Spanking Is Not a Love Language: Parenting in a Post-Dobson world + Marissa Franks Burt

Strong-willed children become strong-willed adults become … podcasters?

If every generation of parents has their anxieties, the post-evangelical Millennial parent is perhaps most angsty about how to raise their kids as Christians — without all the baggage. Many parents our age — especially those who grew up evangelical — were raised in a time when Christian parenting books were ubiquitous and none more so than James Dobson’s. Dobson, who died this summer, was the founder of Focus on the Family and the impact of his teachings on parenting — from discipline, to parental authority, to obedience, gender and sexuality — is hard to understate. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy examine Dobson’s legacy and the broader Christian parenting empire he helped build. We’re joined by author Marissa Franks Burt to discuss what made these teachings so appealing to anxious Christian parents and why so many adult children are now processing the harm.

GUEST:

Marissa Franks Burt is an educator, editor and writer. She is the author of many books — including several middle-grade and young adult novels — and the co-author of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Betrayed a Generation of Evangelical Families