So this month I ended up reading two books dealing with China, and two
memoirs about people leaving their faiths. I didn't know the two latter
books would delve so much into childhood sexual abuse when I started
them. I was thoroughly disgusted at how two powerful churches (one for
sure; the other maybe was falsely accused) have used their money and
clout to cover abuse for the sake of their churches' reputations!
Children be damned as long as the faith is protected? Horrible! And
even though these two churches are not my own, I condemn any who
cover abuse for the sake of their reputations. How about some character,
people...not hypocrisy! And I would dare to speak for God and say He
is thoroughly disgusted by this as well. Yes, your church might go
through bad publicity - as it should! And it IS shameful. And it IS a
horrible testimony. And it DOES cause unbelievers to blaspheme God in
many cases (see II Samuel 12). But these things must be dealt with. You
can't expect sin to stay hidden, that you will always be able to
protect the guilty. God knows what is going on. He's not giving you a
free pass. Sorry, I had to get this out. I see my precious nephews. One
is ten and a half, the other almost 17 months old, and I cannot stand
the thought of anyone abusing them and getting by with it because some
church doesn't want bad publicity. And don't get me started on churches
that know of sexual predators and reassign them to other posts where they can prey on a new batch of children. Grrrrr.
Boy, I rarely get this testy when doing my monthly book reports, huh?
Among the Righteous: Lost Stories From the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands
by Robert Satloff -- This Jewish man researches the stories of Arab
treatment of Jews in North Africa. I enjoyed the story of Khaled
Abdul-Wahab and the author's attempt to get him accepted as the first
Arab remembered by Yad Vashem for his role in saving Jews during the
Holocaust. He comes across many roadblocks as more recent politics play
into whether Arabs want to be known for helping Jews. Also Jews
sometimes deny the Holocaust's reach into the Arab countries.
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
-- I didn't realize this book was so long when I picked it up, but over
500 pages later, I must say that I enjoyed learning the story of these
three women. The author shared about her grandmother who was a concubine
to a general and later married to a much older doctor. The family
dynamics of her coming into this family made me appreciate the
simplicity of marriage in my own culture. (Her new husband's oldest son
ended up shooting himself in a fit of rage because of this proposed
marriage. He died.) This story involved the author's mother and father,
and their commitment to the Communist Party. I enjoyed the examples of
life in China at this time and during the reign of Mao and the Cultural
Revolution. I had to smile when she told of how "eat all your food
because there are poor capitalists in the West who are starving and
would love to have the food you are eating" was used on them as
children. (I've heard a similar version growing up.) I was struck by
the patriarchy of this traditional society and how Communism declared
women and men more equal. I got to wondering just how far back
patriarchy goes and where did repressing women and elevating men begin?
I just thought this was interesting.
"Following
the custom, my great-grandfather was married young, at fourteen, to a
woman six years his senior. It was considered one of the duties of a
wife to help bring up her husband." (pg. 22)
With some exceptions like books on Mao's writings and
"revolutionary operas," among the many things banned or seen as too
"bourgeois" during the Cultural Revolution in China -- books, paintings,
musical instruments, sports, cards, chess, teahouses, bars, flowers,
grass (yes, grass was pulled up as if it were an enemy!), films, plays,
concerts, long hair for women... (pg. 332)
"To me, the ultimate proof of freedom in the West was that there
seemed to be so many people there attacking the West and praising
China. Almost every other day the front page of Reference, the
newspaper which carried foreign press items, would feature some eulogy
of Mao and the Cultural Revolution. At first I was angered by these, but
they soon made me see how tolerant another society could be. I
realized that this was the kind of society I wanted to live in: where
people were allowed to hold different, even outrageous views. I began to
see that it was the very tolerance of opposition, of protestors, that
kept the West progressing." (pg. 472)
The Lost Daughters of China
by Karin Evans - a friend sent me this book thinking I'd like it and I
did! The author and her husband adopted a little girl from China (two
actually),and she tells some of their story and also bits of stories
from others. She explores the reasons women would give up their
daughters, the hardship of life in China, orphanage life and adjusting
to life in the US among other things. I shed a few tears for the
innocent ones who are abandoned and left behind in orphanages as well as
the ones who never have a chance at life because they are either
aborted or killed upon delivery. Also I cried for those women who would
have chosen to keep their children, but could not for the sake of
society. I can't imagine how difficult that must be.
Here is one excerpt I wanted to share.
Re:
the only-children of China being spoiled: "'Many parents of the
nineties,'...'were part of the lost generation of the Cultural
Revolution. After suffering so much themselves, they were determined not
to deprive their only child. Beijing's biggest toy store was always
jammed with parents buying toddler-sized fake fur coats, imported baby
shampoo and red Porsche pedal cars.'
Yet she
saw good things coming out of the situation. 'Many people thought that a
country populated with Little Emperors was headed for disaster. I
disagreed. Granted it might be unpleasant to live in a nation of
me-first onlies, yet I saw a social revolution in the making. For
generations, Chinese society had emphasized the family, the clan, the
collective over the individual. Now, for the first time in four thousand
years of history, the relationship was reversed. Where the Mao
generation failed, the Me generation just might succeed.' She quoted a
British friend, Michael Crook, 'If you have a population of Little
Emperors, you can't have little slaves. Everyone will want to tell
everyone else what to do. You'll have democracy.'" (pg. 234)
Losing My Religion by William Lobdell - I found this at
the local Friends of the Library book sale; a reporter talks about his
faith in Christ, how he got a job reporting religious news for a
newspaper and eventually lost his faith. The book was very respectful,
really, but made me sad because he admits he saw very little difference
in the majority of Christians' lives compared to the general
population. I don't think it's supposed to work like that!
"So what has taken the place of God in my life? A tremendous
sense of gratitude. I sense how fortunate I am to be alive in this thin
sliver of time in the history of the universe. This gives me a renewed
sense of urgency to live this short life well. I don't have eternity to
fall back on, so my focus on the present has sharpened. I find myself
being more grateful for each day and more quickly making corrections in
my life to avoid wasted time. I've tightened my circle of friends,
wanting to maximize time with people I love and enjoy the most. I've
become more true to myself because I'm not as worried about what others
think of me. ... That's what losing God has done for me. Permanent death
- I don't think I have the escape hatch to heaven anymore - now sits
squarely in front of me, unmoving as I rapidly approach. And you know
what? My breakfast does taste better. I feel the love of my
family and friends more deeply. And my dreams for my life have an
urgency to them that won't allow me to put them off any longer. I can no
longer slog through each day, knowing that if my time on Earth isn't
used to its fullest potential, it's no big thing, that I have eternity
with God ahead of me." (pg. 278-279)
Leaving the Saints by
Martha Beck -- I've often been driven to tears and disgust and anger
and laughter and joy, but I don't think a nonfiction book has creeped me
out until I read this book. Really it wasn't that creepy, but I just so
happened to read a part (about Danites
if you must know) right before bed and it must have upped the "creep
factor" in my mind. Like I told someone else, I take most leaving the
faith stories with a huge dose of salt (as opposed to a mere grain)
because I realize sometimes people won't present their former faiths in
the best lights due to their own personal experiences. For others, the
faith is a hugely wonderful thing partly because they haven't
experienced those awful things. So, that said, I enjoyed this book and
some of the talk of sealing in the temple (she didn't go into great
detail because she knows it's sacred), wards (I often wondered what
those were pg. 54), heavenly mothers (yes, plural, since God is a
polygamist, too pg. 75), BYU (pg. 77), the Mormon view of heaven and its
levels (pg. 87), the Egyptian papyri that early Mormons bought from a
traveling guy who showed the papyri for a living (pg. 155), more talk on
polygamy and how women and men viewed it (pg. 177), the victimization
of the Saints in history (pg. 181) and much more. I stopped noting it
after awhile.
By the
way, this lady came out as sexually abused by her father, apparently a
well-known Mormon apologist. I decided to look him up.
This is her father, Hugh Nibley
A Q&A with her after the Mormon Church responded and a sampling of some of the responses she's received by email. It's sad how many others have been sexually abused.
A collection of sites about this book - not sure how fair these are, but there are a number of links.
And when I mentioned this book to a Mormon blogger, she said she'd read the book, it did not ring true and she wasn't the only one who thought this way.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
New Books and My Pretty Picture Book!
These are books I got within the last few days. One was sent to me by a friend who thought I'd enjoy a book she'd finished. Two I bought at our local Friends of the Library sale, and five I got today when I traded in ten books of my own.
We were here three weeks ago right now...sigh. I loved it. God really blessed us with wonderful weather, and a truly great trip!
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| Innsbruck, Austria |
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| Eagle's Nest, Bayern, Germany |
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| Salzburg, Austria |
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