Lucy Maud Montgomery is perhaps best known for her classic Anne of Green Gables series. While these stories have generally been accepted as sweet and decent reading for children (girls in particular) there are some serious questions that arise about this author's life and the things that she presents in her stories.
Many people who were not familiar with the books before, were exposed to the Anne of Green Gables story as it gained renewed popularity in the U.S.A. and Canada through the mini-series on T.V. in the 1980s. More recently Anne with An E on Netflix has gotten its share of attention, partly because of its heavy-handed high-jacking of an old classic to turn it into a propaganda vehicle for political correctness, especially the LGBT agenda. (This was a wide departure from Montgomery's own writings and should not be held against her personally.) The books themselves have also been embraced by the homeschool community in general which generated a lot of interest. Also, in the 1990s Road to Avonlea, a program which aired on the Disney Channel, was loosely based on a number of Montgomery's novels, including Chronicles of Avonlea and The Story Girl books; and Emily of New Moon was aired in Canada and based on her books by the same name.
Having been given my grandmother's set of the Anne books as a girl, I grew up with them and they were among my favorite childhood stories. However, as I grew older and came upon some further knowledge of the author, I realized that there were problems. It does not make me happy to have to address this, but all things must be examined by the scripture, even our favorite sources of "entertainment."
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
It was in the late 1980s that my mom and I began to collect some of the other books by L. M. Montgomery. These were books that my grandma and my mom had never read. Some of the things in them bothered me as I knew that they were very contrary to scripture. Because of this I eventually began to examine and reconsider the Anne books as well, and the Lord brought some disturbing things to my attention.
I looked into LM Montgomery a number of years ago as well when I went to PEI and visited Green Gables. Beautiful area. Went for a walk through the places made familiar by the books.
ReplyDeleteBut the plaques in the KM Montgomery house, telling about the authors life were indeed troubling to a Christian.
One quote that she made that stands out in my mind goes something like “Whom the gods choose to curse the most they allow to marry a preacher.”
I grew up loving her books. They were a wonderful escape for me. But I burned them all shortly after that vacation and I heartily wish that I had not escaped using those books when I was growing up. Maybe I would have made better choices myself if I had had better influences.
Thank you for sharing your story with us! I'm glad you didn't ignore the problem when you saw it, and praise the Lord you followed through. That is really an appalling quote, but it isn't surprising coming from an unsaved woman.
DeleteI think we all have things we wish we hadn't seen or read or done when we were young. David asked God to "remember not the sins of my youth..." (Ps. 25:7). On the other hand, sometimes we can use those things to instruct and warn others once we let the Lord show us the problems. Nothing is wasted with God.