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Mama Bear Apologetics™: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies by Hillary Morgan Ferrer
brimarie01's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent book on apologetics
Excellent book! I will be recommending this to other moms I know who want to help their children recognize the lies that permeate our culture.
Excellent book! I will be recommending this to other moms I know who want to help their children recognize the lies that permeate our culture.
cassietea783's review against another edition
5.0
This book is an amazing and timely foundational tool that EVERY Christian mother (and father for that matter) should read. Not just once, but over and over and over until the information is engrained in your mind. Moms who are new Christians, moms who have been Christians a while, homeschooling moms, public/private school moms, grandmas, aunts, teachers...just read this book. I promise you’ll learn something and be challenged.
nurseduke's review
1.0
DNF
Typically I can take good points from a book, even if I disagree. But it just didn’t seem worth it to me to keep going if in the foreword and introduction I already had so many issues.
The premise of the book seems based on fear and I could feel myself getting anxious reading it as the author seems to stir up anxiety over the “world” and “culture”. I have no doubt the authors have good intentions, but they do seem to prey on a Mother’s fear- at least initially.
If apologetics are as important as the authors presume, why isn’t this book to both parents instead of only Mom’s. And I really could have don’t without the “mama bear” lingo.
Here are some quotes from even before chapter 1, that gave me pause and ultimately led me to not finish.
The woman who wrote the forward shares about the “secular influence” at her public’s high school noting:
“The teachers were secular, the textbooks were secular, and my friends were mostly secular or Jewish. I did know a few Christians, but they were theologically liberal.”
First, I would expect the teachers and textbooks to be secular in a public school. It also just seemed to be that “liberal Christians” didn’t even count as Christians which fit into the “us vs them” theme that pervades the forward and preface.
She shares a story about a woman whose son denied being a Christian after he started his first job post-college. So the Mother started studying apologetics because:
“But her baby’s eternal destiny was in the balance! What else could a Mama Bear do? She saw the philosophical bulldozer crushing her son, and she jumped in with both hands—as all Mama Bears do—wanting to lift it off of him, even though it meant studying apologetics of all things.”
While I do think it’s important to be able to engage with others and culture in a way that is informed and biblically sound, the “what else could a mama bear do?” part leaves out so much! For starters she could pray to the God who desires that none shall perish and lives to intercede for her. Once again, the writing seems to play on fears and emotions.
It takes a surprisingly long time for the author to mention Jesus especially considering his kindness (not apologetics) leads us to repentance.
“What if we could prime our children to think biblically before they are presented with the questions that challenge the faith? Thinking biblically isn’t merely about knowing Bible verses (though that’s a great place to start!). No, thinking biblically is about taking what we know from the Bible and understanding how the principles presented in it apply to everyday situations. That’s the kind of biblical thinkers we want our kids to become!”
While I don’t think teaching believers to think biblically is bad at all, I think I just disagree with the authors that children (who may or may not be believers) should be taught to think biblically as upmost importance. I think knowing who God is and trusting him, would be a priority so that THEN you can think like his thinks and obey.
“Don’t read this book for yourself. Read it if for no other reason than you need to know what the world is telling your kids the eight-plus hours a day that they are away from you. Read it so that you can recognize the lies and help your little bears to recognize them too.”
Once again, the fear. Fear of school (for the 2nd time within the introduction) and what “they” are indoctrinating your kid with and more of the “us” vs “them” mentality.
Once again, I DNF.
Typically I can take good points from a book, even if I disagree. But it just didn’t seem worth it to me to keep going if in the foreword and introduction I already had so many issues.
The premise of the book seems based on fear and I could feel myself getting anxious reading it as the author seems to stir up anxiety over the “world” and “culture”. I have no doubt the authors have good intentions, but they do seem to prey on a Mother’s fear- at least initially.
If apologetics are as important as the authors presume, why isn’t this book to both parents instead of only Mom’s. And I really could have don’t without the “mama bear” lingo.
Here are some quotes from even before chapter 1, that gave me pause and ultimately led me to not finish.
The woman who wrote the forward shares about the “secular influence” at her public’s high school noting:
“The teachers were secular, the textbooks were secular, and my friends were mostly secular or Jewish. I did know a few Christians, but they were theologically liberal.”
First, I would expect the teachers and textbooks to be secular in a public school. It also just seemed to be that “liberal Christians” didn’t even count as Christians which fit into the “us vs them” theme that pervades the forward and preface.
She shares a story about a woman whose son denied being a Christian after he started his first job post-college. So the Mother started studying apologetics because:
“But her baby’s eternal destiny was in the balance! What else could a Mama Bear do? She saw the philosophical bulldozer crushing her son, and she jumped in with both hands—as all Mama Bears do—wanting to lift it off of him, even though it meant studying apologetics of all things.”
While I do think it’s important to be able to engage with others and culture in a way that is informed and biblically sound, the “what else could a mama bear do?” part leaves out so much! For starters she could pray to the God who desires that none shall perish and lives to intercede for her. Once again, the writing seems to play on fears and emotions.
It takes a surprisingly long time for the author to mention Jesus especially considering his kindness (not apologetics) leads us to repentance.
“What if we could prime our children to think biblically before they are presented with the questions that challenge the faith? Thinking biblically isn’t merely about knowing Bible verses (though that’s a great place to start!). No, thinking biblically is about taking what we know from the Bible and understanding how the principles presented in it apply to everyday situations. That’s the kind of biblical thinkers we want our kids to become!”
While I don’t think teaching believers to think biblically is bad at all, I think I just disagree with the authors that children (who may or may not be believers) should be taught to think biblically as upmost importance. I think knowing who God is and trusting him, would be a priority so that THEN you can think like his thinks and obey.
“Don’t read this book for yourself. Read it if for no other reason than you need to know what the world is telling your kids the eight-plus hours a day that they are away from you. Read it so that you can recognize the lies and help your little bears to recognize them too.”
Once again, the fear. Fear of school (for the 2nd time within the introduction) and what “they” are indoctrinating your kid with and more of the “us” vs “them” mentality.
Once again, I DNF.
mayr3adsab00k's review
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer and Grief