A number of years ago, 2007 to be exact, a book was self-published by Canadian author William P. Young and within a year it had sold over one million copies. This caused it to be picked up by a publishing house, Hatchett Book Group, USA's Faithwords Imprint and ultimately sold more than 10 million copies and was later adapted into a movie. I realize I am late to the game with this review.
One woman in our church in 2007 was reading the book and a man in the church condemned the book outright, and her for reading it, saying it had no place in the Christian world. I asked him if he'd read it and he said he had not and would not since the book made God into a black woman.
And that was that to him. The woman simply said, quietly, "Well, I like it."
The book is The Shack and the movie is titled the same.
At the time of that conversation between that woman and man, I dismissed it as just another controversial book and had no interest. Over a number of years, I would hear criticism of the book by people who had not read it. The criticism was harsh, condemning and based on non-facts about the book. The negativity was all based on perceptions of the book, not the book itself. Sad.
Fast forward 11 years.....I'm a new resident of North Carolina, settling into a new home and coming upon an entire week in which my husband was going to be out of town on business. Flipping through some channels on TV, I saw that "The Shack" was on Lifetime Movie Network that night. On a whim, I hit record with intent to watch it the following week while my husband was out of town.
When I settled in to watch the movie, I almost didn't. Christians in my life had been so highly critical of the movie that I thought maybe I was wrong to watch it. But, my sensibilities overrode my doubts and I thought I should see for myself. Since I don't get my theology from books or movies anyway, I thought it was harmless to see it.
Imagine my surprise when the movie turned out to be nothing like the critical Christians had described it to be.
SPOILER ALERT!
If you have not read the book or seen the movie, and you want to read it/see it, stop reading now and come back after you've read/seen it. I'm going to be giving details. For those of you not wanting to read further for fear of the spoiler, I say, read this book, watch this movie. It shows incredible creativity and has a high entertainment value and does not make any theological statements whatsoever.
The story starts with a young boy, Mackensie (Mac), growing up in an abusive home where his father beat him and his mother mercilessly. After some of his beatings as a boy, he often found comfort on the front porch of a neighbor, a kind black woman who showed him compassion, empathy and care. She knew what he was going through. She was his comfort. She listened.
Then Mac grew up, got married and had a family of his own. This part of the story starts when his two oldest kids were teens and his youngest, Missy, was 10 years old. His wife, a woman of great faith, had taught the children to call God "Papa." Mac takes his kids on a camping trip, something he often did with just his kids. On the way to the campground, they spotted a run-down shack in the woods, thought it was interesting, and went on.
Later, the older son and daughter were out on the lake in a canoe and the daughter stood up to get her dad's attention, flipping the canoe upside down.
Her brother got stuck under the canoe and couldn't get loose. Mac dived into the lake, swam out to the canoe, got his son, brought him back to the dock and began CPR. Everyone at the campground had gathered around and all breathed a sigh of relief when the son began coughing and spitting out water. He was going to be ok.
Missy had been coloring at a picnic table by their camper when this happened and after helping his son get up and be ok, Mac looked up to the picnic table where he had left Missy....but she was gone. He began to look all around for her, sent his older daughter into the ladies room/shower to see if she was there, asked his fellow campers to all check their sites for her. Everyone looked extensively for Missy, but she was nowhere to be found.
Police were called.....they set out on a search....Mac's wife drove to the campsite and everyone was searching for Missy. Much later, they found something, got Mac and took him to the old shack they had seen earlier. Inside the shack was a blood-stained red dress....Missy's dress. Missy was nowhere to be found, but her bloody dress told the story. Missy was gone, declared dead. Even though a recovery search continued, the family was devastated and went home to try to put their lives back together again. The police had a suspect, a man who had abducted other little girls before.
As the family tried to cope with the insurmountable loss, Mac fell into a deep depression, began to doubt his faith and turned away from God, his family and became angry and disoriented in life.
He found a note in his mailbox one morning....a note with no postmark....an invitation to the shack...the shack where Missy's dress was found. Angry, he confronted a neighbor thinking he had played a bad joke; the neighbor had done no such thing. He finally decided to show up at the shack and confront whomever had sent the note and get his own justice. His neighbor offered to go, not wanting Mac to go alone, and they packed up the neighbor's truck - a four-wheel-drive needed in the snowy mountains.
But while the neighbor went back into his garage for some things, Mac hopped into his truck and took off. He was doing this alone.
On the way to the shack, Mac is - (or nearly is?) - hit by a truck. The story continues from Mac's perspective.....he goes to the shack and meets this young man on the way and threatens to shoot him but the young man seems oblivious to his threats and invites him to join him saying things are warm at the cottage. As Mac warily follows him, the winter snow gives way to a lush green landscape covered with beautiful flowers.....like Narnia thawing out. Confused, Mac continues to follow the young man who takes him into the cottage and introduces him to "Papa," who is a black woman. She makes him food and introduces him to a young woman who is always ever-so-slightly glowing.
The black woman identifies herself as "Papa," aka "The Great I Am" and Mac is totally confused and tells her he thought The Great I Am was a male with a white beard. "Papa" replies that she didn't think a male figure was appropriate, given his life. Over the course of a few days, he realizes the young man was representing Jesus, the black woman was representing God and the young glowing woman was the Holy Spirit.
Throughout his time at the shack, which is now a beautiful cottage, Mac is confronted with all his fears and doubts and allowed to have all his emotions, negative and positive. After the trio takes him through a series of experiences, he finds peace about Missy and assurance of her presence in Heaven. Mac then finds himself inexplicably waking up in a hospital bed with his neighbor looking down on him saying he's glad he finally decided to wake up.
Yes, Mac was hit by the truck and his entire time at "The Shack" was a dream. It was a dream!
Not one Christian who criticized the book to me mentioned that it was a dream. Not one person mentioned the tragedy of Missy's disappearance and death. Not one Christian person told me the truth about this book/movie. They all made assumptions based on non-facts they had heard from others.
The author of this book was not making a theological statement about God being a woman or anything of the sort. It was a dream! The author is crazy creative in how he put this dream together and made it so real, yet not real at all.
I recommend this book as it is intriguing, entertaining, thought-provoking and not a theological statement. It is entertainment. If you're scared to read a creative, thoughtful book because you fear your theology will be compromised, your theology is already shaky. I took zero theological lessons away from this movie. It was sheer creative entertainment and that is all. Those who criticize this book from a theological standpoint are way out of line; it's not theology, it's a dream. I have one Source for my theology and that is the Word of God.
I have such dreams. I often dream drastic, unreasonable dreams that seem very real. Maybe I should start writing them down.
~Tricia
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