Helping Parents Plan for Pride Month

Pride Month will soon be Pride Year. America’s new pagan religion of Sexual Perversion, with its social media bibles, Hollywood preachers, and evangelistic groomers, is flooding down on the next generation. Kids can't escape it, and a pertinent example is Disney.

In 2017, Disney took LGBTQIA+ characters mainstream in its blockbuster release of Beauty and the Beast, which grossed over a billion dollars globally. In the years since, Disney has pressed that progressive agenda, culminating in this month’s Pride Collection For Kids.

Disney’s descent into perversion should not surprise Christians, as the company’s support of homosexuality and subsequent virtue signaling have been around for years. Further, Disney is just a corporate entity, not driven by values but by its bottom line. Sex sells – even if it's to children – Disney knows that, and they'll exploit it like everybody else.

Christian parents must begin asking vital questions: Which platforms will be used in our home? Why will we allow them? How will we use them? Though the answers to these questions are complex and require nuance, here are a couple principles we’ve used:

1. We Try to Give Our Kids the Entire Story

Often the best offense can be a good defense. When it comes to Bible teaching, many parents (and Sunday School classes) like to share the "fun" stories of Scripture but may feel tempted to avoid the seemingly complex or more graphic portions of Scripture.

Over the years, I've seen that this style of “leapfrog” teaching – sharing the good while leaving out the bad – can prompt kids to grow up with a fairytale-like view of Scripture. This can be especially true when adding in the preponderance of picture bibles.

Sticking to “easy” or “innocent” bible stories is a bit easier in the short term. We can shelter our kids from the bad or scary stuff; the “adult” stories of a flood that kills everyone, a hole in the ground that eats everyone, and quite a few cheaters, murderers, and prostitutes.

But I'd suggest that's the opposite of what God intended. While prudent word choice is vital, giving your kids the entire story is always good. First, because God will use His Word in the lives of children (2 Tim. 1:5). Second, while we may wait to share God’s word, the world isn’t waiting to share Satan’s. Disney’s working full time to jam its perversion into your 4-yr old’s ear. Countless studies have clarified that a child's worldview is primarily shaped by the young age of 6.

Richard Baxter said, "Our children will not want the good news until we've taught them the bad news." Baxter’s point is that parents should offer up the mirror of sin to create a longing for the light of grace. Who needs a fireman if he sees no fire? A doctor if there’s no disease?

One of the most well-known verses in all Scripture is Deuteronomy 6:6-7, "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and rise up." However, many people don’t realize just how passionately each Hebrew family lived out these instructions from God.

Jewish families used to take these verses and stencil them horizontally on a folded piece of parchment. The parchment was then placed inside a small shiny box called the Mezuzah. The Mezuzah was mounted on the doorpost so that when mom or dad, son or daughter, entered or exited, they could reach out and touch it as a reminder of what the home stood for.

Hebrew scholar Alfred Edersheim explains how committed young Jewish children were to the Scripture, “At five years of age, children were reading the Bible; at ten years, learning the Mishnah, at thirteen years bound (even memorizing) to its commands…."

The apostle Paul, who had been raised in this type of Jewish home, urged every father to "Bring up their children in the instruction of the Lord," which is simply another way of telling dads to help their children run every life experience through the grid of Scripture.

Below are a few ideas we’ve tried to get all of God’s Word before our kids:

1. Crafting a biblical family motto and posting it over the kitchen table

2. Finishing each family dinner with bible reading and prayer

3. Spending time singing Christ-honoring songs together

4. Praying with each child before tucking them into bed

5. Allowing kids to stay up late if they’re reading Scripture

6. Setting aside time to have donuts or date nights to discuss Scripture

7. By 2nd grade, ensuring every child does daily bible reading and journaling

8. Reading the news together, asking kids to respond biblically to each story

9. Using driving time to listen to biblical sermons and podcasts

10. Ensuring pre-teens are allowed to download biblical podcasts

11. Offering in-depth “Bible Challenges” or “Trivia” rewarded by dessert

12. On a family vacation, using drive time to write down “100-things” God made

13. When teens have decisions to make, asking they support it biblically

14. This list could go on…. As parents, we must urge our children to the Word of God as their authority. The best defense can be a potent offense.

2. We Try to Set Our Fences Far from the Cliff

Now, what do we actually do about the incessant media blitz on our child’s life?

Old shepherds used to tell their new recruits, "When nearing the cliff, the shepherd may stop, but sheep will fall right over.” Wise parents will heed the subtle warning in that old proverb. Little eyes are always watching. What we as parents allow, our kids will often embrace.

Jonathan Edwards wrote, “Family education and order are some of the chief means of grace; if these are maintained, all others are likely to prosper.”

The simple truth is that something may not seem like sin to us. However, the tender root of our child's heart is still forming, and our liberty can be the fertilizer that stimulates growth or the poison that wilts to death (Cf. Mt. 18:6). Each day of our lives, we make deposits in the memory bank of our kids, and our goal should be to pour in things that are proper, holy, and true.

Based on this, we’re cautious about what shows we'll watch as a family. Any movie or show we watch is run through a series of diagnostic questions: What's the content? Why are we watching it? Is our integrity in question? Are we planting seeds in our child's minds? If Jesus were here physically, would we still watch it? For sports, can we mute or skip commercials?

To be super blunt, Disney Plus, Netflix, Hulu, and others, are relentlessly promoting content that opposes God and His Word; hence, children must know where we as parents stand and why we allow or disallow such a platform. This is not a gray area. Very soon, these young souls will be handed a phone or iPad, and all the ideological filth of the world will be one 2-second-finger-swipe away. From that moment on, there’s no going back.

Below are a few ideas we’ve explored in an attempt to set fences far from the cliff:

1. Canceling “woke” streaming service and explaining to the kids

2. Cautiously exploring Christian alternatives like Pureflix or GodTube

3. Using Christian MovieGuide or other review sites

4. Ordering Torchlighters or Little Pilgrims Big Journey

5. Sharing accountability software like Covenant Eyes

6. For younger children, the Bible App can be helpful

7. For teens, Adventures in Odyssey stirs dialogue

8. Allowing the teens to load up on solid Christian podcasts like FTG

9. Ensuring all computers or iPads only be used in the kitchen

Conclusion:

Give your kids the entire Bible. Set your fences far from the cliff. Volumes more could be written, but as parents, these are two principles Bre and I repeatedly come back to in regards to our Wood family interface with culture.

Disney has become a stumbling block, causing kids to fall in "love" with cute characters who say and do things openly against God's design. Dare we, as parents, risk being the portals whereby ungodliness met our child's eye?

Parenting is tough. The world, the flesh, and the devil are relentless. I can't tell you how many times Bre and I have returned to the drawing board. But with God, all things are possible, so we pray the Lord gives you superb strength and wisdom.