Social Issues

Young, William. P. The Shack. California: Windblown Media, 2007.

The social issues that are present in my novel are, crime and injustice/justice. This issues plays a big role, because if Mack's youngest daughter was never kidnapped, and murdered, he wouldn't be so depressed, he wouldn't have found the shack, and he wouldn't have met Sarayu, Papa (God), and Jesus. He also would have never realized just how much God actually does care, and help people in society. Through out the few days he spent with them at the shack he learned many things, one of them (and what i think is one of the most important) being that papa does love and care for all his/her people, and that he does help, but that we don't see it, because he stops it before we can, so all we can see is the bad that he can't stop.

"The real underlying flaw in your life is that you don't think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything-the means, the ends, and all the processes of individual live-is all covered by my goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me.... Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved. Because you do not know that I love you, you cannot trust me..... For now I just want you to be with me and discover that our relationship is not about performance or you having to please me. I'm not a bully, not some self-centered demanding little deity insisting on my own way. I am good, and I desire only what is best for you. You cannot find that through guilt or condemnation or coercion, only throught a relationship of love. And I do love you."
 Mack starts to talk about that he couldn't imagine any final outcome to justify the mess in the world to this papa replies :"We're not justifying it. We are redeeming it."

 "All evil flows from independence, and independence is your choice. If I were to simply revoke all the choices of independence, the world as you know it would cease to exist and love would have no meaning.… This world is not a playground where I keep all my children free from evil. Evil is the chaos of this age that you brought to me, but it will not have the final say. Now it touches everyone that I love, those who follow me and those who don't. If I take away the consequences of people's choices, I destroy the possibility of love. Love that is forced is no love at all"

 "Nobody knows what horrors I have saved the world from 'cuz people can't see what never happened"

 "For you to know or not…has nothing at all to do with whether I am actually here or not. I am always with you; sometimes I want you to be aware in a special way -- more intentional"