What is God like? Jesus showed us! In every Gospel story, Jesus showed us what God is like, Because Jesus is “God with us.” What did Jesus show us about God? That God is perfect love! That God loves us! This is the intro to our new children’s book, Jesus Showed Us! The book is a series of sixteen gospel pictures (inspired by the child-friendly Coptic iconography of the persecuted church in Egypt). In each case, the artwork portrays Christ demonstrating... Read more
Leaving fundamentalism is a lot like moving to a brand new (to you) area of the country. You are going somewhere where the accents are different. Where they say soda instead of pop, and where instead of a steady jet stream that goes from west to east, the weather literally comes in any of the 4 directions. You leave fundamentalism, so you think, but you find yourself being fundamental, well, about not being fundamental. You have a lifetime of learned... Read more
Image: Pixabay I am a strong willed, first born, type A personality, but I am not known for being a perfectionist. I like to feel prepared though I am far from exacting in my preparations – with one notable exception: parenting. The stakes are so high, and the information seems infinite, I am continually devouring some sort of book / podcast / article / magazine related to parenting and sleep / discipline / emotional health / sexual education. I frequently... Read more
The 45th president of America: a man who revels in selfishness, whines when he does not get his way, throws public fits when people anger him, tosses personal insults left and right, and boasts about his genitals. For these reasons and many others, some people have taken to describing him as “childish,” “like a toddler,” or “like a child.” A quick Google search reveals a plethora of articles along these lines: “Donald Trump Is a 2-Year-Old. It’s Time for the Press... Read more
Seatbelts, helmets, goggles, floaties, face masks, knee pads. Safety first. These are measures of protection we afford ourselves and our children – before they ever sit down on a bike or jump in a pool. But these devices, the seatbelts and the floaties, aren’t there to prevent one from having the experience of a car ride or an afternoon swim. They exist to foster a safe experience of the minivan and the deep end. Safety first. We seek out and invent these devices to... Read more
Image: Canva Ever since I started gathering a community of Unfundamentalist Christian parents, people have asked, what does it mean to be, or aspire to be, an Unfundamentalist Christian parent? The term is a mouthful and the meaning a little fuzzy, so I thought I’d come up with a guide for YOU to determine whether you are trying to parent as an unfundamentalist Christian. You are an Unfundamentalist Christian parent if you: Are parenting with a shifting faith – We... Read more
The Irish poet William Butler Yeats says, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” I resonated with this as I think my way through Unfundamentalist parenting. Fundamentalism fills a young child with theological propositions, assuming they are empty buckets in need of strict religious instruction so they can perform according to the formulas they have received. Memorize these Bible verses. Listen only to Christian music. Study the catechisms and the doctrines so you... Read more
The TL;DR version: It’s SO good It’s just refreshing to have a magazine I can hand to my girls and not have to worry about theology, sexism, or beauty images. Let’s start with the cover, which looks fun and appealing. Great fonts, a drawing of a girl (no pictures to compare yourself to) doing something adventurous like surfing, and lots of different topics that are inside: stuff for artists, engineers, games, drawing, boat building, coloring, comics, and more!... Read more
Many of us who grew up attending short term mission trips with our High School youth group look back on those memories with a mixture of horror and endearment. It is perhaps common for adults to chuckle at our youthful arrogance, of the time when we thought we had life all figured out, but it is quite another level of audacity us evangelical teens possessed because not only were we armed with answers for all of life’s big questions, we... Read more
Image: Pixabay My father left town when I was very young. I remember thinking about being a father when I was a child, saying to myself that I would make sure I was there for my kids and that I would play with them so much and make sure they knew how special and valuable they were. Now I have two small boys, ages 3 and a half and 16 months. For most of their lives Karen and I have played... Read more
Unfundamentalist Parenting
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