“Stay-at-home dads” are a sign of moral decay.

“…encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.”

In the August 13^th, 2022, edition of World, in an article titled “Man on the Home Front.” The two authoresses portrayed the rise of stay-at-home dads as being a natural, mostly positive societal change. There are issues in the choice of sources used, whether it be the decidedly leftist, worldly source of Arielle Kuperberg, or the Presbyterian Church in America “pastor” Tim Lane’s flippant dismissal of scripture that authoritatively lays out the role of a husband, a wife, and the roles they each have as parents.

According to World’s own statement of Faith, “Today, God is known in His written Word, the Bible, which is the inerrant and altogether authoritative revelation of Himself for us in all matters. The Holy Spirit applies that word and opens our eyes to its meaning, even as He opens our hearts to its application.” Therefore, seeking to know the truth, we should not disregard clear scriptural teaching by obscuring it with deceptive philosophy and worldly reasoning as is done by the authoresses in this article. Otherwise, we will be like the people Paul describes in 2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires.”

To appear balanced, the article does mention Titus 2 and other passages that point to the Biblical model for young women as wives and mothers. However, they do so in a cursory and dismissive manner, to obfuscate the power and authority of the word. As such the article does nothing to address the clear mandate of Titus 2 that a Christian, married, young woman must be a “worker at home” or homemaker.

The rest of the article operates on the less Biblical assumption that it is perfectly acceptable to have able bodied men be the caregivers and homemakers while their wives are primary breadwinners. From this I gather some Christian households have adopted a god of money and will do whatever it takes to gain as much money as possible. To this I remind them ““You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13) Every decision has a tradeoff. Either you choose to serve God in your family structure, or you choose to place financial comfort over obedience to God. (Proverbs 16:8)

This isn’t necessarily to say that a man can’t or shouldn’t prioritize time with his children and his family. In fact, the Epistle to the Ephesians (written by the same apostle Paul who wrote the epistles to Titus and Timothy) precisely encourages that. (See Ephesians 5:25 and 6:4) Sometimes the most loving thing I can do as a husband is to wash a sink full of dishes, and at other times the most loving thing I can do as a father is to hold a sleeping one year old on my chest. However, the same God who tells me to love my family, tells me to work hard and to provide for my family. While that might look different in each context, the call of a God following husband and father to lead his household remains the same throughout scripture, and to the end of time.  

The editorial staff of World Magazine admitted that they could have done better in keeping to a Biblical Worldview in that particular article. I sent the above to them and they responded and said they would print part of it in their “mailbag” section. The bolded section above is what they printed in their September 24th, 2022, edition.