And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4, NKJV
That eighties Madonna music contains lyrics contradicting scripture should certainly come as no surprise. The glaring flaw in Papa Don’t Preach is that Papa should have supported his daughter’s decision to raise his grandchild from the start. But this is not the only problem. The underlying assumption that lost souls wandering far from God would not benefit from a little preaching is absurdly false. Rebels suffer from a lack of truth, not an overabundance.
People sometimes begin sharing godly counsel using the words, “I don’t mean to preach…” As if this were the worst crime imaginable! The real atrocity is that in many cases, Papa has embraced his role as Provider and Protector only to abandon his role as Pastor. Every father has been called by God to speak scriptural truth into the lives of his children. Papa, preach!