A Switch in Time
Who gets to define what's proper fatherhood? A church leadership composed of people who are horrified by any sign of male domineering, and always on the lookout for it, always demanding more and more "servant leadership"? That is the practical condition in many churches today. But they won't last long, for they don't like men and won't raise them up. I suggest that "leading through sacrifice" is, in many modern conservative churches, a poisonous idea. The only place it is not is where men are encouraged to exercise their God-given authority in their families while avoiding cruelty and injustice.
In general, to hell with this notion of servant leadership as I've most frequently heard it used—its cash value is "wimp." And you can't make applying the biblical rod to the breech of your son anything other than pain by inserting the equally damnable adjective "loving." Just make sure the kid deserves what he is getting, completely forget the offense once it's paid for, and you've done your duty.
S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.
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more on fatherhood from the online archives
14.1—January/February 2001
The Christian Heart of Fatherhood
The Place of Marriage, Authority & Service in the Recovery of Fatherhood by John M. Haas
19.8—October 2006
on the Good Father’s Quiet Desperation by Russell D. Moore
more from the online archives
29.3—May/June 2016
A Deathbed Reflection on Catholic Social Teaching & Our Future Prospects by Karl D. Stephan
29.1—Jan/Feb 2016
Secular Credibility Is a Devilish Temptation by James Hitchcock
32.2—March/April 2019
on Properly Rendering Things to Caesar & to God by Peter J. Leithart
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