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| Book cover for "The Big Wide Welcome." |
Last time I was in the US, I borrowed this book from the library: The Big Wide Welcome: A True Story About Jesus, James, and a Church That Learned to Love All Sorts of People, by Trillia Newbell. This post is my review of it.
This is a children's book based on James 2, a bible passage about not showing favoritism. It's from the series "Tales That Tell the Truth," a series which includes the books Jesus and the Lions' Den and The Storm That Stopped, which I have also reviewed. The idea behind this series is to use bible stories which aren't necessarily about Jesus, and connect them to bigger concepts about who Jesus is.
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The main message of this book is very good
This book teaches us that we should not "play favorites" with people. We shouldn't treat some people better than others based on how much money they have, or their abilities, or skin color (these are some of the examples given in the book). In James 2 in the bible, the example is about how church members might react differently if a rich person or a poor person comes to their church.
The book says that all throughout history, people have treated each other like this- "playing favorites." On that page, there is an illustration of ancient Egyptians, with the ruler being carried on the backs of other people, possibly slaves. Also there is a bus with white people sitting in the front and black people in the back. I think it's good that these illustrations hint at how real and harmful this "playing favorites" is. The book doesn't comment on these pictures- the language of the book is really kid-friendly, about how this makes people feel sad... It doesn't actually say anything about systemic injustice, but the illustrations show an awareness of how that's really what it's talking about, when the bible talks about "favoritism."
The book says that Jesus talked to all kinds of people, and Jesus loves everyone, and we should welcome everyone. And I'm like, YES!
But then...
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It takes a sharp turn into some we're-sinners-who-deserve-to-go-to-hell content
This was so sudden. You get whiplash from this. The book is just going along, talking about how Jesus loves everyone (Yes! I am totally on board with this!), and then:
Because Jesus loves all people.
He didn't only want to be friends with rich people, or clever people, or famous people. Jesus knew that everyone was in trouble because they had decided not to live with God as their Savior and Friend. Jesus knew that everyone needed him to rescue them.
Jesus didn't play favorites...
... Jesus chose to LOVE!
[turn the page]
In fact, Jesus loves people so much that he chose to die on the cross so that all people could be friends with him. Jesus welcomes as his friend anyone who asks to be his friend.
Rich people can be friends with Jesus.
Poor people can be friends with Jesus.
People whose bodies work different or look different can be friends with Jesus.
People who speak French or Korean or Spanish or Swahili or English can be friends with Jesus.
O_O
Like, WHAT JUST HAPPENED? The book suddenly veers off into talking about "everyone was in trouble" and how Jesus died on the cross so we could "be friends with him."
I speak evangelical, so let me tell you what this means: Jesus loves everyone, and doesn't believe that certain groups of people are superior to others, because all people are sinners who deserve to go to hell. All of us are the worst, all of us are the same in this regard, so that's why it doesn't make sense to discriminate. All right, come along now and pray the sinner's prayer and ask Jesus into your heart and become a Christian, then you'll be saved from going to hell.
I gotta be honest, this took me completely by surprise, the first time I read this book. I was all excited about "we should welcome everyone" and "Jesus loves everyone", and then I turn the page and get this we're-all-going-to-hell ideology.
To be clear, the book does NOT say the words "hell", "sin", "ask Jesus into your heart", etc. All it says is that section I quoted above. This leaves me even more at a loss for how to explain this to my son- the book says "everyone was in trouble because they had decided not to live with God as their Savior and Friend." Where do I even begin, telling him what that means? It means hell. But *I* don't believe in hell- and I don't really want to be the one to bring it up, when this book uses indirect "kid-friendly" language which makes it easy for my son to just move along without having any idea what this page is talking about.
The books in the "Tales That Tell the Truth" series are written from an evangelical perspective. I strongly suspected that from the first time I heard about them; there's something about their taking-these-bible-stories-very-seriously-and-learning-deeper-truths-about-Jesus approach which reads as very evangelical to me. Unfortunately for me, I am a bible nerd who is also enamored with the idea of taking bible stories very seriously and connecting them to Jesus, though I'm no longer evangelical and I no longer believe the bible is inerrant. Honestly, I'm not surprised this book has evangelical ideology in it. I'm just surprised at how fast it went from "Jesus loves and accepts everyone" to "everyone is going to hell." (Again, that's not an exact quote. The book does not use the word "hell." The exact quote is "everyone was in trouble because they had decided not to live with God as their Savior and Friend.")
I borrowed this book from a library and only read it to my son once. I don't know what I would do about these pages if I had bought the book and was reading it to him frequently. Obviously, this is a reason why I would definitely NOT buy this book. I feel this is harder to deal with than the part I objected to in "The Storm That Stopped". In that case, I could just tell him I disagreed with the book. But in "The Big Wide Welcome," I can't just tell him I disagree with it- I would have to first explain what the book is saying here, about sin and hell, and then tell him I don't believe that. It's just... I don't want to get into all that. I just want to tell him Jesus loves everyone.
(Oh and since we're talking about the evangelical slant on the "all are welcome" message, I will briefly mention that the issue of queer acceptance in the church is something that evangelicals certainly have some opinions on. This book doesn't go anywhere near mentioning that, but I probably wouldn't like what it had to say, if it did. A church that says "all are welcome" is very different from a church that says "all are welcome" and hangs up a rainbow flag.)
So uh, yeah, I don't recommend this book, because of that. Let me just hit a few more points from my list and finish up this review.
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Elementary school level
I would say the language in this book is right for elementary school kids.
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Also I laughed really hard at this part
So there's one page that says, "See, James's brother was..."
And then you turn to the next page: "Jesus!"
And I just found that hilarious, like James and Jesus being brothers is this REALLY SHOCKING PLOT TWIST OMG. I laughed so much.
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Conclusion
This book started out so well. I was really into its message about loving and welcoming everyone, about not discriminating, about how Jesus spent time with all different people. I love that. I definitely want to teach my kids that. But then there were a few pages where it suddenly started saying the kind of things you say when you're telling people that they are sinners who deserve to go to hell and they need to get saved by praying and accepting Jesus... I can't recommend this book, because of that.
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Related:
Reviews of Christian Children's Books
"Jesus and the Lions' Den" (kids' book review)
"The Storm That Stopped" (kids' book review)
"Maybe God Is Like That Too" (kids' book review)
"Who Is My Neighbor?" (Kids' Book Review)
"When Helping Hurts" (I wanted to like this book but it didn't work out)
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