Poison in Christianese
Versus “Edgy” That Smacks of the Bible
It is critical that we raise our children to be Christian soldiers (willing to suffer hardship), victors (competing by Christ’s rules), and farmers (successful through much sweat). Not hollow, squishy, security-blanket “Christians.”
Do the stories you feed your children serve this end?
Or, in an effort to protect them, do we simply feed them cheesy, vacuous, moralistic mush with a Christian-friendly label? “Clean.” “Positive.” “Faith-based.” “Uplifting.” “Inspirational.” “Safe.” Those are all good things, right? Sure…unless they are actually poison.
Clean
Great—no perversion or foul language. But is the story true? After all, the scribes and Pharisees were pretty cleaned up on the outside.
(For decades, Disney provided the world with “clean” stories that encouraged children with messages like “Follow your heart” and “Don’t let anyone else tell you who you are.” Those clean falsehoods now stain our land because our culture swallowed them…and then followed them to their logical conclusions.)
Positive
About what? There are many books, movies, and TV shows that are quite positive about things God hates, and quite unwilling to touch the “negative” themes of repentance, ultimate sacrifice, and judgment. But God is not a hippie.
Faith-Based
Jesus taught that you are either with him or against him. But faith-based marketing demands that stories keep God vague so as to appeal to the biggest possible audience. But guess what? If you teach your children to simply “believe” without supplying the gospel, you are merely indoctrinating them into the faith of demons (James 2:19).
Uplifting
The Lord is the lifter of the Christian’s head. But that is very different than stories that teach your children, “You first need to learn to love yourself,” or the like. For there is a sort of uplifting that is deadly. “Their throat is an open grave” says Psalm 5:9 and the next line unpacks what the psalmist means. You might expect a description of their profanity. But no, it is far worse: “They flatter with their tongue.”
Inspirational
Imagine the motivational speeches that helped build the Tower of Babel. Or listen to how inspired Israel was in 1 Samuel 4:5: “And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord was coming into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded.” Yet that story did not end well. Excitement and inspiration are nothing if God is against you.
Safe
The truth is that there is a “safe” that shields our children from being preyed upon by a sick world, and there is a “safe” that shields them from the training they need to resist the world and conquer with Christ.
On the other hand…
The Bible is full of a lot of sharp edges and grit.
“So we should have our children read edgy books?!”
I don’t know. Do you mean a book with a wicked adversary who somehow has access to the true God? A protagonist gaining victory via assassination? A hero stained by terrible scandals? A “good guy” who viciously mocks his enemies? A kamikaze play for victory?
Then, yes. Because stories with characters like Balaam, Ehud, David, Elijah, and Samson are good for your children. God said so by putting them in his Book.