“Terror Texts”: A Biblical Musical
Nov 24th, 2008 by John
What do you think of this story?
These biblical stories are not taught in most Sunday School classes. These texts might be examples of what Dr. Scot McKnight terms “blue parakeets.”
When the Bible was mutated by “nice” teachers, pastors and writers into a codebook of Christian moralisms, these “terror” texts, of course, had to be censored. What in the heck would our kids learn from these? How not to chop up a woman and mail her body parts to 12 states? How to avoid children being eaten by bears because they called a prophet “baldy”? Yet, who gives nice people the authority to sanitize the Bible? Are we smarter than God? Nice Christians for all their huff and puff about the Bible being the very Word of God don’t teach all of it to the children. It’s too nasty in parts.
I think the point is: we’ve lost the power of Story. We want moralisms to fence us in and make us nice. We want to raise “nice” kids. Christianity is a “nice” faith. No Jeffrey Dahmer types for us. No blood and guts for us…it’ll ruin our nice Thanksgiving dinners.
Oh. I forget the cross. Let’s tidy that story up, too.
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I thoroughly agree.I’ve got a couple of five year olds and I’ve found it hugely challenging to find a children’s bible that doesn’t dumb things down and moralize the stories so much that the real heart of what the scriptures are about isn’t missing. It seems to me like a lot of children’s bibles are more designed to sell copies to a very broad range of shopper then to communicate the truth of the bible. Some of the really prominent Zondervan bibles don’t even appear to have the gospel, even in a very simple form, anywhere within the pages of their children’s bibles. It’s totally repulsive.
Rose,
How interesting. Marketing seems to trump telling the truth to children. Zowie!
Interesting John. Those Dutch reformed folks are so radical.
Grace,
Bingo! Key word “radical”
No wonder we have to shut our eyes to atrocities around the world. We’ve been doing it since Sunday School.
Post Blackbird Song,
Ouch! That hurt.
I was in this show, and it’s good to hear what people are saying about it. These stories are in the Bible for a reason and we need to discover their purpose.
The second act of our show begins and ends with this verse:
“In those days there was no king in israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes”
Where was God during these hard times in Israel? He was still ever present! His people turned their back on him and ignored his laws. The people then fell in to chaos and disorder. I think that ties in wonderfully in today’s culture.
Andrew,
I admire the courage of NW and the writer and actors in the musical. We need these kinds of expressions to get us back in touch with the Bible as God gave it. God bless!!
Ok, I have a couple kids here, too young for some of the “R-rated” stories of the Bible. But I don’t think we need to put the blame on Sunday School teachers and stories. We “dumb” everything down for kids. It’s part of protecting them and sheltering them until they are emotionally and cognitively ready for dealing with tough issues.
My boys, ages 9 & 7, each have a Bible with the full text, nothing taken out. And my 9 year old reads as he chooses (I was surprised to see that he read Song of Solomon-”because it was short.” Anyone want their 9 year old to “climb up her trunk and grasp hold of her fruit”?
), but I’m not going to tuck my 2 1/2 year old daughter into bed with the graphic story of the concubine being chopped into 12 pieces.
I’m just adding my two cents, because it seems like we might be starting to “blame” Sunday School, when the whole point of Sunday School is to introduce the stories of the Bible and Jesus, not scare the crap out of kids with blood and guts.
That’s all. Peace!
Elisha,
You’re great, Hon. No one’s out to “scare the crap of kids,” but to question the way the Bible is turned to a Christianized Aesop’s Fables…nice little stories with a tidy moral…clean your room, be kind to people, share, etc.
Elisha- Part 2,
We must have some since of the Bible’s times and ways, if we are to enter into the Bible’s wisdom. In an obsessively sanitized culture like ours we actually think we’re smarter than God. We filter the Bible so that it cannot do its amazing work in our lives.
Oops! I must have hit a wrong button…it sent before I was finished.
Love,
Dad
Elisha,
I totally agree with you. I don’t understand the need to teach the horrors of the Bible to everyone. I do understand that it is part of Scripture and shouldn’t be ignored, but wait until it is appropriate for children to comprehend. We certainly wouldn’t let them watch an R rated movie at such a young age. It is interesting that the Bible is full of these stories.
Love, Mom
what work does it do in the lives of children?
Hey Mom & Dad!
I agree with you both. My comment was just to say, let’s not get mad at the sweet Sunday School teachers.
Like I said, Ben reads the Bible, no censorship required; of course, not Lillian. But Sunday School has taught her “Jesus Loves Me” and that is beautiful.
I’m thankful for this blog, especially this post, because you are speaking to people who may think *adults* only need Sunday School stories. Not so.
Again, I was just adding my two cents, look! there’s two more.
Love you!
Elisha,
You’re sweet. You know and I know the Bible has been dumbed-down to a “how to” book. It’s become a “manual” for life. Rather than being this honest, graphic Story that sweeps us into the redeeming heart of God, we get nice Book of how-to’s to live our lives. I know you don’t want the Bible to be that. And I am not advocating grossing out kids. The bigger discussion is about how we view and use the Bible in its entirety. I love Sunday School teachers and I often do our church’s “children’s sermon.” So, of course, discretion is necessary. As I’ve said before, we still have adults running around with flannel-graph ideas of Jesus as their Savior.
I think I’ll temper my first comment just a little. I do agree with Elisha that we need to keep our audience in mind. I don’t read my kids about Sodom and Gomorrah in all it’s details. One good children’s bible that I found from the 50’s did a very nice job though by just saying that the men of Sodom were inhospitable and wanted the angels to come and “entertain” them. It’s the truth, simplified, but not gutted entirely of the dirtiness of humanity, which would have been the case if the story was just omitted. Even our selective choice of bible stories can be evidence of moralizing truth. There are good ways of writing children’s bibles or Sunday school lessons without stripping the truth out of the bible for purpose of teaching a moral lesson. Lots of people do a good job of this but I think it’s more common than most of us want to believe.