I helped a fellow professor of my aunt’s at SUNY Buffalo with his dissertation on Laura when I was 7 or 8 years old (I made Susan–Laura’s corncob doll!) and have kept up the love for the Little House books ever since. I would never denigrate them or keep them from my kids. I love to study the blurring of lines between fiction and autobiography too. In any case, it can never hurt and can only help to do as much research as we can rather than just blindly embracing something because we perceive it as Christian.

On a sidenote–Madeline L’Engle was a self-professed “Christian agnostic” and C.S. Lewis did interweave much ancient myth and medievalism into his Narnia books, but the strong Christian themes present as well as his well-documented conversion and theological writings I think are what put his books on the shelves of Christian stores (that, and that they are great stories). I guess that’s a whole other conversation though.

I can attest to the fact that the “congregational” church of today doesn’t necessarily reflect the church of yesterday. My church is independent of any other group and evangelical.

I was still thinking about your comment last evening — which is unusual since my brain is so fried on Sunday after preaching. If my post was expressing any concern, it wasn’t with the Little House books. Indeed, I can say that what I read about Rose whether it is true or not did not make a big difference for me. My concern rather would be with a naive reading of the Little House books and people who think, “If only we lived on the prairie like Laura and Mary.”

I can’t remember if I said this earlier, but I certainly agree with you about the Christian romance genre.

Thanks for your input. Yes, I have to a person putting comments in for the first time. It’s a guard against Spam. And, I was preaching this morning.

Good thoughts on literature and Christian writing. As I said previously, I am a fan of the Little House books. I’ve read them and read aloud from them. I agree also with you about Dostoyevsky, O’Connor, etc.

Thanks for your thoughtful input and informed contribution to the discussion.

Chris.

The idea of Christian literature–or Christian bookstores for that matter–is relatively new. The Christian presses, in most cases, have very limiting criteria in order to be published. Quite frankly, I’m appalled at the rows and rows of “Christian” romances these stores carry. The writing quality is low; most of the stories are predictable, formulated. That’s because the criteria of what is allowed is so limited; the bar for writing style is set so LOW, embarrassingly low.

Now, I’ve said all that to get to this. It bothers me that Christians pick and chip away critically at any type of good literature that isn’t blatantly Christian. This discourages Christian writers who would love to publish in a Christian market, but have deviated from the formulated Amish-girl-falls-in-love-with-bad-boy-leads-him-to-Christ-everybody-churns-butter-and-all-live-happily-ever-after-amen type of books being published in the Christian market. The following writers are all born-again Christians, but if they were to submit their work today to a Christian publisher, they would most likely not get published: Flannery O’Conner; Madeleine L’Engle (A Wrinkle in Time) and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. And while some may extol the writings of Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens and C.S. Lewis has nobody examined why they have not been excluded from the Christian cannon? Seriously, has nobody considered the content of pagan symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnia and his other fantasy work? And yet we revere his work based on his blatant Christian writing in other works–the only reason his work graces Christian bookstore shelves. Has nobody considered the fact that Tolstoy took both his wife and his wife’s mother as lovers (causing the latter to attempt suicide)? What about the famous author of “A Christmas Carol” who ran off with an actress (young enough to be his daughter) when he tired of the wife of his youth?

What I’m trying to say is this: why are we soooooo harsh on artists when we don’t scrutinize the Christian (or just moral) doctor, lawyer, etc.? I have a theory and a hunch. The greatest thing that will lead your child to the throne of God will be this: the example you set in your child’s life. And, even then, your child has free will. Every parent who has an adult child knows this.

Furthermore, I don’t know if L.I.W.was a “true” Christian or a good moral person or a fraud or a bad parent. But I do know that there are several passages that would lead me to believe that it was something more than just midwestern-do-gooder-morality. For instance a close reading of By the Shores of Silver Lake, chapter 23 talks about Brother Alden leading them in a prayer (on their knees, which is a position modern Christians seem above) and asking God to forgive them and help them to do what is right. In context, with a careful reading of the entire chapter, one will see that Laura was struggling with having to teach school to help Mary go to college. But after the prayer, she is at peace. She describes herself as being “hot dry, dusty grass, parching in drought, and the quietness [read it in context, the quietness is a result of the prayer] was a cool and gentle rain falling on her.” She goes on to say that this prayer strengthened her and helped her be glad to do the right thing. Before we are so quick to judge, I’d like to point out that I know very few adults, let alone children, who would put aside their plans to help anyone, except maybe for a two week mission trip that is both fun, entertainment and some sort of help. In addition to this scene, take the scene in The Long Winter, where although almost starved and worn out by the continuous blizzards, the Ingalls family decides to sing (remember this scene takes place BEFORE the Wilder boys return with the wheat that will save the town. To put the scene in context, Pa is suddenly angry at the storm and stands up and curses it. Then, he decides instead to sing). What exactly are they singing (refer to Chapter 28, Four Days Blizzard)? They are singing hymns of praise! The first song references Paul and Silas being bound in jail. What a fitting song for a situation where there is seemingly no hope. And look at the reference to one of the hymns “After a moment, Pa sang again, and the stately measures were suited to the thankfulness they were all feeling.” He then proceeds to lead them in a chorus of “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” You see, he wasn’t having a ho-down. He was actually doing spiritual warfare, praising God in a horrible situation. How many Christians do that when they are truly down to their LAST meal of wheat?

Lastly, I’d like to say two things. First, let’s not judge the Ingalls too terribly. They lived in the 1800s. Unlike modern Christianese, they didn’t have three Christian radios to choose from, an endless supply of sermons on CD to build them up, a twenty-four hour prayer line, a Christian bookstore, the Bible in four different versions, including lexicon and the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek. They had one Bible, an occasional service (how many of us would be faithful to keep Sunday holy by ourselves and attempt to have at-home services?), they had hymns–preachers were RARE, usually covering several towns. They didn’t get to hash over who had the “correct” doctrine. They had ONE church! The last thing I’d like to say is beware of anyone who writes about somebody else’s life (especially after they are dead and can’t defend or amend anything they’ve said and written). If we were to believe everything written about other writes then we’d have to believe that Shakespeare was gay and so was Jesus. Writers write from a perspective, an opinion and in a market that they know what will sell. They filter out what they want you to know. For instance, if Rose Wilder Lane repented and got saved, you’d never read it in the New Yorker…it wouldn’t be published. Yes, your kids are impressionable and maybe the Little House books are “idealistic.” But look at the world they live in, it’s pretty close to Sodom city now. A little idealism never hurt anyone. It’s your life that will really speak to them. Just my opinion. –Sarah Langdon, a writer and a Christian.