Been writing a lot of long stuff heh, so here's a shorter one.
I saw the news the other day about a group of Christian parents in Singapore complaining to MOE about the book 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'.
It's disappointing to read news like this. I read the book, and I loved it. I think it's a great book for students to read because it touches upon the imperfections of people and also on empathy.
The parent group are mainly upset about two things. Firstly, the existence of swear words. Secondly, that there are people that 'take God's name in vain' in the book. They believe this is wrong and it is polluting the minds of their children.
That is really ignorant on two levels if you ask me.
I wonder how many of the parents actually read the book. Likely they just read the excerpts and decided it was a bad book based off it. The thing is, the book is very intentional about the use of words. It was meant to reflect reality, it was meant to show the imperfections of people, their frustrations.
At no point in time does the novel glorify swearing. Showing something is not the same as glorifying it. Otherwise this book would also be glorifying child abuse, animal cruelty, adultery.
The other level of ignorance is, I really don't think this book will pollute the minds of the students. If anything, it reflects the world around them, and provides perspectives for the students to be learn from and thus mature.
Shielding children from things in the world isn't helpful because you can't shield them forever. There's a teachable moment here on how the student can engage with the world around them that may engage in behaviours or say things that are not Christ-like. I mean, these people in the novel are not Christians, so why should they be? The students will meet non Christians in their life, people who will 'take God's name in vain', how should they handle such situations? Shielding them from reading the book isn't going to help them in the actual real life situation.
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I do feel that such behaviour from Christians backfire and do more harm than good.
I don't know what is going through the minds of the parents. Maybe they're just genuinely ignorant and just want the best for their kids. Maybe they just genuinely feel that they need to protect God's name or something.
Regardless, it's not helpful.
Christians understand that as a set apart people, the 'world will hate us', that's true. However, I am concerned that is misused and becomes an excuse to just blindly stand firm against many things in society.
It makes us sound stupid honestly. It's like the whole 'okay boomer' thing which mocks the know it all attitude of some of the older generation. I can see the parallels, people rolling their eyes and going 'okay Christian'.
It makes us not taken seriously.
And when there is something that we legitimately want to make a stand on, it becomes so hard to do so, because it just seems like another thing that we want to complain about.
I remember someone once said, are we as Christians known more for what we are for, or what we are against?
I'm pretty sure God said we are to be known for our love. While I believe in tough love, I believe that love speaks the truth, I also do believe that ignorant judgements and overreactions is not love.
Let's not major on the minor. Focus on things that are actually important. What are the things that we can actually actively do to make a difference, to advance the Kingdom of God?
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