So for my Creative Writing class, we had to read a nonfiction story called Losing My Religion, which I have attached to this post. The story is about a mother having to tell her oldest son that Santa Claus is not real. While “taking his innocence,” as she puts it, she starts to question her own faith in God, who is really a lot like Santa (He sees you when you’re sleeping, He knows when you’re awake, He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.) The narrator explains how she really likes the stories of the Bible, but doesn’t know how much she believes the whole thing, especially as her younger son starts to have questions about God that she can’t answer.
Personally, I really resonated with this idea. Last summer I went on a mission trip to Northern England. On one of the days, we were sharing the gospel with a bunch of kids, most of whom had never gone to church or heard of Jesus. It was my turn to tell the story of Jesus, so I started going at it, with years of church and Bible classes to back me up. Half way through, I realized that I sounded absolutely ridiculous, that the story of Jesus, when told to people who have not grown up in the church, sounds like an absurd fairytale. I finished sharing the gospel, but I couldn't shake the weird feeling, I felt like a fraud.
At the end of Losing My Religion, the narrator compares Christianity to Mother's Against Drunk Driving. I thought this comparison was really unique and interesting and was wondering what you all think about this whole idea?
Thanks for posting this Kendall!
ReplyDeleteI have an interesting story I'd love to add to your post Kendall. I noticed in the passage you posted, the kid questions the existence of other imaginary figures when he discovers santa isn't real. That's exactly I how I reacted! What about the tooth fairy? The Easter bunny?
ReplyDeleteI used to write letters to these imaginary characters when I was younger, asking questions about what the tooth fairy looked like, how big was the easter bunny, etc. whenever there was a holiday or I lost a tooth. My parents usually responded with a short note.
My best friend up the street did this too, and one day she wrote a letter to god. God (her parents) responded with a letter, telling her to be good and treat her siblings kindly. However, when I tried writing a letter to god, I didn't get a response (my parents didn't know I had tried). When I found out santa wasn't real, I asked about the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, and god too!
It's interesting how as a child I associated god with imaginary characters. God seemed so magical, so distant, so unknown, so too good to be true just like santa and the tooth fairy. It's especially interesting, that many of these imaginary characters are a commercial result from Christian holidays.
I can totally relate with the mother in this story. I have been raised to believe in God and Jesus and I totally want to but throughout my years of schooling, having gone to a public school, religion was never the main focus. It is very hard to believe in these stories, like how Jesus turned water into wine and how he healed the blind, when in school we learn about science and how these miracles would not be possible in the real world without some divine intervention. I really do believe that there is a heaven and hell and that Jesus and God are real, but I feel like since many of the stories were written before science was around, the people writing used God to explain things they could not comprehend. I want to remain faithful, but after learning about the Big Bang Theory in science, and I know that it is called a theory for a reason, but it seems more compelling than one man in the sky turning on the lights and making planets and galaxies. The last part of the story Kendall shared did seem like it could have some credibility of mothers making their children's death have a meaning and purpose. That is something I feel all mothers would want to do and it does make sense. All in all, I believe in the religion I was raised with, but I also believe in science and try to balance the two.
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