GOOSEBUMPS TEEN “GOD” BOOK PROMOTES SIN AND SELFISHNESS

NEW YORK, July 16, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Scholastic Inc., the producer of the popular children’s Goosebumps series, has published a bizarre and highly offensive book called “Conversations with God for Teens” by Neale Donald Walsch—the four-times divorced New Age guru whose heterodox “Conversations With God” lingered for 132 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.  In the Scholastic book, Walsch’s “God” dispenses morally relativist advice to teenagers, encouraging them to be sexually active and distrustful of parents and all orthodox beliefs. It presents God as not interested in right or wrong; teaches that God welcomes immodesty and sex of all kinds, that each person is a mini-replica of God; that there is no legitimate authority other than the self; and that there is no such thing as “sin” in Christian terms. The Almighty at one point says: “I do not forgive anyone. That is the first thing you must understand about me. … I do not forgive anyone because there is nothing to forgive.”  Scholastic, whose books are in use in Catholic schools across Canada, marketed the teen manual directly to U.S. Christian schools in a catalogue alongside popular orthodox Christian books. But when Dr. James Dobson revealed its anti-Christian content on his July 8 Focus on the Family radio show, vowing never again to buy or promote Scholastic products, the company withdrew the offending catalogue—but not the book. “Sometimes big publishers make mistakes,” said Judy Corman, a company spokesman, adding that Scholastic would continue to market the book outside Christian circles.  Significantly, the advice given by Walsch’s so-called “God” is eerily akin to that of Screwtape, a senior devil teaching his protégé Wormwood in C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters” (1941). The irony is that Screwtape’s goal is to draw souls into Hell.  For previous LifeSite coverage see: Chuck Colson warns against sensation-arousing “Goosebumps” (January 7, 1999) https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/jan/99010703.html   To read a sample of The Screwtape Letters see: https://www.bible-reading.com/screwtape.html