For the past two weeks we’ve examined four concerning traits of cultural Christian parenting as articulated by Burt & McGinnis in their book The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Betrayed a Generation of Evangelical Families.
Hierarchical structures
Kids belonging to parents (rather than to themselves)
Spiritual enmeshment
Training children’s bodies to obey instead of teaching children to exercise their intrinsic power over their behavior
Despite clear evidence that these dynamics are unhealthy for children and their families, many parents in faith communities continue to perpetuate these oppressive frameworks. The most perplexing question is why?
In the coming four weeks we’ll look at four factors that lead well-intending parents to utilize principles that compromise the emotional development of their children: lacking their own sense of power, their child’s dependency feeling overwhelming, focusing on image to cover shame, and the ways they were unparented when they were a child.
The first of these is a lack of connection to their own intrinsic power.
Continued….