Insulated or Insecure?

I just got done reading Cascade, book 2 of Lisa Tawn Bergren's River of Time series. I definitely recommend it for folks who enjoy YA, fantasy, medieval history, stories with strong heroines, or all the above. It took me a few chapters to get hooked on Waterfall, book 1, but when I did, I stayed up until 3am finishing the story. I'm getting ready to start book 3, Torrent with great anticipation.

The authentic voice of the main character, Gabi, was one of the reasons I enjoyed the stories so much. She reminds me so much of myself at 17--snarky internal dialogue, an intense sense of justice, desire to know God more, and the struggle to figure out what a strong woman of God looks like. Overall what struck me was the realness of Gabi. She made mistakes. She didn't always have the "right" attitude. She could be overbearing at times. She questioned her faith. But all of this is what made it real and allowed for her to mature as a character over the course of the series.

Which is why I enjoyed it. And why some Christian readers did not, apparently.

I stumbled across one reviewer who didn't like the story because of the things I mentioned above. Didn't like Gabi's attitude toward her mom at the beginning of the book. She felt it was disrespectful. (Never mind the fact that this attitude changes over time). She also thought the battle scenes where not appropriate--perhaps it presented some moral ambiguous situations. And why did the author let the main character, a teenage girl, kill anyone? (Never mind the fact she does so only in self-defense).

Perhaps the difference in our opinions is just one of taste. I wonder if it doesn't have more to do with insulation, though.

Over the past thirty years, one of the popular lines of thought in Evangelical Christianity on how to filter the world is insulation (as opposed to engagement). Which camp you tend to fall in will generally dictate what type of media you consume, how you interact with non-Christians (or even other Christians who fall outside your immediate circle), how you raise your kids, etc. There are also hybrid camps of the two views and other completely unrelated camps. But these two are expressed most prominently among conservative Christians.

The insulation camp has a fortress mentality where true believers largely exclude themselves from the world to keep themselves and their families pure. It's a defensive mechanism done out of sincere motives to try to nurture a goodness while protecting from temptation and sin.

The engagement group prefers to engage culture, "reclaiming" it for Christ. These Christians are rather cosmopolitan compared to their insulated brethren. They are often well-versed in pop culture and might be hard to pick out of a crowd unless they are the really vocal type.

I am familiar with the insulated worldview because it is the community I largely grew up with. There were lots of well-intentioned, but rather arbitrary rules on how "good" Christians lived. When it came to selecting one's reading material, Christian books were acceptable, but not non-Christian, unless the book was pretty much written before 1955. But as the Christian fiction market grew, lines were established between the traditional "good" authors and "edgy" authors--the ones that reminded us that while the world outside was not a nice place, it was redeemable. Wise parents scanned the books of edgy Christian authors first.

In our house, which was only part way in the insulated camp, Brock and Bodie Thoene's WW2 series were off-limits to me at 14. Mom said I could read them when I was "older" (read: when you're an adult living on your own). I regret to say I disobeyed. I don't regret reading them. They were positively formative on my teen years and strengthen my understanding of God's working in the world--but I should have honored my parents.

I'm not advocating that parents should stop parenting. I don't think they should let their kids read whatever they want to. I'm also not suggesting the engagement camp is a better place than the insulated camp. I have issues with both approaches.

But when I read reviews like the one I mentioned above, I feel an incredible appreciation for authors like Ms. Bergren who guided by their faith, are willing to tell it like it is. Sometimes the insulated approach smacks more of insecurity than anything else. Are we so afraid that we or our kids are going to suddenly want to do bad things if we see other people doing them? Protecting ourselves from witnessing the sins and bad decisions of other people is a rather flawed defense against sinning ourselves. (Satan wiggles his way into our lives regardless how insulated we are). This is poor parenting as it never equips the child to deal with the world as an adult. The world which doesn't observe your neat, invisible barricades against it, but sometimes dumps unpleasant, sticky, morally ambiguous (if I may) situations in your lap without asking permission first. Or running it through a filter. Might it be better to slowly, as appropriate, introduce your children to the world over time as they grow up, your home and love providing a "safe" place for them to wrestle through things?

Of course there is the trust factor. If we truly trust God, do we not also trust our children with him too? Over-insulation may stem from an inability to trust God and recognize we can't control what others think or believe. We can try by controlling their lives, what they eat, wear, read, and who their friends are. But at some point, that child becomes an adult and will throw off the shackles controlling them. Hopefully, they don't throw off their faith as well. If they do, then trusting in God is the only thing that parent can do at that point.

So thank you, Ms. Bergren, and Jenny B Jones, and Robin Jones Gunn, an other Christian YA authors who portray real characters (the good and the ugly) who are seeking after a real God in a real world that doesn't always play nice. Who treat their teen (and adult!) readers as individuals with souls of their own and not simply robots who with the "right" inputs will automatically deliver the "right" outputs as adults. Thank you for writing from your faith. In your stories, I've learned that things might get dark, feel hopeless at times and not everybody has a "happy ending" (what does that even mean?), but there IS always hope in the end. Real Hope.

Thanks for leveling the path and leaving some footprints for the next gen of YA Christian writers.