When ‘Trust and Obey’ Kids Grow Up, Can They Parent Better? | Sojourners

When ‘Trust and Obey’ Kids Grow Up, Can They Parent Better?

Copies of the biography of James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, are seen in the bookstore at the Focus headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., on July 20, 2007. REUTERS/Rick Wilking (UNITED STATES)

Through the last decades of the 20th century, evangelical parenting advice from people like James Dobson or Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo emphasized parental authority and children’s obedience. Now that many of the kids who grew up under those rules are parents themselves, they’re determined to raise their own kids differently — even while finding it hard to break inherited patterns.

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