My son and I have been having fun reading the same books together and commenting back and forth on the content and characters in texts. As with most books you love some characters and hate some characters. When we decided to read the book Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry, I was very excited. It was a Pulitzer Prize winner and recommended by several Christians. In 1989 CBS aired Lonesome Dove as a miniseries that I watched. Back then, “made for TV” meant a lot of the language and bad scenes were cleaned up.
I couldn’t wait to get started.
It wasn’t long before I was wincing, grimacing, and being convicted about what I was reading, but since it had been recommended by Christians, I knew there had to be a confession of sin and a redemption story in there somewhere.
I consoled myself with the thought of Rahab, the Harlot in the Bible who saved the Israelite spies and cleaned up her life. She married Salmon and they had a son named Boaz, who married Ruth. So Rahab became the mother-in-law of Ruth who has her own book in the Bible, and that book is all about redemption. Rahab is mentioned in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew 1:5. Her story is a true, real life, redemption story!
And then of course we have the famous story of David and Bathsheba. Boy did David mess up… but he confessed his sins, was truly repentant, and was redeemed.
And then we have Samson as a story in the Bible of what not to do. He did everything that God had told him not to do, and his life led to a brutal death where he was blinded by the Philistines. He died in a pagan temple where they were sacrificing to the false god Dagon. He was brought in for entertainment, but God restored his strength, and he was able to push apart the two main pillars. The temple collapsed on Samson — killing him and 3,000 Philistines. He is actually mentioned in the “heroes of faith” list in Hebrews 11, along with Rahab. Samson is another case of redemption.
But in Lonesome Dove — we kept reading thinking someone would turn to a better life, leave their life of sin behind, and give us a great redemption story for at least one character. We finally had to stop reading, because it never came. Page after page evil, sin, and animal type behavior dominated the pages. Newt was the only breath of fresh air in the stories, and you feared for him to be changed by watching all the sin happening around him.
My son finally called the book, and it showed great leadership in taking a stand against sin and evil. I was grateful to see that in him and to be able to follow his leadership on not finishing the book, and getting rid of it.
Why shouldn’t we read things like this as Christians?
Because it normalizes sin and makes it funny. It sticks in our minds and in a moment of anger bad words that were read in a book might come sliding out of our mouths. The Bible tells us to take our thoughts captive. You can’t take captive what you keep feeding your mind over and over.
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” 2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV)
And the Bible says, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth agaist his own body.” 1 Corinthians 6:18 (KJV)
We have someone at church (who I’m very grateful for) that started a bookclub for a group of us women this summer, and we are doing the C.S. Lewis book titled, The Screwtape Letters. In the introduction today we learned, “The fundamental theme of the book is: Spiritual Warfare, i.e. the business of demons is to undermine faith and prevent the formation of Godly virtues.”
And,
You can’t learn and practice “Godly virtues” when you are reading ungodly material.
My son and I switched to an older book written in 1991. It is the Danzig Passage by Bodie & Brock Thoene. It is historical fiction based on what was happening to the Jews in Germany in 1938. Plugged In, an online service provided by Focus On the Family, gives reviews for books and entertainment and is a great place to go to make sure what you are reading and watching has Christian themes. It rates the Danzig Passage for ages 18 and older and gives a review of the plot summary, Christian beliefs, other belief systems, addresses profanity & violence, and sexual content. So far in the book, we see redemption coming. Not with the evil German’s, but with the ones being abused. If you don’t believe in God, wait until you are dealing with a major crisis as the Jews were living through, and God will draw you to Himself in those times, if you let Him. You see this happening in history over and over and the book brings it out. The authors address the issues of sin much like the Bible where there are consequences for sin that you have to live with, but God can redeem you from the sin even if the consequences remain.
For me, it has been a breath of fresh air even though so many horrible things are happening in the book, because it shows how God works even in the midst of devastating circumstances.
I hope you are finding some great summer reads that are building you up and strengthening your faith, because that is what it’s all about for Christians.
And,
I hope you have a great week!