Is the Bible Appropriate for Children?

My first Bible was KJV, white leather, with my name engraved in the bottom right corner in gold lettering. I was 7 years old and received it as a gift from the church after I was baptized. I loved that pretty Bible. I used to read it in the middle of church service when I was bored. Yet at home, it went untouched, and of course, I harbored guilt about that.

I read the book of Genesis the most as a child, bored in the pews. It read like a magical fairytale, yet, I was taught it was the literal truth. The book of Genesis includes the creation poem, the Adam and Eve Story, Cain and Abel, and Noah’s Ark. All of these stories I was very familiar with because of Sunday School, which made reading it bearable, even though the language of the KJV is so dreadful.

Years later, after secular university, I read it again, although this time through a scholarly lens. I was a new mother at the time and pregnant with my second son. I was about to have two sons; brothers. So, I was completely baffled at why any adult would teach the Cain and Abel story to young children, or give them a Bible with no restriction. I cannot imagine teaching my two boys this story and putting sibling murder in their impressionable little minds.

This observation got me thinking and eventually, I explored the question, “Is the Bible appropriate for Children?” After careful examination, I have concluded that it is not appropriate for the following reasons:

• The Bible is for a mature audience.
• The Bible is complicated. Context and history are very important when reading it. 

The Bible is for a mature audience.

If we made the Bible into a major motion picture, it would undoubtedly be rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association Rating system. An NC-17 rating is given when a film contains violence, sex, drug abuse, and other behavior that most parents would consider off-limits to children under the age of 18. The Bible includes stories of murder, rape, nudity, the mass slaughter of children, genocide, explicit sexual language/activity, beating slaves, and the brutal execution of Jesus Christ.

Before anyone clutches pearls, try to visualize these stories in your mind, as a motion picture. Many children reading the Bible in church visualize what they read in this manner. These children feel the characters, and they put themselves inside the story. I know this because I was a child who read the Bible this way. These stories were too mature for me. They were traumatizing, especially the brutal death of Christ.

I was 23 years old when I saw Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ.” It was the most violent movie I had ever seen, and I remember looking around at the theatre, shocked at the number of children watching this movie. Even though it was rated R, Christian parents felt the movie was good for their children because it was about Jesus. Yet, what if it was a movie about another man? Would parents feel good, honestly, about allowing their children to view this slasher film?

It was the opinion of many critics that the film should have been rated NC-17. Roger Ebert said, “The MPAA’s R rating is definitive proof that the organization either will never give the NC-17 rating for violence alone, or was intimidated by the subject matter. If it had been anyone other than Jesus up on that cross, I have a feeling that NC-17 would have been automatic.”

The story of Jesus’ death isn’t the only Bible story that would be just as inappropriate for children if made into a movie. What about Noah’s Ark? This story is often portrayed as a children’s story, with cuddly animals, and a rainbow. Nothing could be further from the truth. Imagine a movie showing the ark floating in the water among wailing men, women, and children, desperate and drowning. As a parent, I wouldn’t allow my kids to watch that movie. The subject matter is too mature.

We spend so much time and energy trying to protect our children from inappropriate media. In this digital age, the task is extremely difficult. Yet, for centuries, children have been given Bibles and encouraged to read them, with no restriction, and often no understanding of context, history, and literary genre.

The Bible is complicated. Context and history are very important when reading it.

I heard many times growing up in fundamentalism that the Bible is at a 6th-grade reading level, therefore, there is no excuse for children not reading their bibles because it’s too hard to understand. Perhaps the words themselves are at a 6th-grade level, however, the subject matter is often collegiate. There are entire fields of study regarding understanding the Bible in its proper context. If it were so easy to understand, why do we have theologians? Why are there so many debates among theologians? Why are there so many different denominations of Christianity that interpret scripture differently? The Bible is complicated, and it isn’t benign.

The Bible was written 2-3000 years ago, for an intended audience, at a time in history that is worlds apart from today. If we read the Bible without an understanding of the historical period at that time, we can misinterpret very easily the intended meaning or how it applies to us today. We cannot possibly, and correctly, apply the meaning of a certain scripture if we don’t know the culture of the humans that it was meant for. If adults cannot properly do this, why do we think children can?

Much of the Bible was orally passed through the generations before it was written down. It doesn’t take a child more than one-time playing telephone to understand that meaning is lost through the oral transfer of information. Yet, we don’t tell children this about the Bible. They are told this is true, word for word. It’s not honest to withhold this information.

The Bible was written in entirely different languages, including Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. This makes proper translation extremely difficult. Yet, children don’t understand the language barrier or how that might change the meaning drastically. Again, children in fundamentalism/evangelicalism are not told this. One mistranslated word can change the entire meaning of not only a verse but a passage, even a doctrine.

The Bible is not benign. Without the proper context, you can justify anything using the Bible. Try it. You can find justification for the most horror of horrors. Yet, you can also find goodness. It depends on what you’re looking for.

Rachel Held Evans said,

“If you are looking for verses with which to support slavery, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to abolish slavery, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to oppress women, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to liberate or honor women, you will find them. If you are looking for reasons to wage war, you will find them. If you are looking for reasons to promote peace, you will find them. If you are looking for an outdated, irrelevant ancient text, you will find it. If you are looking for truth, believe me, you will find it. This is why there are times when the most instructive question to bring to the text is not “what does it say?”, but “what am I looking for?” I suspect Jesus knew this when he said, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.” If you want to do violence in this world, you will always find the weapons. If you want to heal, you will always find the balm.”

In conclusion, the Bible is too advanced, too mature, for children to understand, digest, and interpret. Most adults have not learned proper historical and cultural context. Most adults do not know ancient Greek and Hebrew. The difference is, adults can find this information. Children aren’t even told they need to, resulting in adults, today, not knowing they need to.

We all need to.

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