If the past two years or so have shown us anything it’s that we live in a crazy, broken world. We’re having conversations and facing situations that we would never have thought of in our wildest imaginations just a few years ago. The culture is constantly telling us that what’s wrong is right and what’s right is wrong, and they’ve even begun instilling this in our children. When I was in elementary school, I was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Nowadays, kids are being taught how to march in a protest, how to choose their gender, and how to reject the values and morals of their parents. They’re being trained in a postmodern worldview that is dangerous and unbiblical.
What’s a mother to do? When her children are coming home regurgitating secular ideologies they learned at school. When her children’s favorite TV shows feature characters who discuss their gender identities and sexual preferences. When her children appear to be drifting further and further from biblical Christianity. As author Nancy Pearcey once wrote, it’s a parent’s God-given responsibility to protect and educate his or her children.[1] That means it’s time for mama bears to rise up and empower their kids to challenge the lies of the culture and live in obedience to Scripture. And how exactly can this be done? According to Hillary Morgan Ferrer, mothers must engage in apologetics.
If you’re a mother, you’re probably thinking, Apologetics? I don’t have the time or the energy for that. I’m barely able to keep my head above water as it is. The good news for you is that Hillary has already compiled everything you need to know in one easy-to-read book called Mama Bear Apologetics. In this book, Hillary discusses why studying and teaching apologetics to our kids is so important in this day and age—our kids are leaving the church in droves and placing their faith instead in cultural lies. They need to know what is true, how to discern what is true, and how to defend the truth of God’s Word.
Mama Bear Apologetics looks at all the prevalent -isms of our culture—emotionalism, naturalism, Marxism, feminism—as well as other popular beliefs, like New Spirituality and Progressive Christianity. In each chapter, Hillary or another mama bear uses the ROAR method to analyze the ideology and discern what is biblically true. These ladies demonstrate how you can Recognize the message, Offer discernment, Argue for a healthier approach, and Reinforce the truth with your kids through discussion, discipleship, and prayer. Every analysis ends with a PAWS for prayer (get it?), guiding you through Praise, Admit, Worship with thanksgiving, and Supplication.
Three years after this book’s publication, Hillary released a much-needed sequel: Mama Bear Apologetics: Guide to Sexuality. She takes a very similar approach in this second book, but it focuses on all the topics surrounding gender and sexuality. With the help of Amy Davison, she discusses homosexuality, gender identity, pornography, consent, purity culture, and the new education standards regarding sex and gender. Throughout the book, Hilary emphasizes that all believers are called to sexual holiness and must take up their sexual crosses, no matter how they feel or who they’re attracted to. She also discusses how God’s design for sex and gender is much better than the culture’s ideas about these topics and how we can teach this to our children, even from a young age.
When you think about everything that’s going on in this crazy world or all that is being taught to your kids at school or what messages your kids are absorbing from their favorite movies, you’re probably about ready to snatch them home, cancel your cable, and shelter them from the world until they’re eighteen. However, the reality is this isn’t the most helpful thing mama bears can do to protect their children. Sure, homeschooling is great, and watching less TV probably isn’t a bad idea. But the best thing we can do to help and protect our kids from worldly ideologies is to teach them what is true and train them in how to defend it. Hillary writes,
“The greatest protection we can give our kids is to equip them to face the cultural lies head-on while remaining gracious, loving, and winsome.”[2]
If you’re a mother, you need to know what is true and how to pass that on to your children, and the Mama Bear Apologetics books is the perfect resource for you! Both of these books are relevant, humorous, and easy to understand, plus they include discussion questions after each chapter, if you want to work through them with some other mama bears in your life. If you’re not a mother, I would still highly recommend the books (I’m not even married yet, and I read them!), as they are very helpful in understanding how these ideologies have come about and how we can refute them biblically.
To all the mothers out there—have a happy Mother’s Day, and #ROARlikeamother!
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[1] This was stated in the beginning of the foreword of Mama Bear Apologetics (Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 2018).
[2] Hillary Morgan Ferrer, Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies (Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 2019), 17.
