Post 3

Being a Christian for the past nine years of my life, I feel that I can speak about the religious aspects discussed in Into the Wild. The one sentence that especially caught my attention was, “McCandless could endeavor to explain that he answered to statues of a higher order – that as a latter-day adherent of Henry David Thoreau, he took as gospel the essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and thus considered it his moral responsibility to flout the laws of the state.” It’s a long sentence, so I am going to dissect it. First off, when the sentence says, “…he answered to statues of a higher order…” the first thing that comes to my mind is that McCandless was religious; perhaps he was even a Christian. Krakauer had mentioned some religious bits that would lead one to believe that McCandless did believe in GOD. All these thoughts are dashed, however, when the sentence continues by saying, “…he took as gospel the essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and thus considered it his moral responsibility…” When one is a Christian -- believing, trusting, and loving GOD -- one does not go about purposely disobeying petty rules set by the school teacher or breaking declarations signed by the president. A Christian follows the rules and laws with a passion to please their leaders, because one feels obligated. My youth pastor has spoken with my youth group, on several occasions, about the topic of humbling oneself to obey elders. It is difficult to humble oneself, especially in the society that we, as Americans, grow up in. A society where we are taught to be prideful and completely independent, not ever letting anyone see how we truly feel. GOD did not just give us feelings to hide; HE gave us the feelings to share.