The day Franklin Graham was born, he received a telegram.<\/p>\n
\u201cWelcome to this sin-sick world,\u201d the Western Union message said, \u201cand to the challenge you have to walk in your daddy\u2019s footsteps.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for Graham, the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, to realize that being a preacher\u2019s kid would be both a blessing and a burden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love my parents,\u201d Graham said in a recent interview, \u201cbut there came a time where I couldn\u2019t let my parents live my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a rebellious youth, Graham found a straight and narrow path that took him to the pulpit and the helm of his father\u2019s Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.<\/p>\n
But for every Franklin Graham, there\u2019s a Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheist philosopher whose father was a Lutheran minister. For every Condoleezza Rice, there\u2019s an Alice Cooper, the heavy-metal singing, fake-blood spouting son of a preacher man.<\/p>\n
Beneath the stereotypes of preacher\u2019s kids as either goody two-shoes or devilish hellions lies a tense and sometimes taxing reality, the children of clergy say. Studies show that many PK\u2019s, as the lingo goes, struggle with issues of identity, privacy and morality. There\u2019s even a support group, Preacher\u2019s Kids International, dedicated to the \u201ccelebration and recovery of those who grew up in the parsonage.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how the pressures of life as a prominent pastor\u2019s child affected Matthew Warren, who took his own life on April 5. Warren was the son of megachurch pastor Rick Warren.<\/p>\n
Warren and leaders of his Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., declined to comment on Matthew, who was 27 when he died. After his son\u2019s death, Warren said in a statement that Matthew had \u201cstruggled from birth from mental illness, dark holes of depression.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Matthew Warren also battled with his role as the son of a world famous pastor and bestselling author, Rick Warren did not mention it in his brief statement.<\/p>\n
Still, after Matthew Warren\u2019s death, several pastors and children of clergy stepped forward to offer empathy.<\/p>\n
Jay Bakker, the son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, said he identifies with Matthew Warren as a fellow PK and as someone who has also suffered from depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s especially hard because his dad wrote the book \u2018The Purpose Driven Life,\u2019 which has this incredibly optimistic tone,\u201d Bakker said. \u201cMy parents wrote the same kind of books, and it was like, \u2018Things are good for everyone else. What\u2019s wrong with me?\u2019 I can\u2019t imagine the pressure he must have felt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preacher\u2019s kids are often considered an extension of their parents\u2019 ministry, Bakker said, and are expected to put on a happy face, even during tough times.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read it all.<\/a><\/strong> \u00a0And when you pray for deacons and priests, whisper a prayer for their families, too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m sure there are children of deacons and priests who can relate to this, too. From Religion News Service: The day Franklin Graham was born, he received a telegram. \u201cWelcome to this sin-sick world,\u201d the Western Union message said, \u201cand to the challenge you have to walk in your daddy\u2019s footsteps.\u201d It didn\u2019t take long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16,42,52],"tags":[11173],"class_list":["post-22784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deacons","category-family","category-priests","category-vocations","tag-family"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2013\/05\/BillyandFranklinGraham.jpg\" "\\"BillyandFranklinGraham\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n