I was in the bookstore last night, and, as I do sometimes, I wandered over to the young adult section, to see if the kids are still reading what I read when I was 12. So, my eyes were wandering over the spines (apparently, Buffy novelizations are popular), and I came across “Left Behind For Kids”, by the same people who came out with the “Left Behind” books…nine short novels, so far. In case, there’s anyone who doesn’t know, “Left Behind” is a series of novels by these two “Christian” authors, that takes place during “the Tribulation”, which is, according to their version of Christian doctrine, the time near the end of the world when the Devil comes and does all sorts of bad stuff, then Jesus comes back and stops him.
I saw these books, leafed through them, and just was depressed. It doesn’t bother me so much if adults read and believe this stuff, but it just feels creepy to me when kids are being exposed to this.
That’s really horrible. If people want to press religious dogma on people, they don’t need to resort to books also! I mean, I think it’s horrible that they’re trying to make kids believe stuff that they might not agree with anyway to begin with.
you underestimate kid’s intelligence. They may just be reading it for the fun of it. Hell, I read Stephen King books in 5th grade, and I don’t believe anything I read of his!
I also read books about Witchcraft, and alternative societes, and I’m still a devout Lutheran. Kids will believe info from their Peers more than anyone else, not books.
Also, the Kids are not being PRESSED with the info, they have it open to them. they have the sole decision whether to read it or not.
my own .2, sorry if I offended anyone that looks at kids like obediant puppies
speaking of Peer Presure, do you remember who you believed about Santa Claus?
Your Peers, telling you there was no Santa-or your adults, trying to PRESS their lies on you?
your friends, who told you the truth, were believed.
kids aren’t gullible.
{sarcasm}Why can’t these people just let kids read things with no religious import, like the Chronicles of Narnia? {/sarcasm}
Or are kids smart enough to know that chocolate is not stirred in a river by Oompa-loomas; or that spiders really cannot spell even simple things like “SOME PIG”?
Do you think the kids will sart believing in vampires if the pick up one of the Buffy novelizations instead of Left Behind?
I feel incredibly stupid that I never picked up on the religious symbols in The Chronicles of Narnia until recently. And I must have read each one of those books about a dozen times.
Children should not be allowed to read until they are at least eighteen. Who knows what strange ideas they might get?
Come to think of it, TV’s a bad influence, too. Ditch the TV.
Computers, also. They might accidentally see some porn while they’re on line.
Friends and acquaintences are a bad idea. They might learn something from them you’d rather they didn’t know.
Parents are a bad influence. They might get some strange ideas from their parents. Don’t let parents raise children. A job as important as that should be left to professionals.
In fact, almost any exposure to the world is potentially hazardous. Better just keep kids in a padded, sound-proof opaque box with air holes until they’re ready for college. Okay, so they probably won’t be ready for college by the time they’re eighteen. The basic idea is sound – I just haven’t worked all the bugs out yet.
~~Baloo
[sub]Yeesh! It’s 4:22 – way past my bedtime. Was I coherent?[/sub]
By strange coincidence, I am reading the Narnia books over again right now.
Zoggie, the religious imagery is Christian, though presented in fairy tale terms. Aslan is the God/Christ figure, there’s a Garden of Eden sort of thing in book six, complete with apples, Aslan also appears once as a lamb… there’s a lot more than that, but these pop most readily to mind because I’m on book seven at the moment. I have to admit that it all went right over my head the first time I read them (many, many years ago), and even now on what has to be my third or fourth read, I notice more.
I’d actually thought of starting a thread about the Chronicles of Narnia, so it was kind of weird to pop in here and see that they’d come up in another conversation.
Oh yeah and I remember in one of the books, I think the Magician’s Nephew?- with all the animals in that garden. I should really go back and reread them. Ah memories…
I think some people have misunderstood my post. I’m not saying anybody can or should stop the kids from reading the books, and I don’t think the books will change anybody’s mind…in fact, the people most likely to read the books are those people who already believe the entire thing. But, here’s what bothers me.
The Left Behind books have a very negative world view…this is the coming of the end of the world, with evil rampant. These negative traits…these seeds of evil, so to speak, are, according to the authors, existant in the world today (growth of the U.N>, no prayers in schools, etc. LaHaye and Jenkins just came out with a nonfiction book…forget the title, which states that they believe that the rapture and the events in the book aren’t all that far off. There seems to be a negativism in regards to the society as a whole…that it’s become wicked. It seems to me, that the popularity of the Left Behind series is a symptom of disillusionment with society. That’s what disturbs me.
hmm…
kids that walk across crosswalks don’t remember how many cute little white lines there are, do they?
they are what make up the crosswalk, but the kids can only remember that it is one, not the individuals.
[hijack](sorry, I’m on tranqs right now, read my thread)[/hijack]
The idea of a kiddie version is kind of strange, you know? Like, let’s take the Bible and make it read like a Goosebumps book. It just feels odd, I think.
Though most kids will hopefully be smart enough not to be brainwashed by their literature…
I detest the theology in the Left Behind dreck, but I’m not sure that I would want to prevent kids from reading it just because it’s depressing or “negative.”
Have you ever read Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series? It is well-written, but I found it very depressing. (I was no teen when I read it, of course.) The theme of the series is a sort of godless manicheanism in which forces of Good fight forces of Evil with no more motivation than that certain powers line up to be good or evil and a few people are allowed to witness what is really going on.
I found the whole series very depressing (in its apparent pointlessness), but I would never prevent my kids from reading it.
I really doubt that the Left Behind dreck will corrupt any little minds. If the kid has already been raised to believe that stuff, then they have already been corrupted, and if they have not been raised with those beliefs, I suspect they will simply view it as a plot device and ignore the purported theology. (Having read Narnia as an adult, I found the Christian symbolism overwhelming–and wished that Lewis had developed the ability to write an actual story–but I notice that a number of earlier posters to this thread never even saw the Christian symbolism.)
People who believe this stuff actively PRAY for the Rapture. There is nothing negative about Jesus taking away everyone who is saved, because these people believe they ARE saved. If anything, these people believe that they are reading about what will happen, but it’s neat to read about it because they won’t be around for it!
And it is not exactly a new thing for parents to instill their religious beliefs on their kids.
But ultimately, there’s nothing depressing about any of these things for believers, because they won’t have to deal with it, having been ascended into heaven previous to the thousand year reign of the antichrist…
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Six months, two weeks, 14 hours, 42 minutes and 56 seconds.
7904 cigarettes not smoked, saving $988.06.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 6 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes.
Mostly correct, except that the antichrist will only reign during part (most) of the tribulation (7 years) and Christ will reign for 1,000 years following that (after which the whole universe will be scrapped and reconstructed without imperfection).
Also, there’s three schools regarding the rapture:[list=1][li]Pre-tribulation school: The saved people will be raptured before (or at the very beginning of) the 7-year tribulation period described in the Book of Revelation (Catholic Bibles call it the Book of Apocalypse – same-same).[/li]
The Left Behind books presuppose this first scenario is the correct one. (This one appeals to me, as it seems to most closely fit my interpretation of the scriptures in question.)
[li]Mid-tribulation school: Sometime after the start of the tribulation, but before the end, Saved people will be raptured.[/li]
Theories one and two assume G-d is too kind to allow His people to suffer the events that will both punish those who will not be convinced and convince those who may yet be saved.
[li]Post-tribulation school: No-one is raptured until the very end of the tribulation. Surviving saved folks will be raptured just as Jesus appears in the heavens with his saints (saved folks – not just the guys accredited by the RCC) to defeat the antichrist’s armies at the very end of the tribulation. (Actually, this ought to be called the "Right-at-the-very-end-of-the-tribulation school.)[/list=1]Me? I’m a pan-tribber. I figure it’ll all pan out at the end, so I’m not gonna worry about it too much.[/li]
~~Baloo