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| Book cover for "Jesus and the Lions' Den" |
I bought this book for my son: Jesus and the Lions' Den [affiliate link], by Alison Mitchell. Because I want to read books to him to introduce him to the bible, but that's tricky because I'm ex-evangelical, and in my honest opinion, the bible is not really appropriate for kids. So I decided to try this book and see how it is.
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Using other bible stories to teach about Jesus
This book is part of a series called "Tales That Tell the Truth", and the gimmick is that in each of the books, it tells a bible story that isn't necessarily related to Jesus, and then uses the story to teach us something about Jesus. This is very cool from a literary perspective- finding themes in other bible stories which parallel things that happened in the stories about Jesus. This book in particular, "Jesus and the Lions' Den" first tells the story of Daniel in the lions' den (from Daniel 6), and then points out several similarities between Daniel and Jesus. I'm really interested in this as a concept, though I wasn't sure how well this series of books would implement it.
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This book is good for preschool-age kids
At the beginning of "Jesus and the Lions' Den" the book says that some pages will have a little lion symbol hidden somewhere in the illustration, and kids are supposed to look for these as they read the book. (This symbol means that something that happened on that page is similar to something that happened to Jesus.) My son is preschool-age and he was SO INTO finding these lions. This is a good idea; it's fun for little kids.
Also, the language used in the book is at the right level for preschool kids.
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My ex-evangelical hot takes on "Daniel in the lions' den"
So, here are my concerns about the story we find in Daniel 6. Here are the aspects of it which are problematic:
1. The most glaring issue is that at the end of the story, after the king sees that God rescued Daniel from the lions (spoilers!), the king makes a new law that says people must worship Daniel's god. I say this is the most glaring issue because this part of the story is included in adaptations written for little kids. Other aspects of the story get censored when it's made into a story for little kids, but not this one. This is almost always included. ("Jesus and the Lions' Den" cleans it up a little bit by having the king issue a decree that says Daniel's god is the true god- but does not mention that people must worship this god.)
So the story that gets told to kids is that there was a law that said you could only pray to the king, but Daniel broke the law by praying to God, so he was thrown into the lions' den, but God shut the lions' mouths so Daniel survived, and then the king made a new law that said people must pray to Daniel's god. The "happy ending" isn't just that Daniel wasn't eaten by lions, it's that a new law was made to be the *opposite* of the old law. The old law was bad because it said people couldn't pray to God. The new law is good because it said people must pray to God- specifically, Daniel's god.
And this gets presented to kids like it's a good thing.
Umm. I believe in freedom of religion. We definitely should NOT be making laws that require people to believe in a certain god, what on earth. This is not a "happy ending."
And in my experience hearing this story in Sunday school as a kid, this is mentioned but nobody really talks about what it means. It's just "God shut the lions' mouths so Daniel was saved! Yay! And then the king made a new law that said people must pray to Daniel's god! Yay! The end." Nobody says, wait, the king made a new law that said people must pray to Daniel's god? Are we sure that's a good thing? Is that really what God would want? Is that what we should want, as modern-day American Christians? Does the bible oppose freedom of religion? Isn't that a little messed-up?
But nope, nobody talks about that. The big climax of the story is when Daniel survives the lions' den, and then at the end when the story is wrapping up, it's mentioned that this new law was made, but nobody talks about it.
This is messed-up; I want to teach my kid that freedom of religion is good.
(I'll add this caveat: In the actual bible story, this new law is probably not as bad as it initially sounds. It doesn't include any concrete actions that people are supposed to do, and no mention of it being enforced. And this was in a polytheistic culture, so probably it wasn't saying you have to *stop* worshipping other gods and *only* worship Daniel's god.)
2. Oh, and another thing that happened after Daniel came out of the lions' den: "At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones." (Daniel 6:24)
WTF?
This part of the story is ALWAYS censored when it's adapted for little kids. Nobody's in Sunday school telling 4-year-olds "and then the bad guys' kids were violently murdered." But that's what the bible says. Should we censor that? Should we not censor it? Should we avoid telling kids the story of Daniel in the lions' den altogether?
I'm not comfortable with censoring it, because then you're misrepresenting what the bible is. The bible has a lot of ****ed-up stuff, but Christians present it like it's a bunch of nice morality lessons and encouraging promises about God. Lol. No. That's not what it is. I don't want to teach my kid that's what it is.
But I'm also not okay with telling the story to kids uncensored, because, holy crap that's horrifying and violent.
3. In this story, God saves Daniel, but what about all the times God doesn't save people? Religious persecution is a real thing. People are murdered for their beliefs, and God doesn't save them. How should we understand the story of Daniel in the lions' den, with the knowledge that God often doesn't save people?
So those 3 points are the problems I have with the story of Daniel in the lions' den, related to how the story is presented to kids.
However, my son is a little kid and he's not thinking about any of that. He just wants to see pictures of lions. (Who wouldn't?)
It's got me thinking that it's not just about the story itself; it's about the culture surrounding it. If you grow up evangelical and you frequently hear the story of Daniel in the lions' den, it will mean something different to you than to someone from a different religious background. Maybe my son can hear the story and be fine because nobody's teaching him the accompanying evangelical beliefs.
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It's interesting that this book didn't take the "stand up for what's right" approach
Typically, growing up evangelical, the lesson I've seen people teaching kids using the story of Daniel in the lions' den goes something like this: There was a law that made it illegal to pray to God. But Daniel did the right thing and prayed anyway! What would you do if you were in a situation where someone wanted you to do something you knew was wrong? What would you do if you were being persecuted for your faith? Would you stand up for what's right, like Daniel?
At times it can even get an ugly culture-war spin, like "our society is going to outlaw Christianity! We must take a stand against it, like Daniel!"
I have to say, I like how the book "Jesus and the Lions' Den" didn't try to teach kids something they *should* do. The main points are that there are similarities between Daniel and Jesus, and that God is the true king.
Also at the end of the book, when discussing similarities between Daniel and Jesus, the book says that just as God saved Daniel, "God promises to bring all of his Son's friends out of death and into life with him, too." (But it doesn't even explicitly say "you can ask Jesus into you heart" or anything like that.) And also on the very last page, it says we can also pray, just like Daniel did. These practical application bits are just kinda tacked on to the end, after all the interesting parts of the story are finished- my son probably didn't even pay attention to those. The book doesn't really emphasize them, or do the work of connecting them to the rest of the story. The point of the book is not to teach something that kids "should" do. It's to teach them some ideas about what Jesus is like.
I think that works really well, actually. Maybe a big part of what I find "problematic" in kids' bible stories is that they turn every story into a simple morality lesson about "here's what you should do." This book doesn't do that.
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God's pronouns
The book uses he/him pronouns for God. I can't really complain about that, because the bible does too, but... what's a queer Christian gotta do to find a kids' book that uses something other than he/him for God???
("When God Made the World" doesn't use any pronouns for God- it just says "God" over and over. I like that, but also, how about a book that uses She or They?)
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Conclusion
I like this book. There are still some things I find problematic about the story, but my son is a little kid in preschool and he doesn't have an ex-evangelical mindset, so it's not problematic for him. I guess for him, it's just a story, just like "Green Eggs and Ham" or any of his other books. Wow, imagine if there was an evangelical-like movement around "Green Eggs and Ham", imagine all the problems that would arise if you were required to take it super seriously and believe it's true and inerrant and that it should dictate how you live.
If my son learns these bible stories as interesting stories rather than as an authority over his life, maybe they won't be problematic for him. The problem is not the bible itself, it's the evangelical culture that tells us what we have to believe about the bible.
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Related:
Not Sure I Want My Kid Reading the Bible
2 Wrong Ways to Write Bible Stories For Kids
An Ex-Evangelical Mom Review of "When God Made The World"
Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Me
Perfect Number Watches VeggieTales "Where's God When I'm Scared?" (1993)
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