sterilized Bible stories

[truthman]

Why do we sterilize Bible stories?

David and Goliath. We let the kids read the part where he gets killed by a rock in the forehead. But, we leave out the part where David then cuts off Goliath's head and dances on his body.

Samson. We let the kids read about his strength, failure, and then regain of strength by knocking over the building at the end. But we neglect telling our children that the Philistines had plucked out Samson's eyes.

Judas. We tell the kids that he betrayed Jesus, but we leave out his gruesome death.

So, I really don't have a problem sterilizing Bible stories for the younger crowd, but yet on the other hand, fairy tales have been around for many hundreds of years and are very graphic.

In Little Red Riding Hood, a wolf eats grandma. A woodcutter then cuts open the wolf to let grandma out.

Children put the witch in the oven in Hansel and Gretel.

In Cinderella, one girl cuts off her toe and another girl cuts off her heel so that they may fit in the glass slipper.

In Rapunzel, the prince falls out of the tower and gets his eyes cut up by thorns.

Now, I read all these as a kid, but my parents gave me a special kid Bible with all the nasty stuff cut out? Why do we do this?

truthman

[mossrose]

A good question, Tman. I don't remember as a child not being told all the gory details, and I don't think we encouraged our own children to skip all that stuff. (Our baby being 25 this summer.....)

Perhaps it is a sign of the gentler, more politically correct times that we live in now. The same reason all the Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons are "bad" because they are violent, although millions of us in my age group watched them every Saturday without growing up to be Acme-ordering-missile-anvil-giant magnet fruitcakes out to kill our lunch.

The same reason that I would bet a lot of those old fairy tales that so many of us over 40 grew up reading avidly are now much gentler, kinder, stories. I am sure that many parents buy into the "anti-everything that is not gentle and kind and sweet and non-violent" political correctness, even those who want their kids to know Bible stories.

Just my thoughts on the matter.......

[NSMinistries]

one of my fav's at work was a call for a bloodless Bible. Any ref. to blood needed to be removed. :nsm: I get some strange ones....