September Book - How Would Jesus Raise a Child?
I'm pleased to announce our September book of the month: How Would Jesus Raise a Child? by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst. The book provides the progressive Christian response to the Dobsian view of child-rearing.
Publisher Comments:
How would Jesus raise a child? It's a provocative question. But how can we even begin to answer it?
In this compelling book, Teresa Whitehurst presents ten principles drawn from the words and actions of Jesus as he related not only to the thousands who sought his teaching and healing, but to his disciples, the Pharisees, and "the little children." Using modern-day examples, she helps parents apply each principle to their own spiritual and character development and guides them to consider how living by, or not living by, these principles affects children and families.
How Would Jesus Raise a Child?, though written for parents, contains vital insights for any believer striving to live out Jesus' teaching. It explores:
-- Modern parenting trends that are at odds with Jesus' teaching and example
-- How to effectively reach out to parents and children in need
-- Parenting temptations and how to resist them
-- How to help children become receptive to Jesus and his message
-- What it means for a child or adult to "come to" Jesus and find rest
Although Whitehurst wished to propose the question, How Would Jesus Raise a Child?, not to settle it, the answers in her book are a powerful beginning.
Synopsis:
A clinical psychologist offers an intriguing look at how Jesus related to those around him and how readers can follow his example in parenting and in caring for others.
Growing up in a fundamentalist southern church, my young friends and I learned quickly that children are to be seen and not heard--or else. James Dobson ("The Strong-Willed Child", "Dare to Discipline", etc.) has dominated the Christian parenting book market for decades, and his advice to pinch and hit children, even babies in diapers, has created a "religious" subculture in which domestic violence and a culture of fear flourish.
Any rebuttals to harsh parenting methods--which I liken to the current militaristic campaigns to "punish" and "humiliate" enemies into submission--have been easy for churchgoers to toss aside because most of those who objected to hitting children (in and outside of church) did so on a humanitarian basis, not a scriptural basis. My reason for writing "How Would Jesus Raise a Child?" and its second edition, "Jesus on Parenting", was to fill this gap, providing child advocates and non-violent parents with scriptural evidence that there is nothing Christian about whipping children, squeezing their trapezius muscles, or belting small dachsunds into submission (all of which Dobson recommends in his books).
Yet this book, if looked at from another angle, has significance beyond the way we raise our children. Being violent is a way of life, learned at an early age and reinforced in one's subculture; this percolates into permissive attitudes towards punitiveness, gun-happy stance and war-hopping tendencies of the last few years. Thus, the chapter on what Jesus taught about the Golden Rule--Do unto others as you would have them do unto you--provides a wealth of scriptural evidence for the truly CHRISTian view of conflict between individuals, groups and nations.
The book was written for people of all faiths--Gandhi is quoted early on, for he said that he did not see why Jesus' ethical teachings should be off-limits to him simply because he was of another religion--but with the evangelical reader in mind, as well. My hope has been that this book provides the reader with a scripture-packed basis for opposing the authoritarian, warlike, violent-Christian mindsets prevalent in fundamentalist (and many mainstream) churches today, many of which have swung to the far right since this presidential administration took power.
Included in the book are some of my more difficult lessons as a young mother, and the sorts of problems and needs shared by parents of teen and young adult children with whom I've worked professionally. "How Would Jesus Raise a Child?" and "Jesus on Parenting" promote liberal Christian compassion, not the stingy conservative compassion we've been sold by the media since 2001. In this way, these books can provide left-leaning Chistians with the scriptural proof that Jesus really did mean it when he said "Love your enemies" and "Do unto them as you would have them do unto you."