Jason Byassee has a review up on the First Things website of a book by Methodist theologian Amy Laura Hall titled Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction; the review is wonderful, and it sounds like the book is, too. I won’t try to summarize it, I’ll just encourage you to read the piece and mull over the ways in which “mainline churches have pursued a theology of ‘Justification by meticulously planned procreation’ (emphasis original), exemplified in a mid-century conference at which Methodists pronounced the Christian family ‘the hope of the world’”—and to let yourself be challenged and (I hope) energized by Dr. Hall’s final words: “The call to be a Christian has become, for me, a call to risk seeming like just the sort of backward, crazy, Holy Spirit-inspired white girl that my grandmothers hoped I would progress beyond.”
Hi Rob;
The vast majority of Christians I know are obsessed with having children…
It would be nice if the Church stopped making it seem like procreation and “the family” is what we are about. The pressure to procreate is enormous within the Church; most Church libraries have more books on children and family than on anything other “theological” issue.
I recognize that we are not growing our numbers substantially thru outer evangelism in North America but thru procreation yet I for one would like to see some of that “air time” shared with other parts of sanctified growth.
Also the over emphasis on children in Church gives men another “reason” to not want to be there….
P.S. I actually love the Church but I thought it would be an interesting comment…
No question; no question at all. My brother-in-law and his wife dealt with this for quite a while; he calls it “familiolatry,” and he’s right on the mark with that. (I hadn’t thought of it as a compensation for failure to evangelize, though, or as something which undermines the perceived importance of evangelism; interesting thought.)
LOL
I often see things thru the evangelism lens….
I didn’t become a Christian till I was 28 and didn’t grow up around the Church. When I started attending Churches I was surprised at the hyper-emphasis upon having children. It was almost like we Protestant were trying to emulate the Roman Catholic systems idolatry towards Mary.
One of the challenges is the average Church has more women in it, and so on average they do more volunteering etc. so they start to lean the Church in that direction, it gets de-masculized in a sense. I would not put the Church I am part of in that category but I see it in many Churches. (This being said women should obviously have many opportunities to share their gifting etc with the Body.)
I’m not whining about this and it isn’t a hobby horse of sorts; just casual observation….
LOL
I should add that it is probably on my mind because of a recent post of mine…
Thanks; I think you have some interesting points there. I’m not finding the post you reference, but I did find the picture across Mud Bay, which made me feel rather homesick for a moment . . .