# First fiction you read, in which you remember a character had religion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 16, 2019, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298 "2019-09-16T02:43:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/21 "2019-09-16T23:14:43Z")
I suppose it was Ellen O’Hara leading her family in an evening Rosary in _Gone With the Wind_. (Scarlett’s mind was elsewhere during prayers.) My family was nominally Catholic, and my grandmother very much so, and I’d never seen or heard of anyone doing this. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/22 "2019-09-16T23:21:48Z")
Wow, I think everyone here was more sensitive than I was as a kid. Even though I was raised Milquetoast Protestant, I don’t recall reading (or even thinking) anything spiritual until maybe high school age. I’ll bet I read/saw plenty of stuff where the deeper meanings went right over my head… … and I LIKED it that way, dammit! [/danacarvey oldefarte] ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/23 "2019-09-17T00:28:12Z")
The Kiddush Cup Who Hated Wine- It’s a kid’s book filled with talking (presumably Jewish) objects. As mentioned Narnia- We read the book in public school. I was quite pissed when Aslan came back to life and I realized the whole thing was a Christian parable. X Men- For a long time, it was known that Magneto’s family died at Auschwitz. But the writers would not just come out and say Magneto was a Jew. I only learned Kitty was a Jew when she tried (and failed) to ward off Dracula with a large cross. He grabs her throat and burns his hand on her star of David. Nightcrawler looks like a demon but is a devout Catholic. Under some writers, it really worked. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/24 "2019-09-17T03:31:12Z")
Not sure which I read first: Already mentioned: Tom Sawyer (His Aunts were always trying to teach him Christianity), All of a Kind Family Not yet mentioned: A Secret Garden (Dickon sings the Doxology at some point) Jane Eyre, almost everything by Jane Austen, Anne of Green Gables, To Kill a Mockingbird\* Things I’m sure I read later: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and Gone With the Wind \*“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one.” _― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird_ ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/25 "2019-09-17T03:37:40Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > The first I remember is the Chaplain in Catch 22. Oh yeah! He was a Catholic, right? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/26 "2019-09-17T03:59:11Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > Within the standard Judy Blume collection that every 80s classroom had, one of the books had a subplot of the lead character trying out different churches because her own family was multi-religious. Not sure atm which book that was. Sounds like _Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret_ ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/27 "2019-09-17T04:15:36Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > **The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,** I guess. When I got to the Aslan parts I remember thinking “What the holy fuck is THIS?” Not that the real characters are in any way Christians, or are they? > > **A Wrinkle in Time,** when Charles Wallace includes Jesus in his list of humans who were forces for good, along with Bach and Einstein. “This kid is the sharpest knife in the drawer…why is he bringing that Jew thaumaturge into this?” At least he called him “Jesus” and not “Christ.” The whole thing is a Christian allegory. And the “real” characters (by which I guess you mean the Pevensie children) are absolutely Christian, specifically Church of England. The book was written, after all, by a prolific Christian apologist. Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/28 "2019-09-17T04:18:11Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Narnia- We read the book in public school. I was quite pissed when Aslan came back to life and I realized the whole thing was a Christian parable. Allegory, not parable. But why would that piss you off? Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/29 "2019-09-17T06:01:35Z")
First grade. I went to Catholic school. Instead of Dick and Jane, our readers featured David and Ann, their Catholic counterparts. Outside of school, it was probably when my mother read me a book about Kateri Tekakwitha, who was canonized a few years ago. A year or two later, I read the > [@](#): > > All-of-a-Kind Family series, about a Jewish family in turn-of-the-century New York. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/30 "2019-09-17T08:56:36Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > First grade. I went to Catholic school. Instead of Dick and Jane, our readers featured David and Ann, their Catholic counterparts. Outside of school, it was probably when my mother read me a book about Kateri Tekakwitha, who was canonized a few years ago. > > A year or two later, I read the series, about a Jewish family in turn-of-the-century New York. Also a product of Catholic schools, although our primers had John, Jean, and Judy. And scenes in school had them being taught by nuns. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/31 "2019-09-17T09:07:58Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I was around the same age.[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74) is available on-line. Chapter IV starts with Aunt Polly conducting family worship, reading scripture, referencing Mosaic law and the Sermon on the Mount right off the bat. I’m yet another, whose probable first encounter with “religious stuff in fiction” was _Tom Sawyer_: our family were unbelievers, Dad particularly so; I remember him relishing Twain’s – gentle-ish – mockery of some of the odder antics of the church which Tom’s family attend. > [@](#): > > Quite surprising to see how this looks now with adult eyes. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn so eclipsed Tom Sawyer that I’ve never been back to it. The same goes for me. I’ve mentioned this elsewhere on the Dope; but as a kid, I found _Tom Sawyer_ rather boring, trite, and not very funny. It was about another ten years before I thought “I suppose I’d better try _Huckleberry Finn_” – expecting more of the somewhat dreary same. To my surprise and delight, it was for me a very different animal — including (in parallel with the serious message) being often hilariously funny. Another childhood encounter with fiction-type “things religious” – later than my reading _Tom Sawyer_, but not a great deal later – was Rosemary Sutcliffe’s 1950s YA novel _Simon_. Set in the English Civil War: the eponymous hero, a gentle lad, feels that he must enlist in the Parliamentarian army; his best friend is an equally convinced Royalist – poignant stuff, in consequence. The hero encounters fellow-soldiers of a wide variety of types, including one guy, a “red-hot hell-fire militant Anabaptist” in contrast to Simon’s moderate low-church position. “Mr. Red-Hot Hell-Fire” (who later goes disastrously to the bad) is named Zeal-For-The-Lord Relf – my first encounter with the historical thing of the Puritans’ liking long, cumbersome descriptive first names. A ripping yarn in the very best sense; I’d happily re-read it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/32 "2019-09-17T10:34:03Z")
Rabbi Small books written by Harry Kemelman First book in the 12 book series is Friday the Rabbi Slept Late. The Rabbi is an amateur slueth… I started reading them in high school ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/33 "2019-09-17T13:57:41Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Rabbi Small books written by Harry Kemelman > > First book in the 12 book series is Friday the Rabbi Slept Late. > > The Rabbi is an amateur slueth… > > I started reading them in high school This gets me wondering whether anyone is in a similar case re G.K. Chesterton’s – numerous – Father Brown short stories (his Fr. Brown is, likewise, an amateur sleuth). Not true of me: I first tried them late in life and, I’m afraid, found them boring. Nothing to do with the Catholic content – just, boring. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/34 "2019-09-17T14:48:56Z")
The first of these that I read was the Little House books. The idea of sitting still all Sabbath in your itchy woolens horrified me as a 7 year old, and still makes me itch if I think about it too much. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/35 "2019-09-17T15:54:07Z")
The Illiad is the first one i remember, from when I was around 8-10 or so. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/36 "2019-09-17T16:24:52Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > This gets me wondering whether anyone is in a similar case re G.K. Chesterton’s – numerous – Father Brown short stories (his Fr. Brown is, likewise, an amateur sleuth). Not true of me: I first tried them late in life and, I’m afraid, found them boring. Nothing to do with the Catholic content – just, boring. The Rabbi books were slow paced. Similar to Agatha Christie’s characters. I didn’t read the entire Rabbi series. I bought used paperbacks when I saw them at the store. I probably read six or seven of the 12 written. It’s been a long time since high school. I remember some of the books were better than others. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/37 "2019-09-17T18:33:51Z")
_The Three Musketeers_. Richelieu, Mazarin Milady’s jailkeeper and Aramis all were deeply of the Catholic faith. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/38 "2019-09-17T19:21:53Z")
I grew up both going to church and reading, so “first” is probably too far back to remember. I do remember reading several [Arch Books](https://www.cph.org/c-2841-arch-books.aspx) in church (picture books for children that retold stories from the Bible); I don’t know whether or not they’d qualify under the OP’s prohibition of “scriptures.” I do remember encountering religious elements in books by Madeleine L’Engle (_A Wrinkle In Time; A Swiftly Tilting Planet_) and Elizabeth George Speare (_The Bronze Bow; The Witch of Blackbird Pond_). I read _Tom Sawyer_. I read _Narnia_. Except it’s arguable whether the characters of the Narnia books can really be said to have “had religion” within the context of their own stories. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/39 "2019-09-17T19:37:04Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Allegory, not parable. But why would that piss you off? I was a Jewish kid in a very Christian area. Despite having a few Jewish students, my elementary school only put some Hanukah decorations up after my older sister noted there were Christmas decorations up and my parents complained. I was used to being fed Christianity by those who either didn’t realize just how Christian something was, or didn’t care. So after enjoying a nice fantasy story with a witch and a talking lion and Turkish Delight, I was upset to realize that the story was all about Jesus. ETA In college, a friend gave me a copy of The Screwtape Letters. I’ve read it many times and HIGHLY recommend it. But, said friend presented it to me as a Christian book. In (I forget which grade it was. It couldn’t have been more than fourth grade.) The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe was presented to us only as a fantasy book. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298/40 "2019-09-17T19:39:38Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I grew up both going to church and reading, so “first” is probably too far back to remember. Me too, I wouldn’t have thought religion in a book to be anything unusual. My grandmother had a set of red-bound Christian childrens’ books called Bedtime Stories, which had belonged to my mother and uncles before me. I read the shit out of those things, even though they were chock-full of Bible verses. (I was a story-lovin’ fool). So those might be first; The Secret Garden seems a good candidate for second. I still have some of those Bedtime Story books too. They’re of such sentimental value that I can’t throw them out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-fiction-you-read-in-which-you-remember-a-character-had-religion/840298.md?page=3)