10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (And Answer) About Christianity. Rebecca McLaughlin. 2021. [March] 208 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: When I was a kid, I wanted to be a poet. But my first book wasn’t a gathering of poems. It was a gathering of ideas from some of the world’s brainiest people.
Rebecca McLaughlin presents ten questions--and her answers to those ten questions--in a book written to appeal to young adults (teens). The ten questions are as follows:
- How Can I Live My Best Life Now?
- Isn't Christianity Against Diversity?
- Can Jesus Be True for You But Not True for Me?
- Can't We Just Be Good Without God?
- How Can You Believe the Bible is True?
- Hasn't Science Disproved Christianity?
- Why Can't We Just Agree That Love is Love?
- Who Cares If You're a Boy or a Girl?
- Does God Care When We Hurt?
- How Can You Believe in Heaven and Hell?
In her answers she touches on dozens of hot topics. There's not many--if any--hot topics she doesn't touch on.
For better or worse, McLaughlin's narrative is saturated--yes, drenched--in references from almost everything but the Bible. Okay. That's not really fair. I think if you look at the proportion of Harry Potter references to Scripture references, Harry Potter would win. If you look at the proportion of Disney references (Moana, Frozen, Aladdin, etc) to Scripture references, Disney would win. To be fair, it isn't that the book is void of Scripture references, it's just that she's way more likely to refer back to Harry Potter, a movie, a television show (The Good Place, for example), a song than the Bible itself. If she's not referring to something in pop culture, she's sure to have an experience to share from her own life or the life of a friend.
I'm left with a couple of questions. Is the lack of actual Bible purposeful? Did she decide, HEY, I want to reach a wide audience of teens and the best way to engage and interact with teenagers is by talking their pop culture language. If I speak mostly in terms of Harry Potter and Frozen, am I going to reach more people? IN other words, I don't want to share Scriptures with them, talk doctrine, creeds, or theology. I want to keep them interested after all. Or was this an oversight on her part? Is she more familiar with pop culture--her natural heart language--than the Bible? Is she merely writing what she knows? When she's thinking deep spiritual thoughts, is she actually relating more with Disney characters and Harry Potter than to the Word of God? Is she making sense of theological concepts like love, sacrifice, hope, etc. by connecting them to Disney and Harry Potter?
It isn't even so much that I disagree with her conclusions--at the end of the day--to most of these questions. It's just some things felt a tiny bit off. More like a clock running two or three minutes fast or late. It isn't off enough to make you late for work.
The one question that felt perhaps more weird to me than the others was the first one: How Can I Live My Best Life Now? Because this isn't necessarily a question the Bible prompts us to ask. I think historically the church would have looked askance at this question. What is this "best life now" of which you speak? Christianity is NOT about helping anyone live their best life...now. It isn't about mental benefits NOW or physical benefits NOW or emotional benefits NOW. And, yes, the author very much stays in the here and now of answering this question. Citing statistics. People who attend church once a week are fill-in-the-blank more likely to fill-in-the-blank. She might as well be talking about the benefits of flossing your teeth or drinking water. If someone is actually questioning whether or not the Christian life is for them...or not...looking at statistics of church attendance is far off the mark.
Not any of the questions in this book really deal with the gospel or salvation. No "How Can I Be Made Right with God?" No "If I Were To Die Tonight Can I Be Sure I Would Go To Heaven?" No "Why Did Jesus Have To Die?"
These ten questions may be common questions. And maybe these ten questions are for the author her most personal questions. On her journey to the faith, these questions may have been the absolute top ten questions she had, the top ten questions she searched out and explored.
I am not the target audience, obviously. And I'm not a great judge to if this would appeal to actual teens or actual tweens. I've read other reviews that pointed out the book's references would make more sense for the younger crowd (9-12) than the older crowd. But the chapters on sex and gender--particularly the attention to same sex attraction, transgender, non-binary, etc.--seems more appropriate for the older crowd.
1 comment:
Sadness. I thought this would be a book that I could recommend to my teens, but not if it doesn't completely point them to Jesus. Thank you for sharing.
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