Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Dad, don't send your kids to Hell

NOTE: Since I moved my blog from MSN to Blogspot, I have archived here some of the most popular posts from the old MSN site. Below is a post from June 17, 2005:


Dad, don't send your kids to Hell
A new study published in Switzerland indicates that fathers have far more influence on the spiritual habits of their children than mothers.
They found that when Mom goes to church regularly and Dad never goes, just 2 percent of their children become regular attenders.
However, when Dad goes to church regularly and Mom never goes, 44 percent of the kids end up as regular church attenders! That means that Dad has 22 times more influence over the spiritual habits of his kids than Mom does!
No wonder Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers...bring up your children in the training and instruction of the Lord." Dad, don't buy that old line that religion is for women, or that your wife has enough religion for the both of you. It's YOUR job to be the spiritual leader in your home. If YOU don't take them to church yourself, you may as well tell them to "go to Hell," because that's basically where you're sending them.

2 comments:

Bloodiest of Ladies said...

Brother Bob!!! I'm actually a bit shocked. I realise that there is leaning evidence in the direction taken from that study, but it's surely not conclusive. One other way to view that stat is that fathers are generally more feared than mothers, and it's just possible that our natural inclination is not to attend church.

Dr. Bob Rogers said...

Trudy, I intended this to be shocking! It is interesting that when I first posted this on the old MSN blog last year, all of the comments that I received were from women. Some were upset that I would say such a thing, claiming "I influence my children," and others were saying, "My father failed to take us to church, and our family paid the price."
I want to shake up men who think "religion is for women." The evidence of this study is not just that fathers have some influence, but that they have 22 times more influence! Combined with my experience of 25 years of ministry, I can say very confidently that if the father does not go to church, the children are far less likely to go. So I stand by my statement. For a man to know that he has that much of a high probability of influencing his children spiritually, and yet do nothing to influence his children's spiritual lives, is basically like telling his kids, "go to hell."