To the editor:

A few weeks ago in Wes Crenshaw’s column he asserted that it was not good to teach children about hell as it scares them. The basic assumption is that if something scares a child it should not be taught. Yet we think that we must teach children about strangers, cars speeding by on roads, and even about climate change. If Al Gore is listened to, then children would be frightened.

It would appear, then, that the real issue is over what we consider important enough to warn children about. It might even be over what we consider to be real or something that a child is in danger of. If we teach children about the danger of strangers, we admit this is a real danger and that children must be taught in order to protect them even if it scares them. We want children to have a healthy fear of crossing roads that cars speed by on so we can protect them.

The deduction, then, is that if we do not teach children about hell we don’t consider it important or perhaps real. Let us not hide from ourselves and others the truth that we don’t believe in it or that we are at the least trying to minimize it. If hell is real, we should teach children about it. It is something to be feared far more than climate change. Some believe we can control the climate, but we certainly cannot control God.

Richard Smith,
Lawrence