Bringing Up Kids When Church Lets You Down: A Guide for Parents Questioning Their Faith, (Eerdmans, Oct 11, 2022)
"McNeel’s wry wit entertains (one chapter is titled “How to Lose the Faith and Keep It Off”), and she excels at biting social commentary and psychological insight, such as when she posits that punishing sins often doesn’t work because “trouble outside signals hurt inside, not corruption.” This has plenty of wisdom for Christian parents wrestling with their faith. " View full review
“I’m biased because I wrote one, but I love parenting books. These books answer the question: where do we go from here as a human civilization? For the generation of parents who have experienced profound faith shifting, when the institution that taught you how to do life no longer has your trust and allegiance, when the script that taught you how to be human no longer works, where do we go from here? Bekah’s book is for you, not as a rule book but as stories to consider. She delves deep into the gritty manners of humanity, from politics to sex to the illusion of perfect families. You’ll love her wry humor and journalistic writing to help you figure out where we all go from here.”
“Bekah McNeel offers parents who have abandoned the certainty of their religious upbringing a rare and precious gift: permission to let curiosity and exploration lead the way back to God and back to hope, offering their kids a better world rather than a winning formula.”
“They should hand this book out in maternity wards. They should also invent a time machine so older parents like me could read it when we were first starting out. Bekah McNeel has written an accessible, illuminating, and essential guide to navigating thorny questions while raising your kids to do the same.”
“A powerfully vulnerable, raw, and beautiful testament of surviving ourselves, our families, parenting, and the church. Bekah McNeel takes us on a painful yet freeing journey to seek restoration, flee perfectionism, and escape unhealthy social constructs. She empowers us to hold sacred the parent-child relationship while demonstrating how our words, traditions, requirements, and expectations can have a detrimental effect on even the most resilient of children. She impeccably identifies our children’s and our own need to safely question as we take on the enormity of our world and shake what we once may have viewed as foundational truths and absolutes. She skillfully unpacks her personal trauma—like so many others’ experiences that have echoed through generations—and the risks of continuing this repetitive cycle. Bekah is empowering as she approaches a life of deconstructed family, social, church, and world norms.”