Kids Share Their Theological Thoughts in Bill Adler's Dear Pastor

Kids say the darnedest things. That was the theme of the show that Art Linkletter and later Bill Cosby hosted for many years, and it’s also something to which Bill Adler could readily attest, only he might instead say, “Kids write the darnedest things.” Adler has published many books showcasing letters that children have written to particular people. In the gift book Dear Pastor, illustrated by Bettye Beach, the addressee is a child’s pastor.

Unfortunately, there are no notes in here about how these were collected, so I’m not sure if he asked pastors for letters from children or asked kids to send in letters that they might send their pastor. My suspicion is the latter, since each letter follows the same format: “Dear Pastor, [body of letter], [optional sign-off], [name], [age], [city].” Then again, he may have just contacted those kids and asked them to re-write their letters in that format. Since almost every letter is hand-written – some print, some cursive – I assume that we’re seeing the kids’ own hands. If not, he’s using a lot of kidprint fonts to be rather misleading.

These are cute letters that delve into a number of theological questions. Because of the book’s format, they are extremely short. Most letters only contain one or two sentences, and there are recurring themes. Some kids offer backhanded compliments on the service like “I like the choir in church very much except for the songs they sing” and “I like to go to church on Sunday because I don’t have any choice.” Others have suggestions on how to make things more fun; particularly memorable is that of 9-year-old Loreen, who muses, “I think more people would come to church if you moved it to Disneyland.”

While some of these kids clearly are not too enthralled with church as it stands, many of them seem to yearn for a deeper sense of spiritual connection. One child requests God’s phone number, another His zip code. Ten-year-old Franklin, tired of feeling invisible in a classroom where his teacher still can’t get his name right, hopes that God knows his name. Others seem more concerned about God’s well-being; one asks what He does for fun, another who He turns to in times of crisis. Some of the questions seem pretty goofy, but these are pretty typical of young children trying to explore religious ideas. I’ve certainly heard a few questions like this from kids at church and asked a few myself. In fact, my inquisitiveness about such matters got me in a heap of trouble at the public kindergarten I attended.

Adler doesn’t offer any answers here; he just chronicles the questions and comments, and Beach provides humorous drawings to accompany them. These cartoonish kids mostly appear on the right pages, though one will occasionally show up on the left. Not every kid has a cartoon counterpart; we have 75 letters but only 40 illustrations. Still, the kids we do see in visual form are very cute, both the virtuous and the mischievous.

Christian parents and anybody who works with kids in a church capacity will probably find humor in these letters. The book may also prepare them to respond to these types of queries if they come up. This book’s purpose is really just to entertain, but if it can help strengthen a dialogue between kids and adults, so much the better.