hubungan kasih suami-istri yang sudah diberkati Tuhan dan pemulihan kasih dengan Tuhan, Pemulihan kasih mula-mula terhadap anak, Kesabaran yang teruji, Penyiapan gizi yang baik buat semua anggota keluarga, dan tetap berbagi kasih, sebagai model asuhan keteladanan bagi anak-anak. Tulisan ini dibuat dengan menggunakan metode deskriptif, yaitu melalui pemanfaatan sumber literatur atau pustaka, khususnya berkenaan dengan pola asuh orang tua Kristsen di masa pandemi.

Touch, Intimacy, and Sexuality in Partnership and Domination Environments

How people are touched, especially as children and in sexual and other intimate relations, affects and is in turn affected by cultural factors. This chapter explores how patterns of touch, intimacy, and sexuality differ at opposite ends of the domination-partnership continuum and why understanding this is important for moving forward. Studies show that we read other’s intentions and emotions by how we are touched and that the confluence of caring with coercion and pain is one of the most effective mechanisms for socializing people to suppress empathy and submit to domination as adults—whether through the painful binding of girls’ feet once traditional in China, or so-called Christian parenting guides that today admonish parents not to “overindulge” children and instead follow “God’s way” by forcing eight-month-old babies to sit with their hands on their trays or laps through threats and violence. Sexuality, too, is distorted in domination systems through the erotization of domination and violence, for example, by inculcating the belief that males are entitled to sex; through the mass shootings of women in the United States and Canada by men who call themselves incel (involuntarily celibate); and by the enslavement of women by Muslim fundamentalist groups like ISIS. The chapter contrasts these unhealthy interactions with healthy ones supported by partnership-oriented cultures.

THE BIBLICAL APPROACH OF PROVERBS 1-9 THAT IS APPLICABLE AND RELEVANT ON ADDRESSING INCREASED ANTISOCIAL ILLS IN AFRICA

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the Biblical approach of Proverbs 1-9 that is applicable and relevant on addressing increased antisocial ills in Africa.Methodology: The study was a desktop research where review of empirical literature was done.Results: It is only in the book of Proverbs 1-9 that we find the individual instructions from parents to their children. The book of Proverbs 1-9 can conveniently serve as the Biblical manual of parenting. The book of Proverbs 1-9 regards the home as the basic institution of learning the life skills. To appropriate the teachings and practices of Proverbs 1-9 in the life of child rearing in the African communities, there is need for the search of the Biblical approach that will enable parents to extract lessons that are applicable and relevant for the purposes of addressing increased anti-social ills in the community. The study argues that traditional-historical method of Biblical analysis as the most appropriate approach to be followed in the quest for the meaning of Proverbs 1-9 that will enable the extraction of lessons that are applicable and relevant in the African child rearing. The nature of the book of Proverbs 1-9 in terms of its traditional historical nature, social setting, purpose, relationship between it and other ancient near East wisdom literature, authorship and social-cultural environment are strong indicators that traditional historical method is the most appropriate approach that is relevant and applicable in the present African communities child rearing.Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study hypothesizes that if the analysis of Proverbs 1-9 engages traditional-historical method, the crucial aspects of parenting which includes the parenting styles, contents of instructions and the goal of the instructions will be extracted. These aspects will ultimately serve as a foundation upon which child rearing in African communities be established. Understanding the Biblical teaching on child rearing in Proverbs 1-9 serves as a manual that deepens the understanding of Christian parenting in African communities hoping that it will contribute towards reducing anti-social ills.

Preparing them from home: A discourse on Christian parental responsibility towards ecological crisis

Few studies have discussed the roles of parents towards addressing ecological crisis. Yet, discourses on these roles have always been approached from a secular perspective. To this end, this paper critically discusses the roles of parents towards ecological crisis from the Christian or biblical perspective of their responsibilities towards their children. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological method of analysis, the article argues that ecological disasters of tomorrow could be prevented today through effective ecologically centred Christian parenting.