So, I've yet to receive any mean emails, but I have a feeling that this postmight change all that....
I just finished The Hunger Games Trilogy...it took me about a week to read the 3 books.
I was compelled to read them because I wanted to form my own opinion about them.
It's the reason that I have read all the "pop" culture series....when the Christian
community was in outcry over the "Satanism" in the Harry Potter books,
I decided to read them myself, mainly because everyone that I spoke with who
criticized them had never actually read them!
Frankly, I loved Harry Potter! And as I pastor's wife in a smaller conservative Baptist
church, I had to get them on the black-market (from my MIL) and read
them with the book jackets off!
My husband and I would actually argue over who got to read the Harry Potter
books first....yes, this was back when you had to wait MONTHS between editions!
I also heard the criticism of The Twilight Series....vampires?? werewolves??
So, instead of listening to what others complained about, I read the books...and truly
I found them pretty harmless....tween romance at it's best and an entertaining read.
So let's talk Hunger Games.....quite frankly, I've not heard much, if any, criticism.
The first warning that I heard was from our children's librarian who raised her
eyebrows and said to me, "Do NOT let your 12 year old read this!"
Hmm...that sent off warning bells in my head. She's not a particularly religious
person and I had all these Christian friends on FB raving about the series...
So I borrowed the books and began to read.......and I immediately found myself
skimming pages because the images were just too violent for me to want to
imprint into my mind.
I kept reading because there was supposed to be a higher and greater analogy located
in the pages of violence, but as I read, I struggled to find it and justify the
violence with the greater good of the analogy.
As I've reflected, I'm a little concerned.....why are there not more people speaking
out against the violence....the gruesome violence of these books?
Have we become a society so immune to violence that
the continuous murder of and by teens doesn't shake us to our core?
My hubby and I also went to see the movie.....he's a youth pastor and we felt
that this was a movie worth seeing since so many of his kids have seen it.
Wow....do you know how many times I had to avert my eyes because of the
violent images? The horrified gasps by adults in the audience over the horrible scenes of death?
Truly....I still close my eyes and see the bloated
body of a child in the woods.....and as we walked out of the theater, there
were kids 10....11....12 years old walking out with us?
There is a fragile balance of too much too soon.....
Paul writes this in the book of Philippians....
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
I don't think that God asks us to do these things to deny us a good read or movie.....instead, I think he asks us to focus on what's true and noble
to protect the fragile innocence of our mind.
I realize that you may have a vastly different opinion, but I just can't shake that this is a
piece of literature that I wish I could now remove from my mind.
