A couple of months ago I did a string of post on trends in apologetics. One of the trends is Children’s Apologetics (other trends included Urban Apologetics, Cultural Apologetics, and Women’s Apologetics). Just over a year ago, Hillary Ferrer started the blog and podcast called Mama Bear Apologetics. The opening page tag line explains succinctly the purpose of their blogs/podcasts: “Mess with our kids . . . and we will demolish your arguments.”
That tag line is not just for attention. They deliver it. Recently, they have taken to task a series of articles posted at Patheos.com under the blog title Unfundamentalist Parenting. On April 12 of this year Anna Register, one of the contributors to Unfundamentalist Parenting and (according to the bio on the site) a children’s pastor working on her Master’s of Theological Studies at Vanderbilt, posted an article titled “The Trouble with Easter: How To (and not to) Talk to Kids About Easter.” She listed several things she would NOT teach about Easter:
- Jesus died for you/your sins
- That God killed Jesus/wanted Jesus to die/intended for Jesus to die as the primary purpose of his life
- Jesus died to save them from God’s judgement/hell
- Coming back from the dead is something you can expect to happen.
She went on the reiterate that:
Stories don’t have to be factual to speak truth. And it’s okay to question a literal resurrection – questions are how we learn. And there is always truth to be found in curiosity, even if the answers don’t turn out to be what you thought they’d be.
Ask: “Do you know of a story like a myth or fable that teaches a great lesson but isn’t filled with facts? How might the Easter story work the same way and what do you think we can learn from it?”
Well, the article “The Trouble with Easter” obviously troubled those at Mama Bear Apologetics. They responded with a blog post and a podcast both titled “Is the Progressive Gospel a Gospel at All? (i.e. Why you need to know what your children’s pastor is teaching).” It is well worth the read and listen. The blog post is a point for point rebuttal of the claims in “The Trouble with Easter.”
The exchange doesn’t end there. Cindy Brandt, the founding contributor at Unfundamentalist Parenting, followed up on May 5 with an article titled “Why Your Children do NOT Need Apologetics.” Mrs. Brandt essentially states that apologetics transfers parental fear, confines faith to doctrine, and burdens children with the task of defending God.
Mama Bear Apologetics responds with a piece entitled “Why Your Children Do Need Apologetics: Correcting Misconceptions.” A taste of their article:
. . . when I went back and reread the article on why we shouldn’t teach our kids apologetics, the faults that I wanted to apologize for didn’t match with the author’s complaints. Her main concern seems to be (ironically) a fear of passing on fear and rigid doctrine to kids. In fact, most of her concerns seem to stem from misconceptions of apologetics, not bad experiences with apologists. I am more than willing to apologize for the areas where misguided apologists have hurt our cause. However, I don’t think I can apologize for someone not understanding what we do. All I can do for that is correct the misconceptions, and hope for better mutual understanding.
Some of the key points Mama Bear Apologetics enumerates include:
- Apologetics is not based on a “proof-text” of 1 Peter 3:15
- There are healthy and unhealthy kinds of fearApologetics, responsibly handled, frees a child to think well. It doesn’t coerce them into a boxed set of doctrines
- Apologetics is not about us defending God because “He needs it.” It is about making our faith “more sure and more convinced.”
- Apologetics is about having a firm foundation, NOT determining a prefabricated house of faith
It is definitely worth the read. Looks like some good things are happening over at Mama Bear Apologetics. Along with the founder Hillary Ferrer, who has a master’s degree in biology and is pursing a master’s degree in apologetics from Biola, Mama Bear Apologetics includes Rebekah Valerius, who is studying for her masters in apologetics from Houston Baptist University, and Cathryn Buse, is the author of Teaching Others to Defend Christianity and holds a bachelors and masters in engineering.
I have definitely subscribed to their podcast as well as placed their site in my favorites list.
Is Christianity True? 
One thought on “Apologetics Resource: Check Out “Mama Bear Apologetics””
Comments are closed.