This is to appease some well-meaning but overtly Christian and out-of-touch family members. Something for a 12yo who reads well above his age, along the lines of inspiration/motivation for teens to be good humans and members of society
Rather than have them pushing propaganda on my son I’d like to find a worthwhile read they will feel addresses the insufficient Christian influence in his life
@kaleb I think the best book to learn about christianity — and I say that as an atheist — is the bible, this way you know the good and the bad parts, you can reflect and what it says and what it doesn’t, and what you like about it, and you can push back when people try to tell you what it says, if you know it’s not true.
Downside is that it’s not a light read, it does take quite some time to go through, but most people don’t read cover to cover. I did so as a kid, but i was also a big reader.
@kaleb Upside, of course, is how could your overly concerned family member say anything bad about that, right?
Though of course, it might be weird to give such a book to your kid if you are not religious, and he’s not either (this might change or not, whatever you do).
The OT has pretty dark, but important to understand Christianity parts, the NT is a lot more hopeful, (that’s the point of Christianity after all), the message is a lot less judgmental than many Christians would make you think.
@tshirtman I was raised Christian and fully knowing the Bible is the reason I no longer identify as such. That said, my concern is not with the concept of religion but with the James Dobson/Focus on the Family types of teachings.
I already fight the BS from family about how “boys don’t have long hair” because my son’s hair doesn’t fit their constrict of a godly boy. I don’t need the teachings about what makes a “godly man”.
@kaleb Heh, it’s not like all occidental representations of Jesus are with long hair, right, right?😆
I know it’s easy to make fun of these people, but they can be quite a pain, i think the best would be to set boundaries about the education of your children, but it’s not easy.
I think you are totally correct and justified in pushing back against this kind of books, that uses religion to push things that are not even in the source, and far from the message of acceptance one can find in the NT.
@kaleb not precisely this but Philip Pullman’s His Dark Marerials series (and heck most of his books) are excellent, have a solid morality without being Christian and likely will be fun for your teen to read. Similarly every single book by Terry Pratchett is excellent and have incredibly good lessons for life mixed into extremely funny fantasy stories.
As a non-Christian myself I generally find fiction that shows how to live a good life (even when it is hard) more compelling than self help
@kaleb another book I highly recommend though it is a bit older is The Stone and The Flute by Hans Bemmann (written in German, English translation by Anthea Bell). It is a fantasy story (though more akin to fairytales than epic fantasy) about an entire life - from birth to old age. And while it has some tough sections where the main character makes major mistakes ultimately it has a lot of deep moral lessons. It’s a massive book and the middle chapters are tough but it has stayed with me
I am not Christian, but I don’t mind giving him “Christian” books as long as the message doesn’t focus on human guilt/sin, the worthlessness of humanity without a saviour, or racial/gender/orientation/etc. intolerance.
It’s just that everything they are trying to free him focuses on the “traditional Christian” concept of what it means to grow into being a man. It’s all rubbish I can’t tolerate.
This is a pretty obscure book, but I collect children's books about ants that are somewhat realistic about the way that the ants work and this is one of the better ones.
But the author was really trying to share something more about the beauty of nature, and about hard questions about why creatures might fight each other, or die. I kind of wish it was better known.
@ScribblersEmporium@kaleb Okay, if we're going that route, then: George MacDonald's Phantastes/Lilith (I read them a lot as a kid, weird but interesting), Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place/I Stand at the Door and Knock, also Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time trilogy. I also read Pilgrim's Progress a lot but can't imagine it appealing to a kid who is not locked into a limited churchy life.
(My teen has not read any of these but he is having a very different upbringing than I did.)
Has Christian undertones but is a beautiful book AND it's about ants. It's an old book and out of print but I was surprised by how deep it was. You see ants know how long they will live so the ant reflects on the purpose of life and "the beauty of the work of the creator" in the last chapters. It's also about cooperation and service.
Don't get one of those ugly reprints, get a used copy with the old school binding.
@kaleb@philip_cardella If biographies work, you might also go with "Walking with the Wind", the autobiography of the late Congressman John Lewis. It's an easy to read book with a profound message about public service, and it includes his years training to be a minister that might go over well with the relatives.
@ShaulaEvans@kaleb ooh that's a good person for a biography. I haven't read that book but that's my thinking with Jimmy. He may be a liberal but he was still teaching Sunday school a few years ago.
John Lewis was such an icon. Such an inspiration. I'm going to check that biography out!
@philip_cardella@kaleb Waking with the Wind by John Lewis is a wonderful book. I'd recommend it to any good people looking for how to continue to be good people in this grinding world.
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