New books by two Hawaii authors
are as different as light and dark
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Pamela Kennedy used the traits of animals to make an inspirational impact on young readers in her 25th book, "Five-Minute Devotions for Children," printed by Ideals Publications.
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Emmett Cahill exposed a grim chapter of Hawaiian history, when government leaders persecuted and imprisoned Hawaiians for choosing one form of Christianity over another. "The Dark Decade" was released this month by Mutual Publishing Co., two months after the author died at the age of 90.
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The qualities of animals teach
Christian values to children
Imagine finding some redeeming spiritual value in one of those icky, ugly geckos. Or in a snarling wildcat or a creepy spider.
Pamela Kennedy does. Her "Five-Minute Devotions for Children" gives youngsters and the older generation who reads to them new insight into God's creatures as role models.
"I tend to do things off the wall," said Kennedy, a Christian education teacher at St. Andrew's Priory. "I take the character of the animal and apply it to the child's life.
"I want parents to be comfortable with the book even if they don't have a religious background. God is available to us through nature. The psalm tells us, 'The heavens reveal the glory of God.' We are encouraged to look at life around us."
Released in September, it is the 25th book Kennedy has written in the last 19 years. All but five are children's books, and most were published by Ideals Publishing Corp., which specializes in inspirational books and magazines.
Kennedy began writing during husband Kraig's career in the Navy. She started with articles for military lifestyle magazines. Her connection with Ideals Publishing began in 1985. The Christian-based publisher commissioned her to contribute to a series of the classics retold for children. Hers included "Dickens' Christmas Carol" and "The Story of the Swan Lake Ballet." She writes a column for the bimonthly Ideals magazine.
"What was wonderful for me is that writing was portable, perfect for a military spouse," she said. The Kennedys have three children, the oldest of whom, Doug, is co-author of "More Five-Minute Devotions for Children," to be released next year.
The stories "have an interactive element asking children to reflect about themselves and about where does God come into the story." They are crafted to get the child and parent to talk.
The lesson from the wildcat is about anger. "God wants his children to be kind to one another and to control their anger," she wrote. "When we are angry, we need to talk about how we feel instead of punching or hitting other people or calling them names. Everybody gets angry sometimes, but no one should act like a wildcat."
Young readers are asked: "What makes you angry? Why do you think God wants us to control ourselves when we are angry?"
On another page: "When we tell lies, we feel caught, just like the careless insect in the spider's web. We can choose to be truthful instead. Why do you think God wants his children to tell the truth?"
If a predator grabs it by the tail, a gecko can escape by dropping the appendage and growing a new one, she writes. "When we are being hurt or frightened, it is sometimes a good thing to run to a safe place. We cannot leave a part of ourselves behind, but God has given us a way to be safe, too. We can tell a grown-up that we trust and ask them to help us. God wants all of his creation to be safe."
"My aim is to make faith relevant to life for kids," she said, and that applies to her priory classes on basic Christianity for sophomores and "Love and the Christian" for juniors. "In high school they start becoming passionate about what's true, making decisions that are life-changing. Children need foundational values to make decisions.
"If the spiritual dimension is not nurtured, there will be something missing from their lives ... whether it is in the context of Christianity or another faith."
Religious differences led to
persecution of Hawaiians
The prisoners were marched in shackles to do heavy labor on the barren Waikiki plain. Each one's sentence was to build a 6-foot-high, 50-foot-long wall, to dig out the rocks without tools and pile them for as many months as it took.
Their offense was being "papists."
The persecution of Hawaiians who turned from the first brand of Christianity brought to the islands by New England missionaries in 1820 to another version offered by French Catholic priests seven years later went on for 10 years.
Families were driven from their homes, possessions destroyed or confiscated. Some were imprisoned. Women were sentenced to haul excrement from stables or latrines. No one had a trial.
Many historical figures known for their positive contributions to the growth of Hawaii had roles in the religious persecution: Queen Kaahumanu, Oahu Chief Abner Paki, Protestant missionary Hiram Bingham, historians Samuel Kamakau and David Malo.
The Protestant-vs.-Catholic religious wars have played out on many other battlefields in the last 400 years, and the Irish Catholic Emmett Cahill had his own ethnic history on the subject. So if he told the Hawaii chapter with some attitude, a bit of irony, it's understandable. Example: "It is hard to believe that the Rev. Bingham was so engaged in spreading the Good Word that he did not know for more than a year about the punishment that was being dealt out at the fort and the environs of the village."
Cahill was the author of several books on Hawaiian history, including "The Life and Times of John Young." He was former executive of the John Howard Society, which helped prisoners, and was involved in other social activism.
Among his sources for "The Dark Decade" was a 1927 book, "History of the Catholic Mission in Hawaii," by Father Reginald Yzendoorn, a member of the Sacred Hearts religious order, which sent the first Catholic missionaries.
Abbe de Quelen baptized Kalanimoku aboard the French vessel L'Uranie, which arrived in 1819, four months after the death of Kamehameha the Great.
As in Ireland, the religious intolerance demonstrated here was a mix of politics and religion. It ended in July 1839 when the French frigate L'Artemise sailed into Honolulu harbor with a demand from the French king that the priests who had been exiled be allowed to return and the persecution halted. The manifesto carried the threat of military reprisal, not to mention loss of trade.
An adult Kamehameha III undid the influence of the female regents who spearheaded the Catholic persecution while he was a minor. He entered into a treaty with France and acted to end the persecution of his Catholic subjects.
A year later, the kingdom of Hawaii promulgated its first constitution. Its preamble stated that there shall be complete freedom of religion in Hawaii.
In the next decade, the Anglican Church was invited to Hawaii by King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, and the first Mormon missionaries arrived.
As a footnote to history, the modern-day descendant of the first Calvinist missionaries is the United Church of Christ, which has a record of social justice advocacy and is involved in not only ecumenical Christian partnerships, but interfaith activities with non-Christians.
Alas, Cahill is not available to philosophize on similarities in religious fundamentalism and intolerance then and now.
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