In The Mockingbird Parables we look several times at the honesty of children and the way theyview the world…In the novel Dill just can’t seem tounderstand why the adults around him are levelling such injustice and disrespect toward one-another – he comments that maybe it would make more sense if he just joined the circus when he grew up so that he can laughat all of them and their behavior… There is truly a hopelessness that sets in when we shrug our shoulders at injustice – at unfairness – at sin – and begin to believe “that is just the way things are”…

I love this piece from Michel Martin at NPR on To Kill a Mockingbird and really believe that the writer captures the power of the novel in her closing lines: (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128466065)

She says ~”I haven’t read that novel in a long, long time. I am wondering if it’s time to pick it up again, to be reminded that otherwise decent people will look the other way at wrong, and that sometimes, other decent people will cross the room to stand up for those who deserve it and are standing alone. I am glad I read that book when I did, before the cynicism of a later age made that obvious truth harder to see.”

I wonder sometimes if that isn’t what Jesus was talking about when he said we needed to become like children – that we should hang onto thatview of the world, the clear sense of fairness – the belief that we can makethings right – to reject cynicism. It seems to me that Jesus was the ultimate idealist – and I guessthat meansif we are really going to follow Him… maybe we should be too.