Comments on: Cathedral Christian Centre shooting in Phoenix http://www.benedictionblogson.com/2007/12/12/cathedral-christian-centre-shooting-in-phoenix/ Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:28:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Mark Byron http://www.benedictionblogson.com/2007/12/12/cathedral-christian-centre-shooting-in-phoenix/#comment-96455 Mark Byron Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:57:35 +0000 http://www.benedictionblogson.com/?p=3545#comment-96455 I never sat in on any Gothard stuff, but he had a following in some of the churches I've been in. It seems a couple of notches too authoritarian and old-school to my eye. However, it has an appeal as an antidote to Spockian laissez-fair parenting to a lot of conservative Christian folks. The problem is it goes too far in the other direction. What winds up happening in many cases where you have overly authoritarian parents/churches, the kid rebels against it and has to take a fresh look at God once he gets away from things for a while and gets past his anger. Franklin Graham comes to mind; he turned his back on orthodox Christian thought for a time, then followed in his dad's footsteps as a mature adult. Young Mr. Murray never got to that point; he was POed at a flawed vision of God and a standard he couldn't live up to, and took it out on the Church. I never sat in on any Gothard stuff, but he had a following in some of the churches I’ve been in. It seems a couple of notches too authoritarian and old-school to my eye.

However, it has an appeal as an antidote to Spockian laissez-fair parenting to a lot of conservative Christian folks. The problem is it goes too far in the other direction.

What winds up happening in many cases where you have overly authoritarian parents/churches, the kid rebels against it and has to take a fresh look at God once he gets away from things for a while and gets past his anger. Franklin Graham comes to mind; he turned his back on orthodox Christian thought for a time, then followed in his dad’s footsteps as a mature adult.

Young Mr. Murray never got to that point; he was POed at a flawed vision of God and a standard he couldn’t live up to, and took it out on the Church.

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