A Short Essay about a Short Essay
One of my most favorite essays on the Bible comes from a devotional by Angela Smith (dated April 20, 1997) with the title "Where the Wild Things Are." It was previously posted on the website of the University Baptist Church (UBC) in Austin, Texas. The old website of the UBC has been replaced with a new site. However, an imprint of the old site has preserved Angela Smith's essay. I hope it stays preserved. Her brilliantly written essay needs to be widely read and discussed.
Angela Smith's essay got its title and theme from Maurice Sendak's award winning and best-selling children's book Where the Wild Things Are. An excellent cartoon of the book can be found on YouTube.
Evidently, Maurice Sendak was told by a mother that his book was too frightening for her child. The mother said, "Every time I read the book to my daughter, she screams" He replied, "[I]f a child does not like a book, throw it in the trash." His book is indeed a wild place.
After rereading Angela Smith's essay, I wrote the following thoughts. Admittedly, Smith has influenced me. (Even so, my writing is NOT an adequate substitute for Smith's).
The Bible is a wild place. It is a portrait of humanity full of murder, mayhem, and misery followed by miracles, manna, and mirth. One can try to take the wildness out of it by taming it and sanitizing it, but to actually READ the Bible is to be consumed by it. Selective quotes might make it seem palatable, socially acceptable, and safe, but in reality it is wild and unruly. If the Bible were a wrestling ring, then in it would contain a "no-holds barred" match.
The Bible, like life, has times of great morality, and yet there are many times when darkness can dominate, because Biblical people also were sometimes blind. On a left page one can read about how rebellious sons were to be stoned to death (Deut. 21: 18-21), and just a few verses over on the right page one can read about the necessity of helping a brother lift a fallen ox back onto its feet (Deut. 22: 4). Condemned to death were false prophets (Deut. 18:20) and adulterers (Deut. 22: 22-24), and yet in preceding pages we are taught that there was mercy for the poor (Deut. 15: 11). The Bible, like an escaped animal, is full of ups and downs.
Children know the world is a scary place and they accept it. By contrast, adults are embarrassed to be frightened, and they often build up defenses with the illusion of safety. These defenses affect how they treat the Bible. Some adults defend against the Bible by worshipping it and making it infallible. Others defend against the Bible by ignoring it or turning it all into mythology. We should do neither extreme.
Angela Smith concludes:
Only [when we,] like Sendak's wild child, ... descend into the maelstrom of wildness can we really learn what the Bible has to teach.
Read the Bible, really read it and you will read the psyche of the western mind. Read it, and you will tremble at its legacy. Dare to read it and the power in it will touch you, touch your wildness, the place where you still rage and weep and lament and sing. ...
Resist worship [of the Bible] and analysis. Don't tame or prettify it. Dare to listen to it. That's the hardest thing you can do, because it means you will have to go where the wild things are.
The same basic principles apply to the Book of Mormon. It also is a wild place with much to teach. It also is a reflection of humanity with all its foils and fabulousness.
The mistake is to worship scripture by making it an idol on the bookshelf. Instead, we should read it and be consumed by it. We should take our red pens and mark it all up. Sure, the territories to which we are taken are wild, but the wildness must be faced.
Only when we confront the wildness in our scripture can we see our own frailties and then be turned around into the safety of our REAL (eternal) home where the meals are warm and made with love.
Copyright 2008 S.Faux (Email: foxgoku54 [at] gmail [d0t] com; URL: http://mormoninsights.blogspot.com). Readers may distribute this post for noncommercial purposes provided such distributing is of the entire post, including author's copyright and contact information. All other rights reserved.
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4 comments:
I very much like your observations. If people read more of the Bible, they'd have less problems with the humanity of others, or so I've often thought.
Thanks, Stephen. It is nice to hear from you.
Defenses that create the illusion of safety not only affect how some read the Bible, but also how they view life. Some things are just supposed to be a certain way. When they start changing, like the wild thing that this financial crisis has become, it can destroy that illusion of safety. Only Christ can bring that back because he never changes. When the earth begins to tremble, he can bid our fearful thoughts to be still.
Tim,
Thanks for your superior thought. In fact, last Sunday in priesthood meeting, our High Priests group discussed this very issue.
The ability to cast our burdens upon the Lord and feel relief is a great act of faith. It is an ability that we ALL must learn to do. I don't think the ability is learned quickly -- at least, I am still working on it. But, the good news is that over the years I have become better and better at it. I am far more serene than I used to be.
Thanks again for responding.
To readers: I highly recommend Tim's blog as one of the best in the LDS category. Click on his name above.
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