The last time I looked, THE SHACK was the number one book on the Amazon.com site. Although I was somewhat intrigued by the premise of the book, I have been extremely reluctant to try it because of its “smarm” potential, but there was something about that shack that was irresistible.
William Paul Young deserves credit for touching on a very profound religious question: Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
MacKenzie Allen Phillips, the main character in the story, is devastated when his young daughter Missy is kidnapped and apparently murdered. But then he receives a strange letter in the mail. God would like to see him at the shack where his daughter’s bloody dress was found. At first he thinks this must be a crazy person or maybe even the murderer trying to lure him into a trap. He goes to the cabin, without telling his wife, but he carries a gun with him.
It’s pretty clear Young is targeting a Christian audience. MacKenzie is a Christian, if not a very zealous one, before he reaches the shack. However, Young does bring up some ideas that may offend the Christian Right. He has Jesus say that he’s not a Christian. He also has him say that God would never condemn his children to hell. He even feels compassion for the murderer. But then, if Jesus is not a Christian, why does he accept The Garden of Eden as fact? Why does he also make Biblical references? (Could it be because that’s the only place you’ll find Jesus mentioned?) The Bible was compiled by at least four major religions, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Greek humanism, and Christianity. It has been changed repeatedly. Check out the King James version compared to the Catholic version. There is also some DNA evidence that the Garden of Eden never existed. Read BEFORE THE DAWN by Nicholas Wade.
Also if you want to have a profound theological discussion MacKenzie Phillips isn’t the best choice for the job. Read the “Grand Inquisitor” chapter in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV if you want to see a worthy adversary for Jesus.
The last area I want to touch on is Young’s contention that man went wrong when he insisted on his independence in the Garden of Eden. Man’s stubborn independence is blamed for what happened to Missy and this is Young’s answer to the above question, why God allows bad things to happen to good people. The myth of the Garden of Eden has caused more problems than it’s worth. There’s the idea that man was forever burdened with original sin; there’s also a misogynistic element. Eve is blamed for seducing Adam into eating the forbidden fruit. The initial idea that man has created his own problems by insisting on independence is also nonsense. Where would we be today without independent thinkers like Einstein, Edison, and Newton? Another good source that addresses some of the myths religious people love to expound on is THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL by Gerald Messadie. It shows how much of Christian theology originated with Zoroastrianism, which the Jews brought back to Israel after the Babylonian Captivity.
Young deserves credit for emphasizing the Golden Rule, but he doesn‘t offer any systematic approach. No religion, no cohesion. Check out Buddhist philosophy; they do it better than anybody.
