0 Importance of Family Catechesis

Wes Bredenhof, pastor in the Canadian Reformed Churches, and blogger at Yinkahdinay posted an important reminder concerning the use of catechisms in bringing up our children in the training and admonition of the Lord. We are in a day in which the going assumption is that it is the church's responsibility to teach our children religion, and that parents are to get out of the way. I'm not merely speaking here about those who believe their children "need to find their own religion" or "don't want to coerce my kids into any particular belief system" that pervades the secularist society.... I'm talking even about good evangelical parents who desire their children to follow in their footsteps. The primary teacher of religion is taken to be the church, and, contrary to the clear commands in Deuteronomy 6, all teaching of any substance is given over to the Sunday School teacher and their flannelgraphs.

The Synod of Dort, and the Westminster Assembly, too, for that matter, were very clear on the identity of the shoulders upon which the responsibility for training children in the faith lie: those of the parents, and of the father as head of the home. Wes's comments on the Synod of Dort's declarations are timely and appreciated.