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Unfundamentalist Parenting https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/ Thu, 28 Dec 2017 13:33:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 Don’t Unload your Spiritual Baggage on your Children https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/11/dont-unload-spiritual-baggage-children/ Tue, 28 Nov 2017 06:53:52 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1565 A new baby brings us such hope. They are so pure, their slate so clean, and for those of us who carry spiritual baggage from our past, our children compel us to do better by them. We are eager to offer them a spiritual environment that isn’t toxic but allows them to flourish as fully […]

]]> Training for Motherhood: Learning to Be Invisible https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/10/training-motherhood-learning-invisible/ Thu, 12 Oct 2017 02:07:19 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1557 It’s no secret that most fundamentalists place a strong emphasis on complementary gender roles – essentially, “women nurture, men lead.” In the homeschooling subculture I grew up in, women were entirely responsible for home and kids while men supported the family financially. And as part of “training up a child in the way they should […]

]]> My Grandfather Was Racist, and I Loved Him https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/10/grandfather-racist-loved/ Wed, 04 Oct 2017 06:43:23 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1549 My grandfather used to take us fishing on his speedboat and buy big sacks of donut holes for the ride back. He made goofy faces across the dinner table and created the most ornate, tinsel-covered Christmas trees. He taught us how to use computers before computers were a thing, which meant that my very first […]

]]> When Your Christian Family is Not Perfect https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/10/christian-family-not-perfect/ Mon, 02 Oct 2017 03:53:13 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1539 The Perfect Christian Family You know the one, Dad is a well respected elder in the church who is an authoritative leader but a loving husband to his Stepford wife—a Proverbs 31 woman who is good at housework, an excellent mother, and likely homeschools. The children are well behaved, they grow into leaders at youth […]

]]> If Trump Swears, Can the Children? https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/09/trump-swears-can-children/ Mon, 25 Sep 2017 01:32:54 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1533 Donald Trump called for NFL league owners to fire any “son of a bitch” who protests the flag. Of course, this is not the first time he has used coarse language publicly, and yet he garners wide support from white Evangelicals. Those of us who grew up Evangelical sees the hypocrisy plain as day, as […]

]]> How Children Rescue Us From Fundamentalism https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/09/children-rescue-us-fundamentalism/ Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:44:13 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1519 I have decided that what makes fundamentalism so vile is not that it perpetuates bigotry and hate, or the way it lacks authenticity by covering life with a veneer of false piety, or even how it erects (white) man-made boundaries to determine who’s in and who’s out. No, the most deadly sin fundamentalism commits lies […]

]]> A Parenting Shift From Fear to Love https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/09/parenting-shift-fear-love/ Wed, 13 Sep 2017 06:37:46 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1510 An excerpt from the book Adopting Grace: A Parenting Journey from Fear to Freedom As I continued to travel down a road of both parenting and faith shifts, it became clear that I didn’t understand a great deal about feelings and emotions. I realized that when I parented my sons, I considered their expressions of […]

]]> Five FAQs – Parenting While Deconstructing https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/09/five-faqs-parenting-deconstructing/ Tue, 12 Sep 2017 02:21:26 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1505 Deconstructing, disillusionment, faith shifting—these are all terms to describe the tumultuous process through which we dismantle previously held faith convictions and attempt to rediscover our identity. Add to this the incredible responsibility of parenting—simultaneously building little humans up when we’re falling apart with a faith crisis—can be disorienting. What I want you to know is […]

]]> My Daughter Loves Jesus. Is That Okay? https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/2017/09/daughter-loves-jesus-okay/ Fri, 08 Sep 2017 07:07:51 +0000 http://admin.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistparenting/?p=1495 Anonymous asks, My 7yo daughter loves Jesus a LOT, and to be honest, I’m not sure why. My deconstruction started when she was 4, and she wasn’t exposed to a whole lot (not in my thinking, anyway). At least a couple times a week, she’ll tell me how she can’t wait to see Jesus one […]

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