[Catholics Only] What do you guys think of this article?

[Gnarwhal]

I'm not a fan of John Pipe since he's a Calvinist, but I see the merit in this article my mom sent me. I think what he observes is true about parenting today and the average parent is too soft in their demands for obedience from their kids. Personally, I think this is how my wife has been with my step kids and I'm noticing the fruits of that softness in him now. He's a passive bully who uses his somber disposition to extort what he wants out of people. If he seems unhappy people snap to it and bend over backwards to make him happy—and at least in my wife's case it's based on a sense of guilt over the fact that his dad's not in the picture.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if you guys think what Piper writes in here has merit.

Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children

The laziness of Christian parents perplexes me. I hope these nine observations will help rescue some from the folly of laissez-faire parenting.

www.desiringgod.org

 

[narnia59]

I'm not a fan of John Pipe since he's a Calvinist, but I see the merit in this article my mom sent me. I think what he observes is true about parenting today and the average parent is too soft in their demands for obedience from their kids. Personally, I think this is how my wife has been with my step kids and I'm noticing the fruits of that softness in him now. He's a passive bully who uses his somber disposition to extort what he wants out of people. If he seems unhappy people snap to it and bend over backwards to make him happy—and at least in my wife's case it's based on a sense of guilt over the fact that his dad's not in the picture.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if you guys think what Piper writes in here has merit.

Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children

The laziness of Christian parents perplexes me. I hope these nine observations will help rescue some from the folly of laissez-faire parenting.

www.desiringgod.org

I think it has merit. He's not wrong, in general today parents don't require obedience from their children and there are dire consequences to the child, the family, and society because of it.

My husband recently retired after having a career in school administration. The last ten years or so I heard more stories about parents than I did about kids. Parents were constantly complaining, threatening to sue etc when the school disciplined their children. Most would them would assume their child was telling them the truth -- "my child would not lie to me." They were often shocked to find the school had video evidence that proved that their child did indeed lie to them.

The irony of Piper's position that he fails to recognize is that this is a fruit of Protestantism. Protestantism rejected the legitimate authority of the Church and what we are seeing are the chickens coming home to roost. When that domino falls they all begin to fall.

 

[Gnarwhal]

The irony of Piper's position that he fails to recognize is that this is a fruit of Protestantism. Protestantism rejected the legitimate authority of the Church and what we are seeing are the chickens coming home to roost. When that domino falls they all begin to fall.

This right here is a perfect point. Rebellion is baked into the DNA of protestantism, when you decide who your authority is as they've done by declaring the scripture the only authority, then the inclination to pick and choose who and what they obey and how they obey it becomes genetic.