Anyone thinking I will water down the title of this blog (now that I have your attention) is mistaken. The title stands. Here I’d add only that Jesus figures prominently in both Christianity and Islam. So how Jesus is treated is important to practitioners of not one but two major world religions.
The Fault in Our Stars, a book stocked at our Franklin Middle School library, is so popular that there's a backlog of kids waiting to check it out. So parents from either faith might be interested to know how Jesus is treated in this book.
[Side note: everyone knows Jesus means a lot to Christians. Not everyone knows what he means to Muslims, however. Here’s a quick explanation. Muslims honor Jesus Christ as one of the greatest prophets sent to mankind. A Muslim friend of mine adds the letters PBUH after the name of Jesus every time he types it. Google "Peace Be Upon Him" and Jesus for more on that.]
The name of Jesus is used in this book in a manner that will offend many who revere Jesus — both Christian and Muslim alike. So two major world religions are more than slighted by the passage from the book which I have provided below.
In the interest of keeping this blog short, I've cut out some of the dialog, but those who want the unabridged version can find it in Exhibit A.
Here's all the backdrop you need. Gus is dying. He invites his two friends Hazel and Isaac to meet him in "the Literal Heart of Jesus around eight P.M."
The three teens then converge in the sanctuary of a local church where Isaac eulogizes Gus while he's still alive.
----------------
“Augustus Waters was a self-aggrandizing bastard. But we forgive him.
We forgive him ... because he got eighteen years when he should've gotten more.'
'Seventeen,' Gus corrected.
'I'm assuming you've got some time, you interrupting bastard. 'I'm telling you,' Isaac continued, 'Augustus Waters talked so much that he'd interrupt you at his own funeral. And he was pretentious: Sweet Jesus Christ, that kid never took a piss without pondering the abundant metaphorical resonances of human waste production....
'But I will say this: When the scientists of the future show up at my house with robot eyes and they tell me to try them on, I will tell the scientists to screw off...
----------------
I think the above gives the flavor of the eulogy.
Find out what's happening in Wheatonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
First irony: the word eulogy means "good word" in Greek. Too bad Isaac couldn't share his good word with nicer words.
Second irony: screw off? Screw off? If author John Green is trying to be true to how teenagers like Isaac would talk, I believe he'd use the words "f*ck off". No? But the author is apparently pandering to not one audience but two. The first audience is the teens he wants to sell this book to. The second audience is the censors who might draw the line on the word f*ck. So Jesus gets short shrift, but f*ck is given a bit of respect. Nice. But we digress.
Find out what's happening in Wheatonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The eulogy goes on a bit more, and Hazel informs us, "I was kind of crying by then.”
Speaking for myself, my eyes were quite dry. At this point in the book I realized that these kids were not getting wiser. Not changing for the better. Not growing up. They were just kids behaving badly in church.
Now we can put our reading glasses on as adults and come to this book's defense, if we want to give it our best college try. I'll take a swing.
It has been pointed out that Gus's last living words are "Don't swear in the Literal Heart of Jesus." That's nice, and if anyone has any faith at all among these kids, it's Gus.
However Gus is the teenage boy who deflowered 16-yr old Hazel a few pages earlier in the book while she thought he was healthy — and had the good grace to wait another 24 hours before informing her that he's dying. Nice timing, Gus. You're a real gentleman.
No, Gus is not my hero nor a paragon of Christian virtue, though author John Green seems to be trying subtly to suggest he's all that and more. Even so, arguments can be put forth to somehow make this "literature" valuable and "worth reading." Bring them forth. But I ask one thing of those who would give them voice. Explain to us first why middle school children should read Lolita. Then we'll proceed.
Lolita is well-recognized as very good literature. But we don't feed it to middle school kids. Why? Now I confess that I have not read Lolita, but I believe it can be summed up briefly as an adult man’s autobiographical defense of why he had sex with a 12-yr old girl.
Adults who read Lolita will know this is a bad thing and read the book for what it is: a study of a sick man trying to defend his own horrifying moral failure. But we don’t trust material like this to children! They are not ready for it. They won’t understand.
Returning to The Fault in Our Stars, someone can say I’m totally in the wrong to suggest that this book is disrespectful toward Jesus. They might argue that this book subtly encourages faith. I don’t think it does, but rest assured that even if it did, kids would not get that message.
Come on, folks! Read this sentence again: “Sweet Jesus Christ, that kid never took a piss without pondering the abundant metaphorical resonances of human waste production....”
My middle-school daughter can’t even understand the second half of that sentence. She’d understand the first half easily enough, however, if I had a good reason to read it to her. (Which I don’t.) She’d walk away remembering one thing: three kids being irreverent in a sanctuary where Jesus Christ is supposed to be treated with respect.
That young children should find this book entertaining and readily available at school is something Christians and Muslims alike ought to find disturbing.
PS – After reading my first blog on the topic of this book, a friend of mine astutely asked, “Have you spoken to people at the Franklin library about this?” It’s a very good question, and my honest answer is No. My reasoning is simple. I’m not upset with anyone at the Franklin library, and, quite frankly, if I’m the only person offended by this book, I have no quarrel with the decision to stock the book there. I just want to know if the community cares. If we all care, then I am sure CUSD 200 will take our wishes into account. If I'm alone in my distress, that's fine too. Thanks to my friend for asking. You know who you are.
