Harper Lee, who died on February 19, 2016, understood the things of the earth. In his classic novel O Sol é para todos (José Olympio?2015), descriptions of velvety camellias, languid houses and gravel-crushed shoes have painted a world we recognize. We also recognize the people of your world. There were oppressors and oppressed, hypocritical and cynical, and a quiet man with conscience.
Atticus Finch’s conscience becomes disgraceful when he is forced to defend Tom Robinson, an innocent black man accused of raping a poor white woman. In this little Alabama at the time of the Great Depression, there is no possibility of justice. Finch’s daughter, Scout, doesn’t understand how she can do the right thing when everyone in town is against her. “I could never go to church and worship God,” he says, “if I didn’t try to help this man. “
- As he wrote about religion.
- Lee’s strength brought to light the earthly implications of heavenly faith.
- When it comes to racial prejudice in a small southern town.
- Popular consciousness cannot be trusted.
- Heavenly citizens should not stand up for the values of their earthly communities when those values smell the devil.
- Lee saw the contradiction of worshipping a God of righteousness while committing injustice (or seeing him done and not intervening).
- As one of your characters says.
- “Sometimes the Bible in one man’s hand is worse than a bottle of whiskey in [someone else’s] hand.
- “.
For African Americans in O Sol and for all, heavenly hope coexists with earthly despair. We witness this despair when Finch’s housekeeper takes the children with her to his church. Many aspects of worship are alien to children, especially the offering, Reverend Sykes said. congregation that the offerings would go to Tom Robinson’s wife. One by one, people put their coins in a coffee box. The pastor counts the money and communicates that it is not enough. They need $10, he closed the church door and kept the captives until Robinson’s family money was raised.
Tensions subside when at least $10 is raised, and open the doors as the organist plays “On Jodan’s Stormy Banks”. The main idea of the hope of this church is for the future, although its members try, at great cost, to help each other survive in the present.
Members of the church of Tom Robinson and Atticus Finch serve as role models for Christians whose faith leads them not to leave this world, but to serve their neighbors. Lewis describes this kind of faith in Christianity directly:
If you study history, you will see that the Christians who worked hardest for this world were exactly the ones who thought the most about the next world. The apostles, who triggered the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who erected the Middle Ages, the English Protestants who abolished the slave trade?each left his mark on Earth precisely because his mind was occupied by Heaven. It was when Christians stopped thinking about the other world that they became so incompetent in it. If you aspire to paradise, will you come to Earth?if you aspire to Earth, you will lose both [1].
Harper Lee (1926-2016) wrote about a time and place where the Christian religion was very different on both sides of the same city. Many things have changed, but many have remained the same. We may never appreciate a socially appropriate religion today. at the expense of true religion, but seeking and praying for justice both on earth and in heaven.
1 C. S. Lewis. Pure and simple Christianity. Editor Martins Fontes, 2009. p. 51. Translation by Marcelo Brandao Cipolla.
By: Betsy Childs Howard. © The Gospel Coalition. Website: thegospelcoalition. org. Translated with permission. Source: Heaven, Earth and Harper Lee (1926?2016)
Original: Is the sun for everyone? Secular novels we recommend [17] © Faithful Ministérium. Website: MinisterioFiel. com. br. All rights reserved. Translation: Leonardo Bruno Galdino. Review: William Teixeira