Even though we don’t like to admit it, Christmas is coming and presents need to be bought. If you are looking for a good book for children, apart from the usual sleigh bells and nativity tales, here’s my recommendation:

Title: What's Christmas
Written by: Alexa Tewkesbury
Illustrated by: Steve Boulter
For ages: 3 – 6
Publisher: CWR

Award winning author Alexa Tewkesbury has written an endearing tale challenging the traditional ways of telling the Christmas story. Snow Bear wants to know what Christmas is. She is given a series of explanations ranging from singing angels to the birth of a baby king. But what she really wants to know is what it all means. It’s only when Old Polar tells her about how much God loves us that she finally understands. The beautifully constructed text is matched by charming illustrations and a little bit of subversive humour (look out for the Puffin Guide to the North Pole!).

In my capacity as the editor of a writing website I’ve just read a book called Charity's Child by Rosalie Warren. Now while The Crafty Writer is not a religious site and looks simply at the business and craft of writing, being a Christian is what defines me as a person, and my Christian world-view colours the decisions I make. Up until now that has not been much of a problem over on The Crafty Writer as the business and craft of writing in itself is neither ‘Christian’ nor ‘non-Christian’, but that was challenged with Charity’s Child.

It is a book about two gay teenagers who are caught up in a world of incest and self-harm who, while they should be finding a haven in an evangelical Christian community, end up being more wounded than helped.

The interview I intended to do with Rosalie Warren was not about the content of her book but rather her experience of being an author with an independent publisher. I felt it was not appropriate to engage with the troubling content of the book within that framework. But I also could not and would not turn the book down simply on the grounds that it offended me as an evangelical Christian, so after some discussion with Rosalie, agreed that I would discuss it on this site instead.

Negative experiences

Rosalie spent time in a controlling evangelical Christian group in the 1970s and, she admits her depiction of the ‘Crabbies’ of Charity’s Child, set in 1983, is coloured by her negative experiences during that time. Most of the characters are morally hypocritical, spiritually confused and intellectually narrow-minded. This comes to a head when what Rosalie refers to as the ’special blessing’ – a release of the Gifts of the Spirit – comes to the Crabbies and any right-thinking reader would be forgiven for thinking that the characters who exercised the Gifts were either deluded or faking it. (For my own experience of the release of the Spirit read Power Tools and The Haves and the Have Nots in my Gardener’s Gospel series).

Against the background of frenzied experimentation with the Gifts, the very real problems of two young girls come to a head. My contention with the book comes not with the actual depiction of these characters but rather that it leaves the impression that all evangelical and more so charismatic Christians are of this ilk. Sadly, as I told Rosalie, her description of these confused, controlling Christians in an off-balance community rings very true. I’ve known people like that and, in immature ignorance, have even held to some of their beliefs myself.

Christians can get it wrong

Some Christians ‘get it wrong’. Some churches get it wrong. Some pastors, ministers and vicars get it wrong. I look back on the time when the charismatic gifts were being ‘rediscovered’ by the modern church and cringe at some of the excesses – in other people’s lives as well as my own. I look back on some of the Christian communities I’ve been associated with and see how easily a slavish adherence to an extremely narrow interpretation of the Bible has led to intellectual and social stultification. Some people, like Rosalie and the sympathetic characters in her book, felt the only recourse was to either leave Christianity altogether or to espouse an extremely liberal form of the faith far from the realms of evangelicalism.

But as I pointed out to Rosalie, those are not the only two options. Rosalie very graciously concedes that the range of characters she presents do not reflect all evangelical Christians and that she had not intended to tar us all with the same brush. The problem is, many people do.

Acknowledging mistakes

Some of us have struggled through an immature faith, been scarred by unhealthy church environments and even abused by people in leadership. And yet we still stay in the church. We know that churches sometimes go wrong. Sadly, they are not always a good advert for Christianity. Some people have not had negative experiences, but they need to recognise that many people do and it can drive them away not only from Christianity but God Himself.

Rosalie’s book is cringingly accurate in depicting one such community. But thank God not all churches are like that. All churches are a mix of good and bad, as are all Christians; it’s just the ratio that differs.

In the opening chapter of Philip Yancey’s Soul Survivor entitled ‘Recovering From Church Abuse’ he recounts:

Sometimes in a waiting room or on a plane I strike up coverstations with strangers, during the course of which they learn that I write books on spiritual themes. Eyebrows are raised, barriers spring up, and often I hear yet another horror story about church. My seatmates must expect me to defend the church, because they always act surprised when I respond, ‘Oh, it’s even worse than that. Let me tell you my story’ … I have spent most of my life in recovery from the church.

Staying within evangelicalism

And yet Philip Yancey, like me, is still a member of a mainstream, evangelical Christian church. As is the author Frank Peretti (yes, surprisingly him of This Present Darkness fame!) whose shocking novel The Visitation depicts some of the horrors that take place in churches across America. Why is this? Well I can’t speak for Yancey and Peretti (they do a very good job speaking for themselves) but for me it is because I truly believe that the church, in all its frailty and weakness, is the main vehicle that God has chosen to reveal himself to the world. And I believe that evangelical Christianity, despite its faults, is the most accurate reflection of the faith as I read it in the Bible. I’m not saying that Christians who do not consider themselves ‘evangelical’ are not kosher (so to speak!) – and each of us must make our own decision about what the church should be – but for me, charismatic evangelicalism offers the best ‘package’ that I can find and that’s why I’m still a member.

When church goes right

When church ‘goes right’ it can be a healthy and nurturing community in which to develop our relationship with God and reflect it to a world in need. I’m in a fellowship like that at the moment. No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, and it is only God’s grace that keeps us moving forward. But by His grace we are learning to live out Jesus’ commands to love one another and to share that love with people outside our community. The Bible alludes to the church as a bride; we can look a bit tatty at times, but look forward to the day when we meet our Bridegroom and he loves us anyway. Let’s just make sure we extend that same grace to others.