In His Steps

Have you ever regretted reading a book — which one and why?

View all responses

I read this work as part of the required curriculum, we, as parents, had to follow when we enrolled our second child through a home school program.  

Some people have found this work to be inspirational and in some ways, it can be seen that way.  A pastor that has to change his perspective of a disheveled man, who was simply looking for work and a community that banded together for survival during an economic drought during the late 19th, or early 20th century.

My main criticism is it frames the story as “inspirational realism”, when in fact, it is fantasy.  In truth, during the Great Depression, many of the fundamentalist Christian belief, very often objected to the New Deal initiatives that kept the people in the country alive while they struggled to recover from the crash of 1929.  In addition, they also sanctioned such things as “dance marathons” for the people to compete for just enough money to buy a loaf of bread.  In those cases, the only ones who truly won, were the promoters, exploiting the people for their own gain.