Couldn't Help Noticing

God’s grace and missionary women

I've been checking out Ten Girls who Changed the World by Irene Howat. (Christian Focus Publications, 2001) What a messy looking book! It's a real pity because the cover art on my edition is elegant. They've managed to trash it through cheap paperback production values, use of a sans serif font, and a few other bits and pieces that even I noticed. That means you're not going to give it away as a present to somebody without risking looking cheap.

However, the text of Ten Girls Who Changed the World, is not half-bad. There are ten and a bit pages per chapter, and the chapters focus on Gladys Aylward, Mary Slessor, Isobel Kuhn, Elizabeth Fry, Jackie Pullinger, Amy Carmichael, Joni Eareckson Tada, Catherine Booth, Corrie Ten Boom and Evelyn Brand—all great missionary women who, one way or another, have been used by God to make a big difference in people's lives. The stories are brief and well-told, and there is enough gospel in them to make this more than just a group of inspirational tales.

There are also some fairly shocking insights into the way life is and the way other religions are. So we learn in the Elizabeth Fry story about Newgate prison in the 19th century, which held 300 women and children in four rooms. Each day, the women and men were allowed to mix together. Even this PG version has them “gambling and drinking, fighting and dancing” and spending time in the four rooms “cooking, eating, sleeping and everything else as well̶. Similarly, we read in Amy Carmichael's story about how Hindu girls were offered up to the gods because they were unwanted:

They are given to women who are prisoners in the temples and they are kept there and become prisoners too. Then, when they are five or six years old, they are given to the priests and are slaves to them until they are no longer young and beautiful.

Black Beauty or Saddle Club this ain't! Mary Slessor's story tells of babies that were thought to be demon-possessed, and so were abandoned in the African bush or killed, and their mother cast out to die. Corrie Ten Boom's story speaks of the horrors of the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Yet at the same time, the theme of God's grace is strong:

One day, a long time later, a man spoke to Corrie after a church service. He had been a guard at Ravensbruck. ‘Isn't it wonderful that Jesus has washed my sins away’, he said, holding out his hand to shake hers. So many things went through Corrie's mind. Had he forced her to parade naked? Had he laughted at poor dear Betsie when she coughed herself sick? For a minute, her arm seemed glued to her side. The she prayed a quick silent prayer and God filled her heart with forgiveness. Corrie Ten Boom took the man's hand in hers and shook it warmly. And that was a miracle.

Try to ignore the fact that this book looks like it was printed on toilet paper, and buy it for a girl eight years or older. It's no messier-looking than the secular Horrible Histories books which are popular with this age group, but instead of gore, in this book, the grace of God predominates.

Two more preschoolers’ Christmas presents? Well, one

Read-Aloud Bible Stories Vol. 1 by Ella K. Lindvall, illustrated by H. Kent Puckett, and The Nativity Play by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen: I'm only going to recommend one of these. These are two books for preschoolers. They're both pretty good in the sense that pre-schoolers will love them and they are readily available. I got my copies at Moore Books in Newtown, but they should be easy to get in other places or, failing that, online.

You're not looking for complexity when you pick up a book for a pre-schooler, and on the patented Cheng ‘non-complexity’ scale, both books are doing well. If you or your kids love the TV show or book Kipper the Dog, you (and they) will love The Nativity Play which was made by the same creators (Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen). (Although, at nearly AUD$16.00, which is how much I paid for mine, you would want to love them quite a lot, as there are plenty of high quality secular pre-school books available for cheaper.)

This one is the story of a kids' Christmas play, and it is a lot of fun. I enjoyed the little kid dressed up with the donkey's head, and the bit where they nearly lost the shepherd with the key line of the whole play to a toilet break. And what was that key line? “The Saviour of the world is born”. That's pretty good, really, and if I were giving a present to a family where eyebrows might be raised over the gift of a childrens' Bible story, I would consider this a fun and acceptable alternative.

But the other book, Read-Aloud Bible Stories Vol. 1, caused me more problems (although these problems won't bother the kids at all—well, not until they reach adulthood and they start reflecting on their childhood and wonder why their Bible-reading skills are so dodgy). Based on my own experience of several years of reading to little kids, this one is a winner from a storytelling point of view, and you can see why it's still in print after so many years. Here's a sample:

Too-little Zaccheus started to run.
(Go, Zaccheus. Go fast.)
He came to the tree.
(Climb, Zaccheus. Climb fast.)

Now Zaccheus was up high.
He could see the daddies coming.
And the mommies.
And the grandpas.
And the grandmas.
And the uncles.
And the aunts.
And the boys.
And the girls.
And the friends.
And THEN—

(Well, you'll have to turn the page, won't you)

This is good stuff for parents who want to keep the attention of one or more restless children. It's short, part of a series, and there's plenty of interactivity. The pictures are big, bold and simple. I don't like them, but there's no reason kids wouldn't enjoy them.

However, my main difficulty with this (and with so many other Bible stories and story books I pick up) is that, apart from the fact that they've been taken from the Bible, both the stories and (in particular) the way they are applied are almost incidental to the gospel message. God cares for you and knows you by name—that's true. But to use the Zaccheus story of Luke 19:1-10 to establish such a point, as this read-aloud book does, is dodgy indeed. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” is what this incident is really about (Luke 19:10), but in the version here, Zaccheus is not so much lost as short—or should I say “TOO LITTLE” (the story does). There is no indication at all that he was a corrupt and sinful man who, in the face of grace, exemplifies repentance. That's not good.

This is not the only slip-up either. It's true that God hears us, but this is not the main point of the Bartimaeus story which is to contrast the faith of a blind man with the unbelief of those who shoud have seen who Jesus was, but didn't. Jesus does welcome little children, yes, and he welcomes you, but the reason the story is there in Mark 10 is to teach other people that their understanding of the kingdom of God is wrong and that they must become like little children in order to receive it (see Mark 10:15). Some of the stories are better, but in a volume where three of the five stories either miss the point, obscure it or get it wrong, why would you buy Volume 2?

The Golden Compass: Atheism for kids?

There's an email doing the rounds at the moment (and thank you to all those who have sent it to us). It's about the upcoming movie The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman, Eva Green and Daniel Craig (due for release December 2007; not yet rated). Here's an extract from the email:

The movie has been described as ‘atheism for kids’ and is based on the first book of a trilogy entitled ‘His Dark Materials’ that was written by Philip Pullman. Pullman is a militant atheist and secular humanist who despises C. S. Lewis and the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’. His motivation for writing this trilogy was specifically to counteract Lewis' symbolisms of Christ that are portrayed in the Narnia series. Clearly, Pullman's main objective is to bash Christianity and promote atheism.

The email encourages Christians to boycott the movie and the book (which is titled Northern Lights in the UK and Australia), and to forward the email on to everyone they know so that parents are educated about “the agenda of the movie”.

I don't have kids, so I'm not going to comment on whether parents should keep their children from seeing the movie. But I rather suspect that the sole “agenda of the movie” (or, at least, the sole agenda of the movie-makers) is to make lots and lots of money. The agenda of the book/s may be quite different, but I'm still not convinced that means we should boycott the movie or the book.

I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing the movie. I've read the first two books in the trilogy, and I'm trying to find time to read the third. I'm not usually a fantasy-novel reader, but I read a review of these books in Zadok (a magazine published by the Zadok Institute for Christianity and Society). The magazine reviewed the Top 5 best-selling fantasy novels/series, and the Pullman trilogy was the only one that hadn't yet been milked by the film industry (though not any more!). The review was part of a larger article about whether Christians should read fantasy at all, and it was the discussion of the atheistic themes in Pullman's books that made me want to read them in the first place. I find that stuff interesting. That's why I like The Matrix (no, not the sequels; just the first one); every time I watch it, I notice a new biblical theme.

As far as good storytelling goes, The Golden Compass/Northern Lights is a good read—except for the last few pages. It feels a bit like Pullman had almost finished writing the book when his publisher said, “Time's up. You just have to finish it. We are sending it to the printer next week in whatever form it's in.” That would certainly explain the last few pages of the first two books in the trilogy. (I live in hope the same thing doesn't happen in the third volume.) But I'm getting sidetracked.

My point is that Pullman's writing isn't bad, the story is interesting, and the themes behind the story are interesting. It's a bit like The Lord of the Rings, really. Or Harry Potter. Or The Matrix. As I'm reading, I keep trying to guess who represents what (biblically-speaking), and what Pullman is really saying about the church or the world or the idea of sin or humanity. If you like that sort of thing, it's fascinating. If you can't be bothered with all that stuff and you just like a good fantasy novel, you'll probably enjoy the books too.

There are many books (and movies) written by atheists, agnostics, Christians, Buddhists, Scientologists, Muslims, Jews, and so on. Some of these are good; some, not so good. I'm just not sure why we should boycott this particular one. I think it's another opportunity to share the message of the real Christ as we discuss the ideas and themes with non-Christian friends and family members who read the books (or—more likely these days—just see the movie). It is an opportunity to engage with our society—to listen to its ideas and respond to them—rather than burying our heads in the sand.

(Here's some recommended reading: Greg Clarke discusses Philip Pullman's trilogy in his article ‘Fantasy literature and Christian readers’ in The Longing.)

Euthanasia, troubled teens and Philip Nitschke

Last night, euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke was interviewed on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton. (Read the transcript.) In the interview, Nitschke expressed outrage at being described frequently as someone who advocates that troubled teens should be assisted to commit suicide. At one point, he called it a misrepresentation; perpetrated on the basis of an interview he'd done with an American right-wing magazine. Yet, when Denton took him through the details of how this ‘myth’ had arisen, he didn't actually deny any of the logical steps that led to this conclusion. That is, he stood by his definition of an adult as someone over 18 (noting that such a person was capable of voting and being sent off to war), that he believed that suicide was a choice that should be open to those who wanted it, and that, should they want it, we should be allowed to help them get what they want. So although the idea that Nitschke supports assisting the death of ‘troubled teens’ may be focusing on a part of his logic he doesn't like, this is still a long way away from being an urban myth. In fact, it sounded very much to me as if he'd confirmed the truth of it.

Part of his outrage rests on the fact that, as a general rule, he only opens his assisted suicide seminars to people over the age of 65; he is not advocating helping to kill troubled teens willy-nilly. But, unfortunately for his logic, this ‘general rule’ has multiple individual exceptions—one of which is referred to in the July 2007 issue of Exit International, where his view that long-term prisoners who want to die should be assisted to do so is repeated.

Here's the relevant part of the transcript from the Denton interview, with apologies for Dr Nitschke's language:

ANDREW DENTON: You were quoted in a US magazine called National Review as saying that your workshops were potentially for the elderly, for the bereaved, for the depressed or the troubled teen. Is that a correct quote?

PHILIP NITSCHKE: No, that's a not a correct quote and I didn't exactly say that. They, I got asked in this, a long ranging interview by National Review, sort of right wing journal in the US, about what my beliefs were about this issue, about who should have control. And I outlined the idea that I thought that people had to be adult—we're not talking about children—and they had to be mentally well. In other words able to give accurate, valid consent. And they said “Oh adults?” I said at that point, “Yeah, adults.” And she said, the interview if I remember vividly, “Oh you mean like an 18 year old?” And I said “Yeah, that's an adult.” You know an 18 year old, you can go off and kill people in war, that's an adult. They said “So you basically saying that 18 year olds should have access to these best drugs.” Next thing I know, I'm ad, I'm advocating suicide ...

ANDREW DENTON: But did you, how did you answer that question?

PHILIP NITSCHKE: Well I said “Yes,” stupidly.

ANDREW DENTON: Why did you allow yourself to be to be so caught out there, to give so much ammunition to your opposition?

PHILIP NITSCHKE: Yeah, well I mean, look it was a mistake to have said that because at the time what I hadn't factored in, as much as I now do, is this idea that you have to have life experience, so I can see good reason, and I'm quite happy with that good reason.

ANDREW DENTON: How did you not know that then?

PHILIP NITSCHKE: Well, I guess I was, I think I was, I think I was caught. There's always every meeting I go to now someone will leap up the back of the yard and say “You're the person who said that troubled teens should have access to the peaceful pill.” And I think “Oh Christ I'm never, I'm never going to live this down,” and it's a mistake and I wish I hadn't said it but I said it.

Yes, you did say it. And nothing you've said since then really offers genuine reassurance that you didn't mean it, Dr Nitschke.

The Pilgrim’s Progress: Another Christmas book?

Sitting next to me on the desk here in the office is John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress, retold by Geraldine McCaughrean and illustrated by Jason Cockcroft.

Whenever I read retellings of Pilgrim's Progress, it reminds me how much I love the original. The main character, Christian, is a deeply attractive person who struggles with all the normal doubts and fears of a Christian life. He is easily led astray sometimes by shortcuts and apparently wise companions (although with names like Obstinate, Pliable, Mr Worldly Wiseman, Formalist, Hypocrisy, Talkative, or indeed “Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Any-thing; and the parson of our parish, Mr. Two-tongues”, you occasionally wonder whether maybe Christian could've picked up a few more clues. [Is anyone else thinking “My name's Smoke-too-much—Mr I-smoke too-much” from Monty Python?])

One of the best parts of the book is where Christian and his friend Hopeful come to a river of deep waters that all must pass through before they attain the Heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. Peter Jensen read from this passage at Bruce Smith's funeral a few years ago:

Hopeful therefore here had much ado to keep his brother’s head above water; yea, sometimes he would be quite gone down, and then, ere a while, he would rise up again half dead. Hopeful did also endeavor to comfort him, saying, Brother, I see the gate, and men standing by to receive us; but Christian would answer, It is you, it is you they wait for; for you have been hopeful ever since I knew you. And so have you, said he to Christian. Ah, brother, (said he,) surely if I was right he would now arise to help me; but for my sins he hath brought me into the snare, and hath left me. Then said Hopeful, My brother, you have quite forgot the text where it is said of the wicked, “There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm; they are not troubled as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.” Psa. 73:4,5. These troubles and distresses that you go through in these waters, are no sign that God hath forsaken you; but are sent to try you, whether you will call to mind that which heretofore you have received of his goodness, and live upon him in your distresses.

Then I saw in my dream, that Christian was in a muse a while. To whom also Hopeful added these words, Be of good cheer, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. And with that Christian brake out with a loud voice, Oh, I see him again; and he tells me, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” Isa. 43:2. Then they both took courage, and the enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over. Christian, therefore, presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow. Thus they got over.

Now, upon the bank of the river, on the other side, they saw the two shining men again, who there waited for them. Wherefore, being come out of the river, they saluted them, saying, We are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those that shall be the heirs of salvation. Thus they went along towards the gate.

Now you must note, that the city stood upon a mighty hill; but the pilgrims went up that hill with ease, because they had these two men to lead them up by the arms: they had likewise left their mortal garments behind them in the river; for though they went in with them, they came out without them. They therefore went up here with much agility and speed, though the foundation upon which the city was framed was higher than the clouds; they therefore went up through the region of the air, sweetly talking as they went, being comforted because they safely got over the river, and had such glorious companions to attend them.

John Bunyan writes with insight and sympathy about the fear of death, and because he does this so well, the comforts he offers about the glories and joys of heaven are all the more reassuring. I find it hard to read this passage without tears in my eyes.

Which brings us back to Geraldine McCaurean's enjoyable retelling of the original. A few years back, this particular book won a couple of Blue Peter awards, and you can see why. The sex changes of one or two of the characters comes as a minor jolt, but I don't suppose the kids will notice or mind that, for example, Hopeful is now a woman. Many of the names have been changed to protect the guilty: ‘Pliable’ has become ‘Mr Bendy’ and a certain ‘Mr Alec Smart’ appears on the scene to offer advice.

Other changes are slightly more disturbing, and all the more because they require a bit of close reading to pick them up. Bunyan's “cartloads of ... wholesome instructions” that the King (i.e. Jesus) had commanded to be sent to fill in the Slough of Despond has, in McCaughrean's version, expanded to include “stone statues of saints, plaster madonnas, oil paintings in heavy gilt frames ... and any amount of beautiful quarried marble”. That's hardly the sort of material that the Protestant Bunyan would depict God sending to help his people out of despair, and it's not a helpful addition to this book.

Here's another. In Bunyan's version, Hopeful and Christian are very close to the end of their journey when they are shown a door in a hill by some shepherds. Here it is in the original:

Then I saw in my dream, that the shepherds had them to another place in a bottom, where was a door on the side of a hill; and they opened the door, and bid them look in. They looked in, therefore, and saw that within it was very dark and smoky; they also thought that they heard there a rumbling noise, as of fire, and a cry of some tormented, and that they smelt the scent of brimstone. Then said Christian, What means this? The shepherds told them, This is a by-way to hell, a way that hypocrites go in at; namely, such as sell their birthright, with Esau; such as sell their Master, with Judas; such as blaspheme the Gospel, with Alexander; and that lie and dissemble, with Ananias and Sapphira his wife.

We're in no doubt that those who turn away from God are destined for hell. Here it is in the McCaughrean retelling:

“What's in there?” asked Hopeful, intrigued.

“Oh, just the way back,” said the shepherds ... “Do you want to see?”

The shepherds carefully open the door.

No horned demons or impish ghouls streamed out, no bubbling tar. There was just a chute of blackness on the other side, a tunnel falling away into Nothingness, a fast route to Nowhere.

That's not what Bunyan wrote. It's not even close. You couldn't read Bunyan and conclude that he was an annihilationist, a man who believed that, after judgement, we simply disappear into oblivion. In contrast, you can't read this retelling without feeling that the full biblical doctrine of judgement has been (not so subtly) undercut.

Furthermore, you can't read Bunyan's original without ending up knee-deep in Bible quotes by the second paragraph (all of them meticulously referenced). But these are absent from this retelling, or only hinted at. Yet the foundation of Bunyan's story (even though it is allegorical) is bedded firmly in the truths of Scripture. Without this, it's just another story (but a good one at that).

There's enough of the grace of the original and Bunyan's Bible allusions to make this rewritten version a book that could still have value. But I wouldn't buy it for my kids. I'm going to wait a couple of years and put the original Bunyan in their hands. Or maybe I'll read it with them and appreciate again the rich reminder of God's grace against the backdrop of his terrifying judgement of sin.

(If you really want to introduce young readers to The Pilgrim's Progress before taking them through the original, the adaptation to get is still Dangerous Journey by Oliver Hunkin. If you click on the link, you will get the first few pages, courtesy of Amazon. And here is the whole of the original text of The Pilgrim's Progress in various e-forms. If you are completely strapped for cash this Christmas, you could buy yourself a ream of discount white A4 and print the whole lot off. That should take care of one bookaholic teenager for you.)