90: Hillary Morgan Ferrer | Empowering Kids To Challenge Cultural Lies

90: Hillary Morgan Ferrer | Empowering Our Kids To Challenge Cultural Lies

90: Hillary Morgan Ferrer | Empowering Kids To Challenge Cultural Lies

Hillary Morgan Ferrer is the founder and Mama-Bear-in-Chief of Mama Bear Apologetics. She feels a burden for providing accessible apologetics resources for busy moms.

Hillary is the co-author and general editor of Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies (Harvest House, 2019). 

Hillary has her master’s degree in biology from Clemson University and is working on a master’s degree in apologetics from Biola University.

She loves helping moms to discern both truths and lies in science and culture, and she also specializes in understanding the root causes of doubt.

She and her husband, John, have been married for 13 years and minister together as an apologetics team. She can never sneak up on anybody because of her chronic hiccups, which you can hear occasionally on the podcast.

Hillary Morgan Ferrer joins me to discuss some myths that Christians are tempted to believe when it comes to children and their faith. We also talk how to help our kids recognize false messages, the chew and spit method, linguistic theft, and the R.O.A.R. method that has been so helpful in my journey of separating truth from the subtle lies that bombard us daily.

Questions Hillary and I Discussed:

  1. (3:35) Define apologetics and why you’re so passionate about parents embracing the role of apologist in the lives of their children.
  2. (6:00) What are some of the myths we, as followers of Jesus, are tempted to believe when it comes to our children and their faith?
  3. (16:50) Share a little about helping our kids discern truth from lies, what you deem the “chew and spit” method.
  4. (29:38) In Mamabear Apologetics, you devote a whole chapter to linguistic theft. What is linguistic theft and how are we seeing it play it out right now in our culture?
  5. (38:13) You advise parents to gain a clear understanding of each “ism” so that we can recognize which one is affecting our children.  Will you share an overview of the “ism”s you are referring to and why it is important to know them?
  6. (45:53) Lastly, there is no question we are living in a post-Christian culture here in America. Share the ROAR method with our listeners to help them address the lies we face on a daily basis.

Quotes to Remember:

“We have this idea that faith is this feeling that we conjure up when we don’t know something, but I’m just gonna believe it anyway, despite the evidence. That is a horrible definition of faith. A better definition of faith is if we go back to Scripture, to Hebrews 11:1 where it says faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. So anything that makes you more sure and more certain increases your faith. It’s the idea of responding to available evidence.”

“We have this…all safe or all dangerous mentality. Everything’s all safe or it’s all dangerous and as long as I label something correctly, then I can turn my brain off and go on autopilot. And the chew and spit method says that’s basically not a very wise way to interact with the world, to interact with media, and to interact with books, even pastors.”

“Chewing and spitting means that there is no Christian so solid that you will never get a nugget of heresy from them or at least something that’s a subtle lie and there’s no atheist so bad that you won’t get a piece of truth from them.”

“This is where cancel culture comes in…[P]eople want everybody to be all safe or all dangerous and if you’re not all safe, you’re canceled. And it doesn’t allow humans to learn and to grow and to sometimes be wrong on things.”

“I think that sometimes the traits that can be challenging in your kids are actually unredeemed strengths. Because I hear what you say with your child that he’s like, this is right, this is wrong. What you have is a warrior for truth. Right? He does not know how to wield that yet.”

“Would you rather be heard? Or would you rather be understood and persuasive.”

“I would go back and tell myself, all the things that make you feel weird, are going to be what make you successful later.”

“I think this is a difference between trying to correct your child to get rid of a behavior versus discipling them to take a behavior that God has gifted them with, and then direct it in a godly way.”

“Linguistic theft is when someone is purposely taking a word or a concept that they know everybody already agrees with and then they redefine it so… [it fits] their agenda, and this is what we’re seeing happen with Christian virtues.”

“Love has been turned into anything that makes someone uncomfortable is unloving. Anything that convicts them of anything in their life is unloving.”

“Progressive Christianity has a whole litany of things. And it comes from the basic assumption that the Bible was written by fallible men who were just giving the best explanation that they had at the time. If you reinterpret the whole Bible like that, you can justify anything.”

  • Recognize the message
  • Offer discernment (affirm the good and reject the bad)
  • Argue for a healthier approach
  • Reinforce through discussion, discipleship, and prayer

Scripture References:

Hebrews 11:1

Resources Mentioned:

Related Episodes:

90: Hillary Morgan Ferrer Quote
90: Hillary Morgan Ferrer Quote
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