Children’s books for liberal Christians. Good luck.
So today I am looking for some books for J for her 4th birthday. She is really starting to figure out religion and God and some fun stuff like that. These are important things to us to whoohoo! So I figured I would get her a couple of books about women in the Bible. What was I thinking!
But we are liberals and Christians and Catholic to boot. Anomolous to some people. Let me just tell you it is hard to find Christian (or even Abraham) books that appeal to me.
Is there such a thing as an inclusive language Children's bible? Seriously! Come on! I do not think that there is. If so, it is hard to find.
It is like pulling teeth to find books about women in the bible. I've got to hand it to our Jewish brothers and Sister's because they are doing some great stuff. Books about Judith and Naomi and Ruth by Jewish publishers are about all we have to choose from.
There were an obnoxious abundance of books about the "Princesses'" of the Bible. Give me a break, is that really how we are going to hook these kids in. I refuse to market my faith the way that Disney markets their movies.
And then there is the issue of race. Oh. my.
According to most children's bibles Jesus and his white friends sure had a great time together. By themselves! Race wasn't even a construct that people in the ancient world understood in the same way that we do. Blackness didn't really exist. But there are A LOT of white Jesus's with his bearded white friends hanging out. Seriously, did anyone read the bible they are drawing pictures of? Jesus spent a lot of time with people who WERE NOT like him. That's why people got so pissed off at the guy.
And then there is this delightful anecdote. So there I am on Amazon.com and they always have the "people who bought this also bought this…" section. So the list looked something like this:
So that's it.
We've got some books coming, mostly via the library. We are going to have to go in and change the words from Him to Her from King to Ruler from Lord to Lover. If we buy them we might have to add some long hair to some of the beardless disciples and go on from there.
Oh, and if any of them are any good. I might recommend them here!
But we are liberals and Christians and Catholic to boot. Anomolous to some people. Let me just tell you it is hard to find Christian (or even Abraham) books that appeal to me.
Is there such a thing as an inclusive language Children's bible? Seriously! Come on! I do not think that there is. If so, it is hard to find.
It is like pulling teeth to find books about women in the bible. I've got to hand it to our Jewish brothers and Sister's because they are doing some great stuff. Books about Judith and Naomi and Ruth by Jewish publishers are about all we have to choose from.
There were an obnoxious abundance of books about the "Princesses'" of the Bible. Give me a break, is that really how we are going to hook these kids in. I refuse to market my faith the way that Disney markets their movies.
And then there is the issue of race. Oh. my.
According to most children's bibles Jesus and his white friends sure had a great time together. By themselves! Race wasn't even a construct that people in the ancient world understood in the same way that we do. Blackness didn't really exist. But there are A LOT of white Jesus's with his bearded white friends hanging out. Seriously, did anyone read the bible they are drawing pictures of? Jesus spent a lot of time with people who WERE NOT like him. That's why people got so pissed off at the guy.
And then there is this delightful anecdote. So there I am on Amazon.com and they always have the "people who bought this also bought this…" section. So the list looked something like this:
Easter, Celebrating the Resurrection, Noah and the Flood, The Prodigal Son, Christopher Columbus and Discovering America, America the Beautiful, and Abraham Lincoln. "Whoa!" I though the leap from Bible stories to America was a jump I didn't anticipate! (Silly me!)
Anyway, I am not surprised by any of my findings. When you are a liberal Feminist Christian parent you spend a lot of time swimming against the marketing toward less liberal Christians. You find yourself identifying with a lot of your secular Brothers and Sisters point of views but not necessarily agreeing with the foundation of these perspectives.So that's it.
We've got some books coming, mostly via the library. We are going to have to go in and change the words from Him to Her from King to Ruler from Lord to Lover. If we buy them we might have to add some long hair to some of the beardless disciples and go on from there.
Oh, and if any of them are any good. I might recommend them here!
Have you considered writing some ....? You and Sean would be good at it I think!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how to get published. I don't get it at all.
ReplyDeleteSelf-publish with any photobook making website! I second that idea!
ReplyDeleteMake a manuscript and shop it around. There is a great abundance of Christian publishing houses, so if you have a good product, you should be able to find one that will find what you write to be suitable for one of their markets. Major publishers generally don't accept unsolicited manuscripts, but a search for manuscript requests should turn up enough topics to cover something you may be interested in writing about.
ReplyDelete