Hunter Bethea

What the Chinese Government Understands that Families Don’t

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One of my favorite things, especially as a writer, is finding an underlying truth in one sphere of life and applying it to another sphere of life. This comes from an underlying belief that all things that are true come from God. I like to identify and celebrate that truth and see how it can illumine other areas of life.

On my blog alone, I’ve done this by applying truth from a football game to parenting, packing up a U-Haul to leadership, bike racing to integrating your family, and the Astronomer scandal to how we view our actions.

This week, when I came across the New York Times’ investigation of the Chinese government’s influence over American elections—particularly in local elections, like the New York City elections—I was reminded of a truth.

Now, before I share this truth, I want to make it clear: I think what the Chinese government is allegedly doing (interfering in foreign politics) is wrong and immoral. And it seems like they’re not the only ones that are guilty of interfering in foreign politics; Russia, the United States, Venezuela, Iran, and Libya have all done the same. I’m sure this is a complex moral issue that I only have the basest of knowledge of, but it seems to me that one foreign nation trying to interfere in another nation’s elections would usually be wrong and immoral.

But the truth I think the Chinese government understands is: Small, consistent influence can change the world.

Let me explain.

As the New York Times investigation has pointed out, one of the many reasons the Chinese government intervenes in local elections in the United States is in hopes that the change ripples out to the global level.

Here’s their thinking:
National elections get the most coverage and oversight and therefore, are hard to interfere in without getting caught. Plus, you have to influence a lot of people to make a difference in national elections. Local and regional elections, on the other hand, are much easier to influence because of the smaller number of voters and the smaller likelihood of being caught.

If a government is able to influence someone running in a New York City race or a New York State Legislature election, that person may one day rise the ranks from city government, to state government, and eventually, to national government. Or, that person will have influence over a policy that is adopted locally, then regionally, then nationally.

The Chinese government is playing a long game: influencing people and policies over time—generations even—to achieve their goals for the United States’s policies on China and foreign affairs. And they’re doing so with small, consistent influences.

The Chinese government understands that small influences, over time, change the world. I wish families understood that too.

When God wanted to change the world, He began with… a family (Genesis 1-2). When he wanted to hit a “reset” button on the world, He chose to do so through… a family (Genesis 8). When he wanted to bless the world, He chose… a family (Genesis 12).

God chooses families to change the world. And almost always, that influence happens over a long period of time.

Take Abraham, for example. God began blessing the world through Abraham and his family. But the blessing continued, and increased tremendously, through Abraham’s son, Isaac and his family, his grandson, Jacob and his family, his great-grandson, Joseph and his family, and continues to increase through his biological and spiritually-adopted descendants. In fact this is one of God’s primary visions for the Church: to continue—as Abraham’s descendants through the power of the Holy Spirit—to bless the world.

God has blessed the world over time and through the incremental influences of the people of God.

I believe that God still calls families to bless the world. But it seems like families have lost that long-term vision for what God wants to do in and through them.

When I talk to parents today, if they’re even thinking beyond the next day, month or year, they seem to think with an 18-year vision. Some parents (but far from most) are thinking about what God wants to do in and through their family over 18 years, just long enough to get their child out of the house and into the “real world.”

Many of these parents raise their kids to love the Lord, be kind to their peers, study hard, and be a well-rounded student. And if parents do that in our society, where 18 years is the maximum vision we have for our family, they get celebrated. They get asked to lead small groups and teach other families how to be good parents. They get bragged about at dinner parties and celebrated at graduations (with the implied message: “You did it! You completed the goal! Your job is done!”)

Now don’t get me wrong. Loving the Lord, being kind to others, studying hard, and being well-rounded are really good things! But, at the risk of sounding critical, is that all God calls us to do as parents? Not to be trite but… do you ever wonder if God created families for more?

What if God created families to do more than just make good, kind citizens? What if God has a grander, a bigger, vision for families? What if God wants us to not just raise good people, but change cities and churches and cultures because we’ve created an influential, powerful force for God’s peace and goodness and hope called your family?

I think this is God’s original vision for family. I think it’s still God’s vision for families. When God created the first family, He gave them this mission: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28).

Notice those verbs: be fruitful, increase, fill, subdue, rule. Those are, in the Hebrew, imperative verbs, words that are commands or instructions. This is what God is telling families to do. Does that sound like something that can be done in 18 years? I doubt it. That probably takes a lifetime, multiple lifetimes even. When God created families, I believe that He wanted them to have long-term vision. Not 18 years, but 180 years.

And that happens through the small, intentional choices and influences we have on our children and our children’s children.

This is what the Chinese government understands that families don’t. They’re not looking to change the US’s foreign policy in 18 years’ time. They’re looking to change the US’s relationship with China over more like 180 years’ time. Because they’re looking to make significant, lasting change and have the freedom to do so over many years, they’re choosing small and consistent ways of making that change. Families can do the same.

You don’t have to change the world by trying to raise up a future President of the United States. But your family also won’t make a significant difference in the world without intentionality from you, the parent or grandparent.

Thankfully, the actions you take don’t have to be world-changing in and of themselves. It can be things as simple as teaching your children how to save and invest money. Starting a business with them that blesses your community. Introducing them to people who can mentor and guide them. Explaining to them some of the parenting decisions you’re making so they can parent well.

Too often, I think parents make decisions that only impact their family for a maximum of 18 years. Things like how to make a good grade in algebra. Or how to play a sport well enough to get a scholarship. Or which car to buy. Not bad things to teach your kids, but not lasting things to teach them.

Nation-states have long-term vision to use their power and influence for both good and bad. But they’ve figured out the key to change: long-term vision. Families would do well to adopt the same vision.

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● About Me

I’m Hunter, a husband, father, pastor, and avid book-buyer in Wetumpka, Alabama. I write primarily about discipleship, leadership, and family with an occasional sports reference or two!