Church and Sesame Street

I grew watching Sesame Street. It was not a daily source of information for me, but I bet I can still name almost every old character.  I was recently impressed with a decision they made to include a topic that is not easy to talk about, divorce. Sesame Street executives tried to bring this story up years ago, however the approach on the content was way to sad and intense. Recently they revisited the topic. Click here to visit the article and video.

Lynn Chwatsky, Sesame Workshop’s vice president of outreach initiatives oversaw the project explains why the “Sesame Street” crew decided to readdress this issue 20 years after flopping on it.

“We want kids to understand that they’re not alone, and that it’s not their fault,” says Chwatsky. “These kids love and adore Abby. So to know that she’s going through something similar to them, something challenging, it’s like, Wow. It makes it O.K. to have a whole range of feelings.”

So what does this have to do with church. Many times when mistakes happen in the church we care more about addressing the mistake, even trying to eliminate the potential of mistakes, then helping clean the mess up. Here are a few thoughts about how we can better talk about tough issues like divorce.

• Messes happen

- Divorce will always be apart of our culture. (There I said it.) We can help some marriages, others were doomed from the start. Its not the end of their world or the potential of what God can do in their life. My first desire is to see God restore the marriage (He hates divorce). Second can the church successfully navigate someone through a divorce?

• Divorce, now what?

- For many behind the church leadership we don't know. We did not know there were options. Here are some issues we need to study up on and think about. 

Divorce Counseling - (I did not say marriage counseling) What went wrong so I don't do it again. 

Mixed Families - This is a big one. How do we "all" get along? 

Stay in Church - Punishment usually follows people who are committed to church and go through a divorce. I don't believe this is the correct response. There must be time for healing and correction, but punishment is not the remedy. 

Kids Church Curriculum - I lost you here didn't I. Fifty percent of families are effected by divorce. To be more personal, as a kid you either thought your parents were going to get a divorce or they already did get a divorce. There is a lot of emotion locked up inside todays kids. Why not talk about it. The safest place for our kids to do that, I think, is in kids church.

• Hard Headedness is a sin. Divorce is a symptom

 . - Jesus was asked about divorce. Mark 10:1-12. Jesus quotes Moses, then rebukes them, not for divorce but for their own "hard headedness". Church leaders should rebuke (stand against, despise, teach on) hard headedness (arrogance, pride,  hard hearts) instead of symptoms of it.

I would like to know what you think. Remember this is a sticky subject and most people don't open this  "can of worms". However, it is here, it is real and in some form and fashion we are all connected with it. So, lets start the conversation.