While studying to be a pastor in college I abandoned my faith. In fact, I abandoned everything I thought I believed and rebuilt.
To my own surprise at the time, I found that Christianity was much stronger than I had thought. As I rebuilt my belief system, I realized that there needed to be people out there responding to the questions people have. I had them myself. So, while not continuing on to be a pastor, I have focused on educating people about what Christianity is all about and responding to the various charges and accusations made against it.
There are some obvious challenges to being successful in that capacity, but a big part of it consists not in arguing with atheists and skeptics, but rather in providing Christians with accurate information in the first place to prevent them from leaving the faith in the first place.
Questioning is a very normal and natural part of growing up, and I am convinced that it is not wrong to ask questions of God at any age. God doesn't strike people down. On the other hand, if people are going to reject Christianity, it is my aim to at least make sure they reject the real Christianity and not a false view of it. Also, much heartache can be avoided by educating Christians properly to begin with. My experience has helped me... but it was unnecessary.
Paul said that some plant, some water, and others reap the increase. My job is to go out into the land and move rocks- or break them if necessary- till the land, and struggle through knee deep fertilizer... all in the effort to allow those who come later to plant, water, and reap the harvest.
I look forward to the prospects of either serving you as someone who needs to haul rocks out of the field, or as someone who can look at the field, detect problems, and help farmers more effectively plant, water, and reap.
On Being a Stay at Home Dad: Reflections on Todd and Sarah Palin
September 5, 2008 – 12:09 pm by sntjohnny. Filed Under Blog, General.The nomination of Sarah Palin raised all sorts of interesting issues and one that I found interesting was the role of her husband, Todd. There are some similarities between he and I. He had five kids, we have four. His wife works, as does mine. Our youngest child has special needs just like theirs is. It sounds like they’ve got a bit more flexibility than we have got and it sounds like Todd has a seasonal job, too. Still, as I watched this family I felt that they reflected reality as I experience it and as more and more people experience it.
I also happened to see feminist Gloria Steinem’s rejection of Sarah Palin’s brand of feminism and the essay includes this quote:
… American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it.
I know that sounds like Gloria is being positive but in fact she isn’t. You’d have to read the whole article to see that she’s just trying to make lemonade out of lemons. Keeping in mind the Palins together with Gloria’s feminist credo, allow me to make a few comments.
As a man who is ‘equal inside the home’ let me say that this potentially is a lot of nonsense. It is not infrequent that I struggle with the fact that my wife is the ‘breadwinner’ and I am not. We hear about women struggling with their instinctive desire to stay home (which my wife has) while wanting to pursue their career (which my wife couldn’t care less about) but stay at home dads have a different tension. They don’t have this instinctive drive to stay home, to be the nurturer, and even if society didn’t whisper under its breath that stay at home dads were losers, the men themselves sense it themselves. At least, that is the case for me and for the handful of other stay at home dads I’ve spoken with. Read the rest of this entry »
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