 | ||
"Sunday school answer" is a pejorative used within Evangelical Christianity to refer to an answer as being the kind of answer one might give to a child. The phrase derives its name from the concept that certain answers are likely to be an appropriate answer to a question asked in a Sunday school even if one has not heard the question. These answers include Jesus, sin, and the cross.
For example, if a Sunday school teacher were to ask the question, "Now class, what is brown and furry and collects nuts for the winter?", a student might respond, "It sure sounds like a squirrel, but... is it Jesus?" The term "Sunday school answer" is commonly used to criticize someone for attempting to answer a complex question with an answer that is simplistic, that has not been thought out well, or that is not connected with reality. It can also be used to criticize someone for boastfully trying to call attention to their knowledge of the Bible.
According to James W. Fowler's stages of faith development, people who are in Stage 4, the "Individuative-Reflective" stage, find such answers an impediment to addressing new questions that they wish to ask.
In her book Love Letters to Miscarried Moms, Samantha Evans argues that answers dismissed as Sunday school answers "for being obvious, corny and surface-level answers... are most often the right answers".
National Basketball Association player Jeremy Lin said in a 2013 interview that, although he "knew the Sunday school answers" while he was growing up, it wasn't until he became a high school freshman and joined a youth group where he experienced "radical love" that he felt like he wanted to commit to Christianity.
In Mormonism
"Sunday school answer" is also used in the culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to refer to trite answers that one might provide to a question posed during the church's Sunday School classes. Such answers include "reading the scriptures, praying daily, serving ... family and others, and attending the temple and ... Sunday meetings". Church members sometimes argue that if the Sunday School answers are truly implemented in one's life, they are the answers to life's challenges.