Whenever Christians object to certain books, the media seize on it, portraying it as the demise of civilization. Especially if that means we prefer that those books not be available to kids in school.
Does that mean Christians are anti-intellectual bigots? Secularists certainly think so. And some of those secularists are teaching our kids.
Krista Tyler, an instructional technology specialist at a Middle School in the Leander District near Round Rock, Texas, wrote a poem mocking evangelical Christians. Written in a Dr. Seuss style, she read the poem at a December 16 school board meeting.
“Everyone in Leander liked reading a lot/ but some evangelicals in Leader did not,” Tyler begins. “These kooks hated reading, the whole reading season./ Please don’t ask why, no one quite knows the reason./ It could be perhaps critical thinking causes fright./ It could be their heads aren’t screwed on just right./ But whatever the reason, their brains or their fright,/ they can’t follow policy in plain black and white.”
“These bigots don’t get to choose for us, that’s clear,” Tyler’s poem continues. “Then how, I am wondering, did we even get here./ They growl at our meetings, all hawing and humming,/ ‘We must stop this indoctrination from coming!’/ They’ve come for the books and the bonds and what for?/ Their kids don’t even attend Leander schools anymore./ Bring back our books, maintain decorum, good grief./ Wouldn’t it be nice to have a meeting in peace?”
Tyler believes herself to be intellectually superior to Christian parents, and she thinks stereotyping, name-calling, and categorizing a whole class of people as “bigots” illustrates her advanced intellect. Apparently, where she comes from, they don’t teach irony.
But that aside, what do Christians really believe about fiction, and why do we object to certain books being provided to our children? Are Christians opposed to intellectual freedom? Do we want to control what people read, or what the schools offer?
And what is a Christian perspective on fiction anyway?
What do Christians really believe about intellectual freedom?
Historically, evangelical Christians have advocated intellectual freedom, learning, literacy, and study (Prov. 18:15). The freedom to read was even a hallmark of the Protestant Reformation.
We advocate study. Intellectual development is a biblical value (Luke 10:27). Christians launched most of the major universities in America, promote the development of science and education, and we encourage intellectual pursuits in the realm of discipleship (2 Tim. 2:15).
We have also been advocates of artistic expression. After all, God invented art and He created the imagination. The Bible teaches that art is an expression of beauty, that mysterious ingredient of creation that all humans enjoy but which few of us can describe or define. We didn’t invent beauty. But we know it when we see it and we want to enjoy it.
And God is indescribably beautiful, so He provides art as a way to connect to Him, as a way to engage us in beauty, and to elevate our imaginations (Ex. 35:30-35; Ps. 27:4). Art seeks to describe the indescribable, to depict the undefinable (Ps. 50:2). In a biblical worldview, art, including literature, is the product of God’s creative design (Eccl. 3:11).
So why do we object to some fiction?
Evangelical Christians, then, being committed to a biblical worldview, disagree with some works of literature for the very reason that we highly value all art.
The storyteller is an artist, and literature engages the imagination even more than most forms of art. To enjoy a story, we have to picture the characters and imagine the action. So the writer makes a choice where to take the reader’s imagination. And fiction that debases humanity, or reduces humanity to less than God intended, violates the most basic calling of art.
Evangelicals don’t object to fiction. We object to immorality and ideological indoctrination foisted upon our children under the pretense of education or artistic expression.
We object to fiction that leaves the imagination circling the drain with no hope of escape.
What about the ugly side of humanity?
Of course, it’s true that fiction helps us work through the human condition, and sometimes that means seeing the ugly side of human nature. But it should do so for the purpose of extracting us from our mess and helping us imagine, and then grasp, that there is hope.
For instance, the Christian writer Flannery O’Conner used violence for a purpose. She pictured it with nuance, let the reader collide with it, and then depicted the redemption of the worst of characters. She used it without unnecessary excess, showing us our sinful nature and then surprising us with grace. And she didn’t leave the reader wallowing in the mess.
Profanity, gratuitous sex, directions for sexual behavior, and excessive violence are not catalysts for the imagination to grasp bigger things. Instead, they narrow the focus, stifle the imagination, and hinder our view of the landscape God wants us to see and who God wants us to be.
That’s why we object
So, when evangelical Christians object to content in fiction, when we ask that the public schools be circumspect in what children read, we are not trying to censor artistic expression or free speech. We are not being bigots or demonstrating a lack of intellectual prowess.
Quite the opposite. We are advocating for art to be recovered and reclaimed for its original purpose. We are crying out for art to be once again elevated to the status of that which is good, beautiful, and glorious, and which depicts the better nature of our broken humanity.
We want the fiction offered to children to help them glimpse hope rather than leave them feeling hopeless. To inspire them to achieve their best rather than press them to be less. To promote moral and civil responsibility rather than immorality, bigotry, and incivility.
Look at it this way. Parents, when your child comes home from art class, completes a novel assigned in a literature class, or checks out and reads a book from the library, has her imagination been launched into new territory? Has she been uplifted and inspired to new heights of glory? Or has she been dragged down a mudslide into the pits of humanity’s worst impulses, pressing her deeper into a mess of life with little aspiration to rise above it or change the world?
See, Christians are not so much about censoring books as we are about elevating humanity and honoring God (1 Cor. 10:31).
Because when it comes down to it, if everything is art, nothing is art.
*Refreshed from an earlier blog.
The problem is the need for conservative Christians to present a false narrative. It’s 2022 and a new book about the life of Sally Ride, first American woman in space, is a photobiography of Ride’s life. It’s author is Ride’s same-sex partner. Of course, the photo-biography includes pictures of the two together and the honest introduction was written by the author. The fact that Ride’s choice of a life partner was a woman is not central the central focus of the work; it’s simply included because the work is about Ride’s phenomenal life. No reason to exclude it and most people, including Christians, no longer object to same-sex relationships. They’re not something to be ashamed of. But, conservative Christians can’t deal with this in a children’s book. Should these evangelical Christians have the power to ban the book? Should we all be subjected to their values? I think not.
On a slightly different note, my childhood history in public schools was daily intimidation of non-Protestant children when corporate, teacher-led prayer was legal. My metro-area school had a strong mix of Protestant, Jewish and Catholic children. Yet everyday, we were expected (and what little kid had the courage to refuse and face shaming?) to stand and recite the Protestant version of the Lord’s Prayer – because Protestants had control. I attended an evangelical Sunday School at the time, where we kids were told Jews were going to hell because of their non-belief in Jesus, and Catholic kids were heretics because they believed in the pope rather than God (and prayed to Mary, not Jesus). It was evangelical arrogant smugness – and it was on full display every school day when we stood to “pray”. Evangelicals used their moralism to bully others, religion was a weapon to intimidate. I am no longer part of the evangelical religion, nor do I worship their narrow-minded deity. Secular education should not reflect evangelical religious control of what is read and taught in public schools.
Susan, I am just now seeing this, so my response is a little late. Thanks so much for weighing in. We might not agree, but a respectful conversation is healthy.
Bob