{"id":623,"date":"2014-04-26T18:44:34","date_gmt":"2014-04-26T23:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=623"},"modified":"2016-11-11T14:24:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T19:24:12","slug":"why-is-obedience-a-virtue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/04\/why-is-obedience-a-virtue\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Obedience a Virtue?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n<\/p>

Add \u201cObedience\u201d to the long list of Christian topics I write about but personally stink at.\u00a0 It\u2019s an aspirational faith, and anyway, if my writing does nothing else, it amuses the people who know me in real life.<\/p>\n

When I first became a parent, the concept that my children should obey me, and that I should teach them to obey me, was utterly foreign.\u00a0 I knew you wanted the kids to behave well, but I wasn\u2019t so sure that I was in my rights insisting on obedience.<\/p>\n

I bring this up because Eve Tushnet has posted much more introspective thoughts on the topic of obedience<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to get practical, fast.<\/p>\n

I have a teenager now.\u00a0 A maturing little person, tall as me and with bigger feet, who is capable of many, many things.\u00a0 Obedience matters.<\/p>\n

People freak out about obedience, because they think it means servile behavior, or committing grave acts of evil in the name of \u201cjust following orders\u201d.\u00a0 It means neither of those.<\/strong>\u00a0 What it means is much more simple: When someone who has the right to tell you what to do tells you what to do, that\u2019s what you do.<\/p>\n

The right<\/em> is the key concept.\u00a0 So:<\/p>\n

1. The boss tells you to file newest documents in front, older in the rear.\u00a0 That\u2019s what you do.\u00a0 Boss tells you, \u201cI trust you completely to handle the new account, give me a monthly update,\u201d that\u2019s what you do.<\/p>\n

2. The boss tells you to collude with the competition in violation of antitrust law, you don\u2019t do it. Boss has no right to give such an order.<\/p>\n

Rights vary.\u00a0 Your commanding officer has rights your neighborhood association does not (and vice versa).<\/p>\n

A good thing about the times that we live in is that certain abuses of power that we used to tolerate we no longer tolerate. \u00a0There do remain situations where people roll over and ignore evil in the name of some variation on \u201cnot my problem.\u201d\u00a0 We need to cultivate fortitude so that we can do what is right even when it is difficult.\u00a0 Likewise, there still exist those whose concept of lawful authority is horribly deluded.\u00a0 Hence, the continued need for properly ordered feminism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abuse Does Not Invalidate Right Use<\/h2>\n

That a person in _____ leadership role abused his authority does not mean that everyone in such a role no longer has authority.\u00a0 That there are dangerously bad parents out there does not mean that my children should not obey me.\u00a0 Parents who abuse their authority should lose that authority; but the fact that a parent exercises legitimate parental rights does not make that parent power-hungry, or dangerous, or abusive.\u00a0 It makes that parent a parent.<\/p>\n

We need obedience because it is the only way to have a functioning society.<\/strong>\u00a0 Little things like what the various colors of traffic lights mean, or \u201cdarling, don\u2019t touch the hot stove,\u201d . . . these boil down to obedience.\u00a0 Every community needs a leadership structure.\u00a0 That structure can take any number of forms, and any leader who means to stay in authority for long needs to lead respectfully.<\/p>\n

Obedience is a virtue because it calls on us to obey even when we think we know better<\/strong>.\u00a0 It requires self-denial.\u00a0 When I stop at the red light because I think it\u2019s a good idea to do so, I\u2019m not exercising that virtue.\u00a0 When I stop at red even though, in my opinion, I could safely cross the intersection and it seems stupid to have this light out in the middle of nowhere anyway . . . I\u2019m practicing the virtue of obedience.\u00a0 When my son turns off the computer and goes to bed despite his parents\u2019 obvious senility on matters concerning computers and bedtimes, he\u2019s being virtuous.<\/p>\n

That virtue is ultimately founded in trust<\/strong>.\u00a0 Teenage boys, and all the other humans, only endure bad leadership until they find a way out.\u00a0 In contrast, to choose to obey is to choose to trust: I don\u2019t necessarily agree with the order, but I trust you can handle this well enough. Among parents and children, the assertion of parental authority can only be rightly founded on a solid track record.\u00a0 When have I led you wrong?\u00a0 I\u2019ve reared you safe and whole thus far, trust me when I tell you that sleep is important.<\/em>\u00a0 And likewise among all the other bigger societies to which we belong.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Add \u201cObedience\u201d to the long list of Christian topics I write about but personally stink at.\u00a0 It\u2019s an aspirational faith, and anyway, if my writing does nothing else, it amuses the people who know me in real life. When I first became a parent, the concept that my children should obey me, and that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,13,44,51,86,6],"tags":[198,39,201,199,200],"class_list":["post-623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catechesis-2","category-catholic-qa","category-church-craziness","category-forgiveness","category-marriage","category-stick-that-corner","tag-eve-tushnet","tag-obedience","tag-parental-rights","tag-simcha-fisher","tag-teenagers"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy is Obedience a Virtue?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Add "Obedience" to the long list of Christian topics I write about but personally stink at.\u00a0 It's an aspirational faith, and anyway, if my writing does\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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