Applying this principle to theological work might manifest as, instead of giving children a huge stack of formidable theological books by expert theologians to begin their theological journey, helping children to gain biblical and theological proficiency. Meaning, start by just getting children familiar with different parts of the Bible (remembering that not all parts of the Bible are child-friendly some parts should only be read with the lens of child protection ), different ways that people can read the same passages, and some of the big questions that theology asks (like, “Why do pain and s ..read more

Take the topic of death as an example. If you want to educate a child about the facts of death , you should not start the conversation by telling the child, “Everyone that you love will die one day.” That statement true. It is true that everyone will die one day. But that is probably not the best way to start the conversation with a child. Starting the conversation that way is likely going to just terrify and traumatize the child. So instead of introducing the topic in a way that makes the child fearful, you would scaffold. Progressively, over whatever amount of time it takes to help the child ..read more

Of course, giving children full creative license over a theological field will not happen overnight. This is something that takes time. It requires , which we touched on in Part Two of this series . Scaffolding is a fantastic teaching strategy in general, but it is especially helpful with children. By breaking down complicated or difficult ideas and topics into smaller, more accessible, and more manageable pieces, children do not have to process as much information as quickly as possible and thus risk getting overwhelmed by it. When you scaffold, children have time to slowly absorb each piece ..read more

• I wrote two pieces for my personal website in July: one about the nuts and bolts of child liberation theology and the other about the unseen children in the Bible . Additionally, my writings on child protection policies were in an article about the dangers of inadequate policies ..read more

• Throughout June, I did many things: I and why children have a right to feel, I for homeschool alumni who have recently left home for the first time, I was invited to a live Zoom conversation on child liberation theology hosted by the survivor advocacy organization CFCtoo, and I was about Michael Farris and his Christofascist agenda ..read more

• In May, I was invited to speak for the Secular Coalition for Arizona’s “Who’s Grooming Who” series about how the Right perverts and weaponizes child protection. You can ..read more

• In March, the print version of my new book on child liberation theology, ! March also marked the 10-year anniversary of the founding of on the anniversary. Finally, I had the opportunity to about the evangelical Christian homeschool speech and debate leagues I participated in as a teenager and which are still highly popular today ..read more

for Religion Dispatches about homeschool alumna Lila Rose and her promotion of the dangerous myth that queer people are more likely to be sexual abusers of children than other people. Contrary to this myth, the truth is that “study after study has found that queer people do not, in fact, harm children at higher rates than other people. Instead, a very different picture emerges of the average abuser, who, it turns out, is a religious adult male in a heterosexual marriage; in fact, 80 percent to 96 percent identify as heterosexual.” Also in February, I spoke to author and journalist Sarah Stanko ..read more

• I started off the year by writing about Martin Luther King Jr.’s interactions with children during the Civil Rights Movement. While reading about the subject, I discovered that, during the 1963 Children’s March in Birmingham, Alabama, around ten thousand children were arrested and jailed for protesting segregation in the United States ..read more