I remember when my son was in 4th grade one night when he was getting ready for bed, brushing his teeth. He came into the hall, yanked the toothbrush out of his mouth, asked in an exasperating toothpaste filled mouth: “Dad, dad, what happens to those people who never hear about Jesus?” First, what 4th grader thinks up such a question when they are getting ready for bed. Second, I believe this actually happens more often than we realize. Fortunately for me, I had pondered that question myself and I was able to give a satisfactory answer to his 4th grade mind, that moved him along to bed. But, I am sure there are parents who have experienced similar incidents from their children, but where not prepared to give an answer. They either make up an answer, which is almost certainly wrong, or set them up for future failure with the adage: we just have to have faith.
Now, there is a book available for parents who don’t have time to take seminary and graduate level classes on philosophy, theology, and apologetics. And also for parents who need assistance in communicating apologetically and biblically informed answers that are age-appropriate to their children: Mama Bear Apologetics.
Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies released this week. In previous posts under “Apologetic Trends” I covered the trend of Children’s Apologetics and Women in Apologetics. This book, edited by Hilary Morgan Ferrer, is a combination of both trends. It is geared toward parents in training their children in apologetics and it is entirely written by women. With the Foreword penned by the godmother of apologetics, Nancy Pearcey writes that “Until recently, fewer women than men have been interested in apologetics. But that is changing rapidly – especially among women with children.” Pearcey goes on to say that in her view: “mothers are especially well equipped for this task. Why? Because effective apologetics requires empathy.”
A group of ladies, dubbed Mama Bear Apologetics, was started by Hilary Morgan Ferrer in 2014 when she recognized “that out of all the demographics currently involved in apologetics, moms seemed to make up the fewest participants. She also realized that out of all the demographics that need apologetics, moms are among the most important!” I couldn’t agree more. Hilary, to meet this need, started the website Mama Bear Apologetics which houses a multitude of articles, blogs, and podcasts geared toward parents to train their children and answer their kids’ questions in an age-appropriate way.
With the publication of this book, the ladies of Mama Bear Apologetics have provided another wonderful and needed resource for parents and ultimately their children in answering these questions. The contributors to this volume include Hilary Morgan Ferrer, Julie Loos, Hillary Short, Teasi Cannon, Rebekah Valerius, Cathryn S. Buse, and Alisa Childers which many of their bios can be read on the Mama Bear website. They cover some of the following issues: how to be a Mama Bear, detecting faulty reasoning, self-helpism, naturalism, skepticism, postmodernism, moral relativism, emotionalism, pluralism, new age, Marxism, feminism, and progressive Christianity.
I am looking forward to reading this book myself, to learn different ways to explain things to my students. If you can explain it to a child, then you certainly can explain it to an adult.
Christ (1998), The Case for Faith (2000), The Case for a Creator (2004), and The Case for the Real Jesus (2007). He quickly followed up this works with student 
