2 minute read
Homeschool parents are usually fueled by two motives.1 The first motive is to provide a better education than their kids could receive in either a public or private school setting. Maybe they want to maximize their kids’ potential with a classical education by reading Plato and Josephus in the original Greek rather than The Hunger Games. Ya know, fair enough. The other motive is a “the world is the devil!” anxiety leading Christians to fearfully withdraw in order to avoid being tainted or tempted towards corruption. Sorry not sorry, but I take issue with that motivation.
According to Wikipedia, escapism is the “mental diversion from unpleasant aspects of daily life, typically through activities involving imagination or entertainment.” That’s a decent summation of escapist interiority, but it’s too limited. That definition fails to capture both the internal and external dynamics of escapism. That homeschooling anxiety about your kids turning gay and falling for the progressive agenda of the public schools? That’s an external expression of the escapist mindset. Escapism needs to be broadened out to encompass all these avoidant tactics.
Refuse to send your kids to public school because you’re afraid of evolution? That’s educational escapism. Binge-watch the first five seasons of Castle instead of writing that end-of-semester final paper? That’s entertainment escapism. Ghost a longtime friend over a minor conflict? That’s social escapism. Move to a different neighborhood across town because several homeowners put up election signs for the other party? That’s political escapism. Whether it’s inward or outward, escapism is always about diverting one’s attention away from the unpleasant aspects of life.
Escapism is fine in small doses, but as a disposition is terribly unhealthy. More importantly, I cannot figure out how it possibly squares with The Way of Jesus. Did our Lord not call us to be salt of the earth and light of the world in Matthew 5? Western Christians don’t use “incarnation” very much, but when we do it’s usually about Jesus himself as the Word made flesh. Yet I would suggest that the whole essence of His life and ministry was incarnational. Everything Jesus did was about consciously living and embodying the Kingdom–not apart from the world but in the world.
The original beatniks weren’t immune to fearful escapism. One of the original big three, William S. Burroughs, had a habit of trying to flee further and further from the world. Also, there’s an ancient tradition of Christian escapism among its monastic orders. Still, I’m rather troubled by the growing escapist themes in Christian culture.2 Instead of pouring our time, energy, and money into anxiously escaping the world, beatnik Christianity calls Jesus followers to instead be truly present in the world, pivoting those resources into faithfully incarnating the Kingdom.
