Review: Mama Bear Apologetics
2019 Jean E. JonesMama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies
Hillary Morgan Ferrer, general editor
In a word: Outstanding!
Mama Bear Apologetics deftly describes where culture departs from Scripture. It shows how to recognize cultural lies and how to defeat them logically and compassionately. Humor abounds, such as their “refined art of the chew and spit” method of discerning where progressivism, feminism, socialism, and more agree with or stray from biblical teaching. Moreover, the authors maintain a kind, compassionate demeanor toward those who cling to cultural lies.
Best of all, it’s readable. Not only are the chapter titles funny, but the writing is outstanding. So that you can see for yourself, I’ve added an excerpt and the table of contents below.
The Book’s Heart
Part 2, “Lies You’ve Probably Heard but Didn’t Know What They Were Called,” is the heart of the book. Here, each chapter begins by describing the cultural lie with spot-on analogies and the history behind it. Then chapters move to a “ROAR like a Mother!” section consisting of four parts:
- RECOGNIZE the Message gives modern examples of the lie.
- OFFER Discernment shows what’s good about the movement so readers can find common ground with proponents. It also shows where the movement goes astray from biblical teaching.
- ARGUE for a Healthier Approach explains how to effectively argue for a more biblical view.
- REINFORCE Through Discussion, Discipleship, and Prayer lists specific ways to teach children about the cultural lies. It also offers a prayer addressing the issues and asking for help. Then, it gives discussion questions that can be used in small groups.
Finally, the book ends with a list of recommended reading for those who want to learn more about any chapter’s subject.
Conclusion
In summary, Mama Bear Apologetics is intelligent, insightful, and witty. The authors’ suggestions for engaging in conversations with adults and children are both doable and helpful. In fact, many of the authors explain creative teaching methods they used with their own children.
I highly recommend Mama Bear Apologetics to anyone wanting to know more about what’s happening in our culture and how to address it. And I do mean anyone: you do not need children to benefit from this book.
Excerpt from Mama Bear Apologetics
So you can see the clear reading style, here’s an excerpt featuring a current presidential candidate. Written by Alisa Childers, it’s from one of my favorite chapters, “I’m Not Religious; I’m Spiritual!—New Spirituality.”
NAM [New Age Mysticism] is typically a hodgepodge of Eastern religious ideas, psychology, modern philosophy, pseudoscience, and Christianity. Let’s zoom in to see a practical example of NAM teachings in action.
In January 2008, the “Oprah & Friends” satellite radio channel launched a year-long class with daily lessons and affirmations from the book A Course in Miracles. The teacher of the class, Marianne Williamson, described it as a “self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy” that seeks to take certain “principles” and apply them in practical ways.
The book upon which the class is based, A Course in Miracles, was published in 1975, and is a collection of spiritual revelations recorded by Columbia University professor Helen Schucman. Schucman received the messages from an entity she called “the Voice,” which she later identified as “Jesus Christ.” If you are wondering what kind of “dictations” she received from this supposed “Jesus,” here are a few examples. They sum up the ideas of the new spirituality perfectly:
- “Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’ The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross.”
- “The name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol. But it stands for love that is not of this world. It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray.”
- …
- Lesson 259 asks the reader to affirm “there is no sin.”
Table of Contents
Part 1: Rise Up, Mama Bears
- Calling all Mama Bears—My kid has a cheerio
shoved up his nose. Why am I reading this book?
Hillary Morgan Ferrer and Julie Loos - How to Be a Mama Bear—Is this code for being
the weirdest mom on the playground?
Hillary Short - The Discerning Mama Bear—The refined art of “chew
and spit”
Hillary Morgan Ferrer - Linguistic Theft—Redefining words to get your
way and avoid reality
Hillary Morgan Ferrer
Part 2: Lies You’ve Probably Heard but Didn’t Know What They Were Called
- God Helps Those Who Help Themselves—Self-Helpism
Teasi Cannon - My Brain Is Trustworthy…According to My Brain—Naturalism
Hillary Morgan Ferrer - I’d Believe in God If There Were Any Shred of Evidence—Skepticism
Hillary Morgan Ferrer and Rebekah Valerius - The Truth Is, There Is No Truth—Postmodernism
Rebekah Valerius and Hillary Morgan Ferrer - You’re Wrong to Tell Me that I’m Wrong!—Moral Relativism
Hillary Morgan Ferrer and Rebekah Valerius - Follow Your Heart—It Never Lies!—Emotionalism
Teasi Cannon, Hillary Morgan Ferrer, and Hillary Short - Just Worship Something—Pluralism
Cathryn S. Buse - I’m Not Religious; I’m Spiritual!—New Spirituality
Alisa Childers - Communism Failed Because Nobody Did It Right—Marxism
Hillary Morgan Ferrer - The Future Is Female—Feminism
Rebekah Valerius, Alisa Childers, and Hillary Morgan Ferrer - Christianity Needs a Makover—Progressive Christianity
Alisa Childers
Final Words of Encouragement
- How to Take All This Information and #RoarLikeAMother—The Mama Bears
I found this book to be based in fear and utterly lacking in the love that we should be showing to others. I am not interested in proving myself to be right to people who don’t follow Christ. Frankly, I cannot think of a better way to turn people of to Christianity than to follow the principles in this book.
Hi, Lisa. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the book. When I read it, I actually didn’t get the sense that the authors were trying to prove themselves right, although they were offering reasons they thought Christians should reject certain views based on what the Bible teaches. When your non-Christian friends ask about your beliefs, how do you usually respond?
We have conversations about my faith and theirs, the same as any other topic. We don’t try to defend our view, faith, or opinions. I especially don’t want to indoctrinate my children. My walk with God and my faith is different from my parents. I am not in the denomination that I was raised in. I do not consider myself to be a conservative evangelical, which is another issue I have with the book. It portrays conservative evangalicalism as the only acceptable worldview for a Christian. Yet those who are Orthodox, Messianic, Catholic, Mainline, etc could easily read this book and come away thinking the author finds their beliefs “unChristian.”
Overall, I look at what Jesus asked us to do, and what God repeatedlly asked people to do throughout the Bible and I do not see this book lining up with that at all. We are to love others, to serve them, to set aside our needs for the good of others.