Archive | The Family RSS feed for this section
Tween-Sex

A pop culture primer: the sexualization of girlhood…

“‘They grow up so fast’ used to be a wistful sigh; now it’s a panicked cry for help from parents watching their 10-year-old daughters critique Miley Cyrus’s twerking and discuss oral sex with their friends.”

 

Thus runs the caption

Read more
Nominal Xians

Avoiding the ‘great scandal of Christendom’ — nominal Christianity…

What to do about nominal Christians?  How to reach nominal believers before they leave the church?

 

This is the question Christianity Today recently put to three astute observers of the contemporary church—Drew Dyck, Kenda Creasy Dean, and Eddie

Read more
Millenials-3

Underemployed, unhitched, and unchurched…

The rising generation of Millennials has Dr. Brad Wilcox concerned.  They are “unmoored,” according to data recently published by the Pew Research Center.  “What Could Go Wrong?” is the question Dr. Wilcox asks as he sorts through the

Read more
Postmodern Babies

Valued child or designer accessory? Making babies the postmodern way…

The hotly debated issue of “designer babies” is back in the news.  A patent has just been issued to 23andMe for “gamete donor selection based on genetic calculations.”

 

This California-based company will use their newly patented Family Traits

Read more
Meilaender 2

I want to be a burden on my family as I die…

Thinking about dying requires thinking about family—what it means “to live in the kind of moral community that deserves to be called a family.”  What obligations can we impose on those closest to us during this time of supreme

Read more
How West Lost God

How the West really lost God…

Post-Christian is a term commonly used to describe American culture.  Our culture is no longer shaped in any substantial way by the Christian faith.  This obviously doesn’t mean that Christianity has disappeared.  But it does mean that

Read more
Dr. Jim Taylor

Popular culture—will parents do what’s best for their children?

Fame, achievement, popularity, image, and financial success—these are the top five values expressed on the popular television shows watched by children ages 9-11.  And other closely related values are high on the list:  ambition, comparison to others, attention

Read more
Designer Baby

The distorted desires of the designer baby project…

Designer babies! As the name implies, these babies are made to a certain specification—to have certain traits, but not others.

 

Some of these babies are produced for parents in search of a healthy baby—a baby without a genetic disease.

Read more
Aimee Byrd

The Housewife Theologian takes on digital culture…

I don’t think, I skim!

 

“The internet is certainly changing the way that we get information.  Is it changing the way we think?”

 

Aimee Byrd is a mother of three and a good example of what all

Read more
One Parent-Five

What makes one a parent? Biology or intent?

In a cartoon, a kindly woman and a young child are standing in front of six people.  The woman is telling the child, “This is your intended mother, this is your intended father, this is your egg donor, this

Read more