Every day, I live with the children of dedicated and zealous Christian parents. Some are the children of our staff. Some are students. Many of those kids have turned out great. Others have been manipulated, emotionally and physically abused, confused, harassed and told absurdities, lies and exaggerations as a matter of course.

All of us who are Christian parents need to walk carefully. Many of us need to repent of some fairly serious s—t. It’s not about the “shocking truth” about Schaefer. It’s the simple truth about Christian families: weirdness, emotional games, strange stories with few explanations, exposing our kids to some of the most crazy people on earth and not processing with them why they aren’t all telling the truth Whacked out rules. Too much time in church and not enough playing ball. On and on and on.

My kids will have some great ones. Mom and dad arguing over hymn selections. Dad crying over ??????? Invitational nonsense. Testimony nonsense. Revival nonsense. (Thank God my kids are Presbys and Anglicans.) Actually discussing how to not let anyone know we had R rated movies in the house. Discussing what families to NOT mention Halloween or Christmas around. On and on.

Raising your kids in the faith isn’t automatic. It’s a narrow path and we need to always always always err on the side of our kids. They deserve a normal childhood, not a collection of religious excuses and God-talk.