Bible Stories

Recently I was conversing with the mother of a five-year-old boy. She maintained that the Bible stories her son heard in Sunday school were too violent. I had to agree that a lot of people die in stories beginning with Cain and Able, and continuing with Noah, the Tower of Babel, the flight from Egypt, the battles of Joshua, the Judges, and the Kings, David and Goliath, Daniel, Esther, and the Maccabees. The New Testament features the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents, John the Baptist, St. Stephen, and the crucifixion of Jesus himself. It seems impossible to present Bible stories to children without violence unless a lot is left out.

On the other hand, few parents seem to notice that many videos and computer games for children present heroes who kill their enemies. Buz Lightyear zaps them with laser beams. Other heroes use guns or machines. Children, especially boys, spend many hours a week identifying with their favorite action characters. The heroes are always strong and smart. Usually they have powerful weapons and supernatural powers that don't come from God, like the ability to fly. The message often is that the strongest, smartest person with the most powers and/or weapons always wins. In other words, the message is that might makes right. In the video games the children become the heroes and move the characters who do the killing around the screen.

The question in my mind is: Why do parents object to Bible stories but not to violence by imaginary heroes? As I've heard some people explain, they think that anything imaginary is OK because it isn't real. Sometimes the characters are drawn like turtles or robots. Supernatural powers like flying also suggest unreality. Yes, the stories are imaginary, but the message is that the strongest, smartest people who own the most weapons are always right and always win. That message is all too real, and it's not lost on the children who identify with those heroes. Some children react by trying to be strong and smart and have a lot of things. These children often think that they should always be first in line and invariably win all the games. Others realize that they're not the strongest, smartest or richest and respond with fear. Either way, identification with might makes right heroes doesn't teach much cooperation or caring.

Another reason why parents don't object to might makes right heroes is that their enemies are presented as totally evil and thus deserving of death. In reality, dangerous people have to be fairly judged as deserving of punishment by a court, not by an individual. It's all too easy to regard people we don't like as evil and deserving of punishment. Again, these stories fail to teach cooperation and the realities of social life.

So, how are Bible stories any different? In the first place, God judges who needs punishment and who is innocent, and God always judges rightly. In the Bible there is right and wrong. Those who choose the good always win, even though on a natural level they may be very weak as David before Goliath. Secondly, God gives Biblical heroes the power to win. The powers don't come from themselves or from nowhere. Instead of teaching that might makes right, Bible stories teach that God makes right. People who do God's will always win in the end. What do we want our children to learn? We'll show what we want them to know by what we select to present to them day after day.

What do you think? What are your experiences? Do you have questions about this article? Please contact me at newskill7@msn.com. Happy teaching.

Mary Sue Laing, M.Ed.
Resource Teacher, St. Ambrose School

by Mary Sue Laing, M. Ed., New Skill, Inc. Academic Tutor