“Though I love my son… having a kid is probably my biggest life regret.”
With that tweet, author Sam McRoberts became the overnight symbol of the secular humanist parent, placing a premium on ‘self’ gratification and spitting in the face of God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. It left many on Twitter utterly flabbergasted, including Dan Andros (Faithwire Managing Editor) and Jason Howerton from Blaze Media, both of whom are dads. Howerton joined Faithwire for a conversation about the disturbing tweets, faith, fatherhood and more.
Howerton broke down what happens when you have your priorities out of order as a parent. “If your priorities and your focus is so out of whack that you’re upset about missing all these things that you could have, then you’re gonna hate parenthood – because you’re selfish. Selfish people don’t make good parents, they make really crappy parents,” Howerton said.
“The only reason for what he’s saying is he’s selfish. We’re all sinful and we all have a degree of selfishness, but the difference is, when we realize we’re doing it, we apologize for it,” Andros explained. “This guy is looking for scientific reasons to justify it.”
Howerton acknowledged that it’s ok for parents to seek a break from the chaos that comes along with parenting. “When you’re a parent, there’s nothing wrong with having that moment of ‘if I could just have 20 minutes for dinner’ but this guy goes so far beyond that,” he said.
“This is honestly what triggered me the most,” Howerton continued. “That he told his son that he regrets having him. My wife is a doctor and has a PHD in counseling and she could tell you for two hours the impact that will have on a boy from today well into adulthood. That will impact him for the rest of his life, no matter what his dad does from here on out. Let’s be good Christians and hope he regrets thinking that way, he has a change of heart, he seeks redemption – but no matter what this kid is going to be impacted forever and that breaks my heart.”
Check out the full conversation in the video link above, as the pair discuss many aspects of parenting and how our roles in shaping a little soul should be looked at as a blessing, not a burden.