A few weekends ago I spent the day with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. I love my aunt and uncle, they are very sweet people. They love my husband, and they are in general a lot of fun to be around.
My mother, aunt, and me had a late girls night out in the formal living room, chit chatting and talking. My aunt notices the family Bible on the coffee table, and starts looking at the pictures in it. I explained to her as a child that book scared me because of the pictures. The pictures of Jesus being crucified, seeing Lazarus rise from the dead, and Abraham holding a knife to his son as he is about to sacrifice him. When you are five years old, it is definitely a scary prospect. Jesus doesn't look comfortable with blood all over him and nails drilled into his hands. Lazarus for all intensive purposes to a five year old is a zombie ghost, and Abraham seems like a man I want to avoid, if he is willing to kill his son, who else is he willing to kill? I am not trying to insult the Bible, but as a five year old, those were scary images to me. My aunt looked at me like I was crazy. She didn't look at it from my young perspective, but rather that is was truth and acceptable. I then asked her how often she let her kids at five watch movies and T.V. shows with zombies and people getting murdered. My mother finally understood why the pictures scared me, my aunt was like it was truth, but I had to explain my knowledge of the Bible as a child was very innocent. I watched Superbook, Flying House, and Circle Square. They were very kid friendly, very non violent, and it gave me warm fuzzys, it didn't scare me. I thought of Easter Bunnies and Christmas as a five year old, not the attempted murder of Abraham's son by Abraham himself. My children's Bible was way more comforting than the evil picture Bible that was our family Bible.
So it makes me wonder. Should you approach the Bible differently with your young children vs. an adult I don't know if kids fully grasp and understand what is going on in the Bible and it is kind of scary, at least to me it was anyway.
16 comments:
When I was little, I remember reading the Songs of Solomon a lot. In fact I can almost quote some of the verses. Hell I used to comb through the bible for the dark scary, gross parts. They were interesting to me. I was a strange little girl. lol
I'm not Christian now, but I don't think there's anything wrong with altering the bible a little to make it a little more kid friendly if the religion is important to the family. I don't think it matters as long as the basics of love, respect and all the other important things are taught to the child.
I can see how this could seem very morbid and scary to a child
Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altar Piece is a great painting, it doesn't shy away from what a crucification victim might really look like.
Okay, first, how do I add myself as a follower of this blog?
And second yes I do think that things should be softened for children, whether the violence is the 'truth' or not. Many things in this world are true and actually happen, but that doesn't mean that we should subject children, who don't understand, to it.
Heck no!
The BIble stories from my grandmother's scared the Hell out of me.
I'd reflect on those pictures and often ... well, sometimes... change my mind from doing something wrong.
Keep it scary.
I know when I was growing up, I had a children's version of the bible to read, so I was probably saved from seeing the fascinating pictures you have posted.
I agree with idea of making the bible more kid friendly, and maybe the idea of having it taught to them in a way that it doesn't scare them either.
My kids do/did bible study, not as something they want to do (maybe someday when they're older), but as a necessary step towards being confirmed in the Catholic church. I would like to think that their teacher(s) are trying thier best to make the bible intersting without scaring them.
My Bible growing up was only scary because it weighed ten pounds and had NO PICTURES! thats a lot of words... I was petrified.
LOL @ Brohammas... I know right! More than my small mind could manage LOL
@ Siditty I think... and this is just a guess, but part of the reason may have been you had the easter bunny and santa, watched superbook and flying house. Just speaking for me, I had a coarse childhood and when bad things happened you just said to yourself "Its just the way it is" you read/hear some gruesome stories in the bible and you just say "that's just the way it was" in fact its not much less gruesome from now, watching the news is sometimes worse.
LOL @ Brohammas... I know right! More than my small mind could manage LOL
@ Siditty I think... and this is just a guess, but part of the reason may have been you had the easter bunny and santa, watched superbook and flying house. Just speaking for me, I had a coarse childhood and when bad things happened you just said to yourself "Its just the way it is" you read/hear some gruesome stories in the bible and you just say "that's just the way it was" in fact its not much less gruesome from now, watching the news is sometimes worse.
I also had a couple "kid-friendly" Bibles, though I don't think they changed the stories; the authors just omitted certain parts. It wasn't like a regular Bible with the various books either; it was like an anthology, usually spanning from the story of creation to right after the resurrection. I know my Bible left out things like concubines, adulterers, and the like. Bathsheba was just David's wife, no back story. (Off-topic, a girl named Bathsheba went to elementary school with me and I thought that was the strangest name!) I don't remember any graphic crucifixion pictures, so I'm assuming they took the edge off, because I was a easily scarred as a kid.
The Bible's filled with more death, killing and catastrophe than any Rambo or Schwarzenegger flick combined and multiplied by a 100. I can remember the first times I read through the Bible and was amazed at the nasty stuff in it, it wasn't much different than reading Mein Kampf in allot of places.
change my mind from doing something wrong.
See but that is the thing. Abraham was just going to kill his kid because God said. The child didn't break a vase and try to cover it up, or beat up his dad, but his daddy was ready to shank him. So you just walk around perpetually scared God is going to ask my mom or dad to kill me to prove their loyalty to him.
Bathsheba was a hoochie and David was a player. Uriah was the only innocent in that story. Straight Jerry Springer.
the world is violent...
The Bible's filled with more death, killing and catastrophe than any Rambo or Schwarzenegger flick combined and multiplied by a 100. I can remember the first times I read through the Bible and was amazed at the nasty stuff in it, it wasn't much different than reading Mein Kampf in allot of places.
The world's filled with more death, killing and catastrophe than any Rambo or Schwarzenegger flick combined and multiplied by 100. I can remember the first times I watched the nightly news and was amazed at the nasty stuff in it, it wasn't much different than reading Mein Kampf in allot of place.
Crucifixion pictures scared me as a kid. My 5-year-old asks about God and Jesus now. He's very curious about everything. Hubbie is Atheist, but he doesn't say anything about them going to church with me because they love the Children's Church there and they haven't asked why Daddy doesn't go with us. My son is fascinated with morbid and gross stuff like blood and monsters and guns, fire, etc. It kind of worries me, but he has some issues, so it kind of makes sense.
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