Read time: 4 minutes 19 seconds
In a challenge to Christian men across the world, two pastors have taken up the mantle of leadership and started preaching the gospel in their local libraries.
Pastors Dale Partridge of Prescott, Arizona, and Michael Foster of Batavia, Ohio, decided there had been enough talk and complaining about men in drag reading to children, and that it was time to act.
To counteract the extreme sexualization of children through performances that are usually reserved for strip clubs, the two men started a “Pastor Story Hour” at their local libraries. Sadly, it was in local, taxpayer-funded libraries that children were first subjected to these events.
Pastors Partridge and Foster shared with the Daily Wire how they started their own story hours that are biblical in nature and teach young boys and girls how to navigate childhood.
“Why are drag queens seemingly more interested in influencing the children in their community than pastors? Why are the lost more committed to the systematic and cultural evangelization of the public than American Christians are to evangelizing the gospel?” Partridge questioned in an interview with The Daily Wire. “These are hard questions the church needs to face. Christians need to see that Christianity is a totalizing faith, which means Christ should not be reserved only for church life but should saturate and permeate our entire lives.”
Putting matters into God’s hands, Partridge started up a Pastor Story Hour at his local Cottonwood Public Library in Arizona. It was attended by approximately 15-20 children and some of their parents, but it was not without friction from the library.
Shockingly, the American Library Association not only allows the drag story times to occur, but they also actively advocate for them. The ALA website says, “Drag Queen Story Hour is a program or event featuring drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools or bookstores. It was created by Michelle Tea and RADAR Productions in San Francisco, California. The official Drag Queen Story Hour website is www.dragqueenstoryhour.org.
“We want to hear your stories about Drag Queen Story Hour. Share your successes and your challenges using the hashtags: #LibrariesRespond #DragQueenStoryHour.”
They are not hiding their stance about it in any way. They not only provide direct access to the drag organization but want to share and promote it as much as they can.
So, when Partridge contacted the library, they wanted him to change the name of the event to “Family Bible Story Hour” and did not allow the event to take place in the children’s section, but in the adult wing.
If one looks just past the surface of this change, it reveals the intent of the ALA, drag organization and the LGBTQ agenda as a whole: target the children, but stop Christians from doing the same thing.
Children have always been the target of this movement, because when they grow up there will be an entire generation used to seeing men in drag and accepting of the LGBTQ lifestyle.
Partridge and Foster know this and explained to the Daily Wire that while women have been taking up this mantle of responsibility and care for America’s children, it is time for men to do so as well.
“Historically, Christian fathers took up the mantle of child discipleship,” Partridge continued. “Fathers and mothers are to raise their children to understand what the Bible says about God, man, Christ and the church. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Christian men have abdicated this role, leaving children vulnerable to the influence and lies of the culture. Namely, fathers don’t realize that if they don’t teach their children who they are, the world will.”
Foster, who had great success at the Clermont County Library hosting 35 children, told the Daily Wire doing this is not a difficult task, but men need to take the initiative and set it into motion:
“We are a fatherless nation and nature abhors a vacuum. Someone is going to fill that space in our nation,” he remarked. “I can let it be some disturbed men in lingerie or it can be a pastor like me. So, I stepped up. Men, especially pastors, are called to be community leaders. Talk is cheap. I got a room, set a date, and made a Facebook event. It was easy.”
The efforts of these two pastors show the perfect melding of taking Scripture and putting it into real-world action. Obeying the commands of the Word of God by taking their faith and acting upon it (James 2:14-17), they can walk out Ephesians 6:4 and “bring them [children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Just as important, they are doing this in love for the children. They are not resorting to hateful acts toward the LGBTQ community, but standing against the spiritual forces behind the deception that have misled so many who have had their identity stolen by the enemy. {eoa}
Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!
James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
See an error in this article?
To contact us or to submit an article
