Touchstone, 2

Yesterday I commented briefly on a great editorial from the April issue of Touchstone magazine. Today, I want to mention to other articles from that issue.

First, Amanda Witt contributed “Distant Neighbors: On Keeping Children Innocent When Lesbians Move in.” This is a compelling account of the Witt’s family leading their children as they encounter the “new family” in their neighborhood, two lesbians with a daughter, and the questions this raises for the Witt children. It is honest, humble, faithful and a great example of gospel-centered engagement. One of the greatest elements is that it is not in any way triumphalistic. It seems to me they have handled this very well, but she is transparent about the troubling questions this has raised for their children, questions one would certainly have rather not have raised yet. But, we live in a fallen world, and we need not pretend otherwise. Good fodder for pastoral as well as parental thinking. (the full article is available online)

The second article is another gritty, honest piece from a mother. Annegret Hunter’s “Losers Keepers: The Liberating Power of Negative Thinking” is certainly a keeper! She describes the hectic life of motherhood and how it makes her look like a loser in the eyes of the feminist circles she once inhabited. I smiled at numerous places in her opening sections recognizing things which my wife has also said. Mrs. Hunter then moves to discussing how the gospel addresses us not as “winners’ as so typically suggested in the shallower realms of evangelicalism but as “losers” who need the rescue of the one true Champion. The personal account she gives is moving.