Abraham Piper, son of renowned theologian and founder of DesiringGod John Piper, uploaded a 36-second video where he said fundamentalist Christians should not have children.
Church Leaders reported that Piper's statements were said in a mocking tone in his Tiktok video and cited how, despite growing in a Christian household being a congregant of Minnesota's Bethlehem Baptist Church where his father was a pastor for more than three decades, have fallen out of the faith. Church Leaders said Piper was even "excommunicated" by his father from the church at the age of 19 because he wants to stop pretending being a Christian.
"It's wild that just anyone basically can have kids and I'm I'm not talking about teenagers or drug addicts or whatever group that might come to mind when you think of less than suitable parents," Piper began in his video.
"I'm thinking about stand-up American citizens that also happen to be fundamentalist Christians. These people should not be having children," he highlighted.
The video was captioned with "How about don't have kids if they're so evil" and was liked 38,600 times with 1,220 comments. In the video, Piper explained that these fundamentalist Christians "crush the spirit" of their children after breaking their will.
"There were 'parenting experts' around me growing up whose advise to parents was 'to break their child's will'--their words not mine. A whole squad of the population popping out babies just so they could crush their spirit for Jesus," Piper said.
He left the faith
Piper, a painter and vlogger, reportedly rose to fame in social media from bashing evangelical Christianity. News of his reversal from the faith became more prominent in April last year and was even seen as a "phenomenon" considering he was the son of a high-profile Christian leader.
Church Leaders called Piper a "deconstructionist" whose TikTok followers in April 2021, rising to 925,000, agree with his efforts to debunk Christianity and the truths of Holy Scripture, which he called "boring" especially "to kids anyways" in a February post.
"It's weird to make kids read the Bible. You wanna know one of the silliest things about being raised devoutly evangelical? Children are expected to read the Bible. If that doesn't seem weird to you, stick with me for a second," Piper said.
"You might think of the Bible as 'for God so loved the world' or that one emotionally lucid moment Paul had when he wrote about love and now everyone reads it at their weddings...but those are the boring parts...to a kid anyways," he added.
Apologist and The Stream Radio Host Dr. Michael Brown, reacting to Piper's barrage against Christianity, raised that it was right for the latter to "challenge evangelical hypocrisy" but one "can't ignore the ongoing apostasy" that goes with it.
"But the bottom line is that we cannot ignore this ongoing apostasy, nor can we simply write off those who are on the attack," Brown underscored.
John Piper in a 2012 article raised how he saw his son slowly walk out of the faith that led him to decide to excommunicate him.
"(Abraham) was walking away from the Lord, trying to make a name for himself in disco bars as a guitarist and singer, and just doing anything but destroying himself. We were praying like crazy that he wouldn't get somebody pregnant, or marry the wrong person, or whatever. He came back to the Lord four years later and the church had a beautiful, beautiful restoration service. He wept his eyes out in front of the church and was restored. This is church discipline at its best."
John has not released any statements regarding his son's berating of him online. He did, in 2017, release a podcast entitled, "How Did I Fail My Unbelieving Children," where he discussed what to do "when your children grow up in the church, but then leave the faith, and you are left with the linger question over how you failed them in the process."
"I don't think the Bible gives any absolute promise that faithful parenting will result in faithful children," John summarized.
