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  "path": "/faith/2026/06/20/dennis-rodman-on-christian-practice-of-spiritual-fathering/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-21T03:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.deseret.com",
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    "8 ways faith and family quietly showed up at the NBA finals",
    "Opinion: NBA dads and the case for fatherhood",
    "Q&A: Brad Wilcox on the state of fatherhood in America — and what can be done to make it better",
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  "textContent": "When Dennis Rodman was inducted to the Hall of Fame, the five-time champion gave a speech as colorful as his days in the NBA playing alongside Isiah Thomas on the Detroit Pistons and Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls.\n\nBut instead of focusing on the multiple titles won with these teams, the emotional heart of his speech centered around “four guys” Rodman mentioned several times: Pistons coach Chuck Daly; Bulls coach Phil Jackson; Lakers owner Jerry Buss; and James Rich, whose Oklahoma family helped support Rodman during college.\n\n“I never had a father. My father left me when I was 5 years old,” Rodman explained. “Those four guys, man. If you talk about having a mentor or father or someone you can look up to, you can call any time of the day, need a shoulder to cry on, a hand to shake or just speak your mind.... If you cremated all these guys and made them into one, they’re pretty much a perfect individual.”\n\nRodman said he “could have been dead,” a “drug dealer” or “homeless,” but Daly, Jackson, Buss and Rich made a positive impact on his life.\n\n“That’s why**** I got these four guys here.... When times are tough, they’re there. And this man here,” he said, pointing at Jackson, “I could hug him because he’s the only man that ever cried for me.”\n\n8 ways faith and family quietly showed up at the NBA finals\n\nOpinion: NBA dads and the case for fatherhood\n\nRodman is unfortunately far from the only person to be raised in a home where biological parents were unable to provide a safe and loving environment.\n\n“You can be there biologically as a parent, but not be there emotionally and spiritually and relationally,” said Gary Grogan, a pastor whose doctoral research at Trinity Bible College focused on the history of “spiritual fathering.”\n\nThe kind of deep, soul-shaping “fatherly” or “motherly” mentoring described by Rodman goes back thousands of years and has spiritual roots.\n\nToday as much as ever, children raised in homes where they never hear “I love you” need someone else they can trust to convey that at some point in their life, Grogan told Deseret News in advance of Father’s Day.\n\nQ&A: Brad Wilcox on the state of fatherhood in America — and what can be done to make it better\n\n### Spiritual fathering in early Christian history\n\nWhile tracing the history of spiritual fathering as an “ancient practice of the earliest church,” Grogan highlighted evidence that it was regarded as a “spiritual gift” among early Christian believers.\n\nMirroring the Apostle John’s usage of “fathers” to describe mature believers, the language of “father” was often applied to early Christian leaders, who were variously called “Apostolic Fathers,” “Fathers of the Church” or “Church Fathers.”\n\nAccording to British scholar Liviu Barbu, it was Ignatius of Antioch (A.D. 35-110), with direct contact with Christ’s original apostles, who was “among the first” to develop imagery in the first and second centuries connecting early bishops’ ministry to divine fatherhood.\n\nAthanasius later spoke of spiritual fathering in the fourth century, saying of St. Anthony’s ministry in Egypt between 251 and 356 that “all desired to have him as their father.”\n\nAugustine wrote in his “Confessions” around 400 about being “quietly led” to a bishop named Ambrose, who mentored him spiritually. “That man of God received me as a father,” he wrote.\n\nPerspective: What science tells us about fatherhood, marriage and the struggles of young men\n\n### Spiritual fathering in scripture\n\nThese early Christian leaders were continuing a tradition modeled by early apostles, who frequently employed familial language in the New Testament, Grogan argues. Peter called Mark “my son,” for example, and John repeatedly referred to believers he mentored as his “children.”\n\nPaul likewise referred to Timothy as “my true child in the faith” and “my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.” He also called Titus “my true child in our common faith” and the former slave Onesimus “my son,” noting that he “became his father in the faith while here in prison.”\n\n“Paul esteemed and demonstrated spiritual fatherhood in the Church,”**** Barbu concluded — something reflected in ways Paul spoke of believers generally:\n\n  * To the saints in Thessalonica, Paul spoke to them “like a father with his children.”\n  * To those in Corinth, he described his intent to “warn you as my dear (beloved) children.”\n  * To “my dear children” in Galatia, Paul compared his emotional ache for them to being “in the anguish of childbirth” and “going through labor pains for you,” until “Christ is fully developed” or “formed in you.”\n\n\n\n### Spiritual fathers (and mothers) today\n\n“Because of the great father vacuum in American culture today, there is a hole in men’s hearts because of the wounds left by their fathers,” Christian author Dan Schaffer wrote. The impact of “absent or dysfunctional fathers,” Grogan added, has “affected the faith development of emergent generations on their perception of God as Father.”\n\nIn his book about “finding and becoming a spiritual father” released this fall, Grogan makes it clear that “both men and women can engage in spiritual parenting.”\n\nIndividuals taking on this role today, orthodox priest Gabriel Bunge remarked, “can channel Paul’s same words to the people in Corinth: ‘in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel’” — translated in one version as “I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you.”\n\n> Spiritual fathers pray passionate prayers for their sons and daughters, have a heart that genuinely cares, provide pathways, and open doors for their spiritual children.\n\nWhile wonderful influencing can happen as a coach, a mentor or a counselor, “spiritual fathering is all these and more,” Grogan said. “Spiritual fathers pray passionate prayers for their sons and daughters, have a heart that genuinely cares and open doors for their spiritual children.”\n\nIdeally, this kind of love comes from one’s own biological father or mother, Grogan added. “My son is 52 years of age. And I still hug him and kiss him on the cheek. And I will do that till the day I die,” he said. “Because I don’t ever want him to doubt Heavenly Father’s love.”\n\nBut Grogan recounted spending time recently with another man, who opened up during a walk. “He just poured out his soul to me and cried and wept, and he said, ‘My own dad did not spend this amount of time with me.’”\n\n> Sons and Daughters: True spiritual fathers are not trying to limit you, they are trying to lift you. If you will receive their instruction, correction, and warnings, you will save yourself from needless struggles. #SpiritualFathers #SpiritualMothers.\n>\n> — Gary Grogan (@papagrogan) October 3, 2024\n\n### A key to spiritual parenting\n\nProviding this kind of support doesn’t require formally calling yourself a “spiritual father” or “spiritual mother,” Grogan said. People in various roles — a religious leader, a teacher — have played this role for him. “I would not be the person I am if they had not given me opportunities and encouragement and prayers and time.”\n\n> Sons and Daughters: I pray you see all the breakthroughs needed to go forward into what God has called you to do. I pray you have endurance, the wisdom of God, and understanding for the tasks before you. #AdvancingTheKingdom\n>\n> — Gary Grogan (@papagrogan) August 1, 2025\n\n“It’s a Jesus-form of discipleship,” he added. “He spent time with his disciples. They hiked the Sea of Galilee. They cooked meals together. They camped out together.”\n\nGrogan also noted how Paul took Timothy and Titus and other people with him. “They went on boat trips together. They walked Roman roads together. They watched how Paul handled stress.”\n\n“If you’re not willing to be interrupted, you’re not going to be a very good spiritual parent,” he said. “Jesus was always interrupted, and it’s when he performed some of his biggest miracles.”\n\n>        View this post on Instagram            \n>\n> A post shared by Gary Wayne Grogan (@papa_grogan)\n\n### The ultimate spiritual father\n\nPrecursors to the practice of “spiritual fathering” go deeper than a few references in scripture or history, Grogan made clear. “Christ is the model,” he said, quoting Barbu as observing that “Christ, the Good Shepherd, shows care and development of those who follow Him, providing a model for spiritual fathering par excellence.”\n\nAlong with intimately calling believing followers “friends,” Christ also taught that “whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”\n\nAs Jesus hung bleeding on the cross, he also entreated his mother and beloved disciple, “Woman, behold thy son!” and “Behold thy mother!” — encouraging a new family relationship among two people with no blood connection other than his.\n\nAccording to Australian scholar Robert Banks, Christ’s own influence explains why “early Christian communities sought to become communities of love, within which deep family relationships could be expressed.”\n\nThese close brotherly, sisterly, motherly and fatherly relationships “expand from the relationship with God,” Grogan said, expressing a prayer “to the fatherless of the world” that “our heavenly Father’s love become real to you and heal the ache in your heart.”",
  "title": "Dennis Rodman and ‘spiritual fathering’ as an ancient Christian practice"
}