L. M. Montgomery—Who Was She?
We have received many requests for information regarding the popular Anne of Green Gable Series written for young girls. Are these good books for our Christian girls? What type of impact will these books have? Is there any harm in them? These are the questions we ask ourselves when we review an author or a book. Reviewing an author is often important because an author’s beliefs are usually woven into his/her writings. This often happens very subtly, so it can be just as important to "know" the author as it is to evaluate the book. In the case of L. M. Montgomery, a big part of the answer to these questions, we think you will agree, lies in who she was, and what she believed.
Lucy M. Montgomery was born on Prince Edward Island in 1874. Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908, and she later went on to publish over twenty books, hundreds of short stories, and numerous poems. Mrs. Montgomery kept extensive journals throughout her lifetime. It is through these personal reflections that we really get to know her.
Mrs. Montgomery attended church during her earlier years as all good islanders did. However, we find no profession of any sort indicating a personal salvation through Jesus Christ. Although she married a Presbyterian minister and became a model pastor’s wife and church-goer, being active in the many duties of the local church, it seemed she led a double life. In fact, in her journals, she professed something much different. Following are a few direct quotes from those journals.
BELIEFS OF HER YOUTH
On page 197 and 198, Volume I, her journal recounts her varying beliefs in the Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Unitarian doctrines. She finally joined a church under false pretenses. She says, "Then there was Mary C. who really wanted to "come out" and wouldn’t unless I would: and so, partly for her sake, partly because I was tired of being urged and pestered and harangued every time a revivalist came around, I surrendered and "came out", too. I think it was a mistake, for I put myself in a false position. To "join the church" meant assenting to certain teachings which I did not and could not accept.
I cannot recall just when I ceased to believe implicitly in those teachings—the process was so gradual. My belief in the fine old hell of literal fire and brimstone went first—it and others seemed to drop away like an outgrown husk, so easily that I knew it not until one day it dawned upon me that they had been gone a long time. I have not yet formulated any working belief to replace that which I have outgrown. Perhaps it will come in time. These things must grow, like everything else."
THE OCCULT
Volume II reveals what direction she was heading. On page 215 she recounts, "Thereby hangs a tale—or what is worse, an explanation! It is twenty-eight years since I first learned to "make a table rap" [call up a spirit that agitates the table during a seance]. We used to do it out in Prince Albert for an evening’s fun. When I returned home I introduced it among the Canvendish young fry and it was the fashionable amusement of the winter." The next page or so offers descriptive details about things that these spirits did and said. On page 314 and 315, we see her dabbling in the occult through the medium of the Ouija board and, unfortunately, enjoying it thoroughly. "Ralph’s father, Dr. Aylsworth, believes that the power behind Ouija is a demonism. He may be right. But evidently some demons have a sense of humor!"
HER MARRIAGE
Volume II tells us of her marriage to a Presbyterian minister who often found himself tormented with the thought of going to hell. Page 327 states, "In his normal state of mind Ewan does not believe any more than I do in that blasphemous old idea of a ‘hell of fire and brimstone’. But he was not normal and all the gloomy teachings he had listened to in his childhood from ministers of the old school had taken complete possession of his thoughts."
HER STATEMENT OF FAITH—ANOTHER GOD
Volume II, page 371 finally gives us her true statement of faith. "I believe in a God who is good and beautiful and just—but not omnipotent. It is idle to ask me to believe in a God who is both good and omnipotent. Given the conditions of history and life the two things are irreconcilable. To believe that God is omnipotent but not purely good—well, it would solve a good many puzzling mysteries. Nevertheless, it is a belief that the human soul instinctively shrinks from. Well, then, I believe in God who is good but not omnipotent. I also believe in a Principle of Evil, equal to God in power—at least, at present—opposing hideousness to His beauty, evil to His good, tyranny to His justice, darkness to His light. I believe that an infinite ceaseless struggle goes on between them, victory now inclining to the one, now to the other. So far, my creed is the old Persian creed of the eternal conflict between Ahrimanes and Ormuzd. But I did not take it over from the Persian. My own mind has compelled me to it, as the only belief that is in rational agreement with the universe as we know it.
I believe that if we range ourselves on the side of good the result will be of benefit to ourselves in this life and, if our spirit survives bodily death, as in some form I feel it will, in all succeeding lives; conversely, if we yield to or do evil the results will be disastrous to us. And I admit the possibility of our efforts aiding to bring about sooner the ultimate victory of good."
She continues this self-serving theology with, "This is my creed, it explains all which would otherwise puzzle me hopelessly; it satisfies me and comforts me.
Orthodox Christianity says reproachfully, ‘Would you do away with my hope of heaven?’ The hope of heaven is too dearly balanced by the fear of hell, and the one thing implies the other. I believe in neither: but I believe that life goes on and on endlessly in incarnation after incarnation, co-existent with God, and Anti-god, rejoicing, suffering, as good or evil wins the upper hand. To me, such an anticipation is infinitely more attractive that the dull effortless, savorless existence pictured to us as the heaven of rest and reward. Rest! It is a good thing; but one does not want an eternity of it. All we ask rest for is to gain fresh strength for renewed effort. Reward! Even in this life reward once tasted, soon loses its flavor. Our best reward is the joy of the struggle."
All of the above from a pastor’s wife faithfully attending the services of the church, heading up the women’s ministries, and writing to young girls! L. M. Montgomery created her own god, and her books are thoroughly peppered with subtle incarnations of her beliefs. Her Emily Series is especially saturated with them.
BELIEFS ON WOMANHOOD
Mrs. Montgomery’s journals also reveal her disharmony with the biblical roles of men and women as her journals reveal. Even the secular reviewers have this to say. "An unhappily married woman had no dignified course but to bear her pain in silence—unless, of course, she was a skillful writer who could sublimate her tensions by creating fiction and express her personal feelings in a journal. Unlike the average woman of her time, Montgomery managed to find a voice. In her fiction it was indirect: her novels, which appear on the surface to be lighthearted, even effervescent, sometimes contain a serious subtext; even her humour is often derived from anger and frustration. . . .In her own romantic novels she often seemed reluctant to end courtship stories with the conventional closure of ‘and then they were married’; when her independent heroines marry, she suggests a veiled but perceptible disharmony between their early aspirations and their eventual situations. In Montgomery’s journals we find accounts of unfortunate marriages, her own and her contemporaries. We see the stress that silence, service, and subservience occasionally created in women."
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, in Volume III, on page 398 we find, "Silence seemed to come through the pines to me like a Real Presence—hovering, enfolding, blessing. Those great tall trees around me were my brothers—my older wiser brothers. I stood for many minutes by one of them, my arm around it, my face pressed to it, breathing a prayer to the God of Beauty I have always served—a new re-consecration to Him. Fresh from Herodotus. I feel like the priestess of an oracle under her sacred pines. The Past was the Present. Frede came to me there—and a man I once loved kissed me again." How reminiscent this is of the groves in which the Old Testament Jews practiced idolatry and were cursed for it, as it was the same idolatry that we call New Age today, in which subhuman life forms are elevated to man’s equivalent or greater. Who says the gods of wood and stone no longer exist?
So, let us go to the popular question, "What is wrong with Anne of Green Gables?" The best answer is in questions. How good is L. M. Montgomery for your children? What subtle ideas will she plant in their minds while they are engrossed in the story line? Who is her god? Will her god and his ideals affect her readers? Obviously, the better she was at what she did the more effectively and transparently she will affect her readers. So, the answer to the question lies in what you as a parent consider acceptable influences.
L. M. Montgomery’s works are considered classics by many. There is an idea that a classic is a must-read for those who would be well-read. Could it be that widely-read is not well-read — especially for impressionable children? Will we gamble a child’s eternity on a few afternoons of reading? Such are the questions that a parent must face.
Hello,
I have seen the Chronicles of Narnia in several catalogs and had always wondered why any Christian publisher would sell them, but I did no know about L. M. Montgomery. Unfortunately, my daughter has the complete set and has read them several times. Thanks so much for the information on your website. I hope to see more reviews in the future. Do you have a list of good books to recommend for my two girls ages 9 and 12?
In Christ,
Melinda
