Additional Observations:
- Chiefly problematic is Glenn's penchant for proof-texting and her frequent violation of the historical-grammatical method of Biblical exegesis. The presentation is zealous but sloppy (see comments above.)
- At 270+ pages, Freedom for Mothers is twice as long and half as lucid as it could be. Newbies are likely to find this plodding tome tedious and overly ambitious. A number of women with whom I spoke dropped out around Unit 5 or 6 with comments like "too long", "don't have time", "way too many pages", etc.
- The Contents portion of this tome (pp. 9-10) lists ten units and Mothering Skills, but lacks page numbers for easy reference. Not exactly "user friendly."
- Utilizing the old "shotgun approach," Glenn sprays superficial "Bible bullets" all over her text rather than focusing on salient points and topics and covering them in-depth. Leaps in logic as wide as the Grand Canyon open at times between one unit, topic or text and the next, leaving the study virtually incoherent in places.
- Much of Wisdom and Freedom is written from the perspective of a white, middle or upper-middle class American (at least in the edition noted). Assumptions are made about jobs, bank accounts, leisure activities, homeowner status, family chemistry, disposable income, etc. that are inaccurate (and possibly offensive). See the Mothering Skills Discussion, Toys and Technology: Tots to Teens in Unit 3, pp. 67 - 70a.
Another example is Glenn's "Christmas Jar Miracle" testimony (pp. 217 - 222) includes a perspective some struggling moms may find hard to swallow and/or identify with. This is perhaps best summed up in Glenn's statement on p. 219: "At the end of the next pay period, I took the surplus left in the checking account, got it in cash, and put it in the jar. I knew how much money was in the jar and it wasn't much. In fact it was one-tenth of what we usually spent on Christmas."
Glenn uses the word "surplus" five times in one page, which may leave some moms thinking, "Surplus??? What's THAT??!!"
- Glenn has a penchant for overusing the more familiar, rather diluted "Jesus" instead of His full regal title, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Several ladies I spoke to indicated that they found Glenn a gifted devotional writer or storyteller, but NOT a Bible scholar. This is evident throughout Freedom.
- Members of the MotherWise board or review committee remain anonymous and/or inaccessible. Readers may want to keep this in mind - and wonder why.
- Glenn's "yuck-yuck," Pollyanna persona in the accompanying video appeals to some women as "warm" or "charming," but it may turn off (or irritate) those who are more serious and scholarly. This may be compounded by the overuse of colloquialisms and vernacular, such as the cloying "love bucket" analogy in Unit 2 (pp. 41 - 45).
- Glenn cites sources for some of her units/concepts which may give cause for pause, such as Liberty Savard and Joyce Meyer (see pages 278-79.) For example, Glenn refers to "a new way to look at Matthew 16:19″ and praying Savard's peculiar interpretation of this "binding and loosing" passage "concerning our attitudes and actions concerning money" (p. 218). Savard's teaching is based on a faulty understanding of the context of Matthew 16:19 that is repudiated by credible Bible scholars.
- Astonishingly, Glenn doesn't consult (or at least never sources) any leading Bible scholars for this study (Strong's Greek Dictionary or Strong's Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary are not primary source materials, but reference tools). This should tell us something. Readers may wonder why authoritative evangelical sources/expositions are lacking in "an in-depth Bible study" purportedly "based on John 15." Conspicuous by its absence in Glenn's slapdash approach to Romans 6 - 9 are two of the finest scholarly commentaries ever written on the subject by C.E.B. Cranfield and Anders Nygren. We can only wonder why? (This should also tell us something.)
- A line from the 1985 movie Out of Africa sums up most of this study. Turning to Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford), Baroness Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) inquires, "Is life really so d**n simple for you, Finch-Hatton?" The baroness has a point. We could ask the same question of Freedom for Mothers. Some may find Freedom's one-size-fits-all, formulaic approach to complex and often thorny issues and problems overly simplistic or inane.
To be fair, some of the above may be minimized or averted depending upon the skill and training of leaders at the local level. New believers or unseasoned, untrained Christians probably won't notice these deficiencies and may genuinely benefit from MotherWise materials. Women with sharp, alert minds and analytical skills should, and may opt to look elsewhere for more mature, balanced Bible studies.
Freedom for Mothers, by Denise Glenn of MotherWise Ministries. Published 1999 by Multnomah Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 1-57673-594-x
