“If the parents are foolish, then so will the parenting be. If the parents are dictatorial, then so will the parenting be. If the parents are wise, then so will the parenting be.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 12
Sentimental and Cruel
“We’ve gotten to the point where surgeons can operate on and chemically castrate children. We can have mastectomies for teen girls and genital mutilation for the boys. And why? Because if we don’t, we might hurt somebody’s feelings. We are simultaneously sentimental and cruel . . . There is no way to bridge this gap by negotiations, but discussion, by trying to be winsome. You can’t. You can’t apologize your way into a good relationship with people who are on the other side of this chasm.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 8-9
A Sinful Substrate
“The fact that we clean up real nice on Sundays and go to church and sing songs and like to do religious things and like to talk theology doesn’t change the fundamental kink or twist in every human heart. That kink or twist can only be mortified by the Holy Spirit.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 7
Sin Goes Deep
“Adam’s sin includes us. We are sinners by nature, bad to the bone from the very first moment—bad to the bone before we have any bones.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 4
A Surly Bobcat
“The fact that the sweet child in the cradle hasn’t started smoking cigarettes or pounding shots does not signify anything. You say, ‘Oh, they look so sweet, they look so innocent.’ But five years later, they are out terrorizing the neighborhood, acting like a cross between a hobgoblin and a bobcat.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 4
Little Bundles of Sin
“Children do not begin in some neutral place. They do not start out innocent. As my father used to say, with great affection, ‘Babies are little bundles of sin.’ All that is necessary for the sinning to start is the requisite muscle strength and intelligence. Once the muscle strength and intelligence are there, the sinning starts. And sometimes it starts a little bit before that.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 3
Noise Abatement Long Term
“If the father uses the rod judiciously, his son will not die—sound effects notwithstanding.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 2
Descend to Hilarity
“Few earthly blessings compare to sitting around a dinner table with your grown kids and their spouses, all of them Christian. Someone starts telling spanking stories, and the evening descends into hilarity. In the next room, the grandkids are going at it as well. All this, coupled with wine, and laughter, and psalm singing, and jokes, and sausage stew, and a fire in the fireplace . . . The covenant is a wonderful thing.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. xi-xii
No Nuance at All
“All of this means you have to settle in your mind, in your soul, down in your bones, what you actually believe. And you have to be ready to walk into a buzz saw if you’re really going to practice some of the things that the Bible says we ought to practice. Your stance should be that of the sailor at Pearl Harbor who, when the third wave of Japanese Zeros was flying overhead, thought to himself, ‘The time for nuance has passed.’”
Keep Your Kids, p. xi
The Weight of Your Blessing
“Great God Jehovah, we call on You now,
And ask for the weight of Your blessing of glory.
We know we cannot, on our own, make it happen,
We know on our own, our wells are all dry.”
21 Prayers, p. 128