Including Children in Child Liberation Theology

Author note: this is the sixth article in a multi-part series I am writing that provides an overview of child liberation theology. You can read the previous installment, “Why Child Liberation Theology Must Be Intersectional,” here. The next and final installment, “To Learn More About Child Liberation Theology,” highlights the best people, articles, and other resources if you would like to delve further into the growing field of child liberation theology. You can read it here.

The heart and soul of child liberation theology, as argued throughout this series, is self-determination. This is because self-determination is the heart and soul of all liberation theologies. All liberation theologies are about empowering a specific group of people to study and speak about God, the Bible, and Jesus through their own questions, with their own words, and for the purpose of breaking free from the abuse and other sins they experience in their everyday lives.

If self-determination is the heart and soul of child liberation theology, that means that we will never have an authentic version until adults like me pass this project onto children themselves to take on and develop. Children are the objects of liberation in this field, and thus children should ultimately be the ones to dictate and shape it. Black liberation theology would be inauthentic if it was controlled and guided primarily by white people. Queer liberation theology would be inauthentic if it was controlled and guided primarily by cishet people. In the same spirit, child liberation theology will be inauthentic if it is controlled and guided primarily by adults. 

This means that child liberation theology has at least two distinct stages: an adult stage and a child stage. The first, adult stage is what you and I are doing right here, right now: adults figuring out all the barriers and hurdles that are currently preventing children from enjoying full access to and participation in their families, faith communities, and religious organizations—and then systematically tearing down those barriers and hurdles. Adults are the ones who constructed them originally, so adults are responsible for deconstructing them. Children should not be required to fix the world for adults.

The second stage of child liberation theology involves children. The second stage is really the most important: children seizing hold of this theology for themselves and deciding the best direction for its future. That means, in this second stage, adults need to start relinquishing their power and control over child liberation theology. And we need to start creating space for children to access and participate in these conversations, gradually building up to giving children full creative license to imagine and lead the future of this theology. 

Of course, giving children full creative license over a theological field will not happen overnight. This is something that takes time. It requires scaffolding, which we touched on in Part Two of this series. Scaffolding is a fantastic teaching strategy in general, but it is especially helpful with children. By breaking down complicated or difficult ideas and topics into smaller, more accessible, and more manageable pieces, children do not have to process as much information as quickly as possible and thus risk getting overwhelmed by it. When you scaffold, children have time to slowly absorb each piece of information and then you help them assemble all the pieces into the whole picture once the child is ready.

Take the topic of death as an example. If you want to educate a child about the facts of death, you should not start the conversation by telling the child, “Everyone that you love will die one day.” That statement is true. It is true that everyone will die one day. But that is probably not the best way to start the conversation with a child. Starting the conversation that way is likely going to just terrify and traumatize the child. So instead of introducing the topic in a way that makes the child fearful, you would scaffold. Progressively, over whatever amount of time it takes to help the child understand, you would explain that death is the end of a living being, that death is permanent, that death is a natural and normal part of life, that all living beings will die one day, that grieving the death of someone can be a long, complicated process, and that it is okay to feel strong emotions about someone’s death. Each of these is a big idea to take in, so patience is key with scaffolding.

If passing child liberation theology onto children requires scaffolding, how can we begin building that infrastructure? In other words, what concrete and practical steps can families, faith communities, and religious organizations take to ensure that we are enabling and empowering children to rise up and seize their right to guide the theology themselves?

I think scaffolding to the end of empowering children requires several things, but first and foremost it requires us to start off small. What do I mean by that? Well, we cannot just throw every possible adult responsibility and position of leadership at children and expect them to survive or thrive. Some may very well survive or thrive—see 2 Kings 22 for the biblical example of King Josiah, who ruled Jerusalem and “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” at the age of 8!—but not every child is naturally a master of statecraft. So rather than starting with big lessons, start with small lessons. Instead of thrusting unprepared children into important tasks and dooming them to failure, help children prepare for the important tasks by first figuring out what resources they need to handle them. If I were teaching an 8-year-old King-to-be Josiah, for example, I would not start with teaching him Machiavellian political strategies. You have to build up to that sort of information. So I would start at the beginning: I would teach Josiah what government is, why governments exist, the different types of government, and so forth. In short, when educating children (or anyone, really), you need to cover the basics before getting to advanced stuff.

Applying this principle to theological work might manifest as, instead of giving children a huge stack of formidable theological books by expert theologians to begin their theological journey, helping children to gain biblical and theological proficiency. Meaning, start by just getting children familiar with different parts of the Bible (remembering that not all parts of the Bible are child-friendly and some parts should only be read with the lens of child protection), different ways that people can read the same passages, and some of the big questions that theology asks (like, “Why do pain and suffering exist?” and “Is God good or evil?”).

Second, scaffolding to empower children requires us to give children opportunities to actually practice what they are learning. Continuing the example of King Josiah: children are capable of leadership, but leadership does not always come naturally to everyone (adults included!). If we want children to lead, then, we need to start small and give them opportunities to learn and practice leadership skills in everyday life. Before going big and, say, putting children on your church’s leadership team, maybe start with some projects: for example, give children the opportunity to conduct a fundraiser for whatever charitable work or organization they feel most passionate about. The adults in your church can of course help and support the children as needed or if asked, but really get out of the way as much as possible so that the children have the chance to learn and practice the leadership skills necessary to pull off such an event. Let the children decide on who or what to donate to, let the children decide how they want to raise the money (car wash, bake sale, etc.), let the children divide up roles and responsibilities among themselves, and let the children do as much of the event itself as they can.

Similarly, with theological work, instead of starting by asking children to write a Summa Theologica, think about how you can create a time or space in your family, faith community, or religious organization where children are allowed to study, think about, and ask big questions freely about God, the Bible, and Jesus. Make this time or space separate from your current practices, whether that is daily morning devotionals or dinnertime Bible readings. This will help it feel special and reserved for children specifically. Work hard as an adult to primarily listen and support during this children’s time. Listen, meaning focus your energy not on your own beliefs and feelings (you still have your daily morning devotionals or dinnertime Bible readings for that), but on hearing your children’s beliefs and feelings and encouraging your children to fully explore them without judgment. And support, meaning give your children whatever resources you can (books, movies, games, conversations with experts, etc.) to help them understand what they are learning.

Third, empowering children through scaffolding requires adults to gradually give up power and control over the entire project as children learn and master the necessary skills. We cannot forget this crucial step. In order to actually create space for children to learn and practice and do, adults need to be willing to let go and step aside and give up their power and control over the learning and practicing and doing. This can be difficult work. People who have power and privilege—like men and white people and people without disabilities and, yes, like adults, too—often resist giving up power and control over the places and things they are used to running. But the powerful and privileged giving up control and empowering the powerless and marginalized to seize it is what liberation theology is all about. That gradual transfer of power is how liberation happens. It is what healthy parenting is all about, too. Healthy parenting is not reflected in a child cowering and obediently declaring “As you wish” to every parental demand. Healthy parenting is reflected in a child who learns how to self-regulate, self-examine, and self-advocate.

On a practical level, adults giving up power and control over theological work means adults should not dictate the final destination of children’s beliefs and feelings. Adults are not the theology police to whose preferences and whims children must bend. The goal of children doing theology should never be to get children to see life only how adults see it. The goal of children doing theology should be children developing their own personal and communal relationships with God, the Bible, and Jesus. If the children in your family, faith community, or religious organization do theological work and come to different conclusions than you or other adults, that is okay! The important part is that the children are engaged and eager to know God in a deeper way—a way that is actually accessible and relevant to their own lives and struggles.