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Worship as Entertainment
NMB, Florida March 16, 2002 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
WORSHIP AS ENTERTAINMENT
Kids will fidget, grimace, wave at friends and talk compulsively to each
other ignoring what is going on around them. Adults will sit unresponsive
to either what the kids are doing or what is going on around them.
I know I sound like an old fuddy duddy. Living for three-quarters of a
century entitles me to be one. But there used to be something called
deportment, restraint, behavior, attention, respect and so on. These used
to be required of children particularly in the area of religion where one is
in a "Sanctuary", near the "Ark" where the Torah is kept and the Bema where
the chief religious authorities conduct their business.
I think that we have come to the point where, in order to retain our
children, we have chosen to think of worship as entertainment. The
atmosphere is deliberately created to resemble summer camp where the songs
are sung lustily and the emphasis is on fun to coax homesick children that
being away from television and their rooms is a good thing.
I have made this observation before. I think that when adults ignore
children being children in a place where deportment, attention and respect
are desired behavior they have abandoned their jobs as teachers of those
children. To expect elderly people in the congregation to tell kids to stop
the noise and inappropriate behavior while their parents are meeting and
greeting friends is simple abdication of parental authority and obligation
in not only a public place but also a place where decorum is required.
Carol, on one notable occasion during the spring Music Festival - another
service where a lot of children were involved - felt impelled to go up to a
group of choristers and tell them to cut it out. I thought it was necessary
but I don't have her mantra of authority and would only get a stare as a
response. It is hard to bring discipline to worship when entertainment is
the goal and when the adults are not paying attention to anything except the
"cute" behavior of their children.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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