Right Left Whatever

The Pilgrim's Progress - Chapter 14 The Pilgrims Deal With Giant Despair

Christian and Hopeful walk along the river, and not too far along, the Way and the river part, which disappoints them. The path becomes rocky and difficult, and they start grumbling, wishing for a more comfortable path. Soon they see a fenced meadow to their left, and a set of steps over the fence, and a comfortable path on the other side. Christian suggests they walk in the meadow. Hopeful is not sure, thinking they could be led out of the Way. Christian dismisses his concern, he points to the path and notes its parallel to their own. So off they go.

In the meadow, they meet another pilgrim named Vain Confidence. Christian and Hopeful ask him where the new-found path leads, and he assures them it goes to Celestial City, so being reassured, they all go along, Vain Confidence leading the way. Nighttime comes, and it becomes hard to see the path, when suddenly Vain Confidence falls into a deep pit. The pit has been placed there on purpose, they are all in grave danger. Vain Confidence is gravely injured, and does not answer when Christian calls out for him. Christian realizes that he has placed Hopeful's life, and his own, by his foolish decision to leave the path. Hopeful regrets listening to Christian's advice, but after a few harsh words between them, Christian asks for, and receives, Hopeful's forgiveness, and they agree to turn back and get back on the path as fast as they can. The path back is more difficult however. Not only is it dark and it begins to rain. The water rises, and they cannot make it back to the steps over the fence that night, so they stop to rest under whatever shelter they can find. What else can go wrong?

Not far from them is a castle called Doubting Castle, home of Giant Despair and his wife Diffidence, and they are the owners of the property where Christian and Hopeful have been trespassing. When Giant Despair awakes the next day and walks through his fields, he catches Christian and Hopeful, and takes them to his dungeon, where they are left without food or water for several days. Giant Despair tells his wife about the new prisoners, and she urges him to beat them without mercy, so he gets himself a crab tree club and beats them until they cannot move. The next night, Diffidence tells her husband to suggest to the prisoners that they kill themselves, so he goes to them and suggests they might be happier if they commit suicide. He then attempts to attack them in order to motivate them to do so, but suffers a fit so that he cannot control the use of his hand, so he withdraws and leaves them alone.

Christian and Hopeful discuss suicide, but Hopeful is firm -- the Lord has prohibited murder, and murder against one's own self is most egregious, killing the body and soul in one fell swoop. Giant Despair returns again, and is enraged that the prisoners are still alive, but refrains from attacking them again. Diffidence tells her husband to show them the bones and skulls in his courtyard of all his previous victims -- surely that will make the prisoners lose all hope. This he does, and tells Christian and Hopeful their bones will join them within the next ten days. He then returns them to the dungeon with another beating.

That night, as Giant Despair and his wife discuss the prisoners, he expresses dismay that he hasn't been able to finish them off. Diffidence is afraid they may receive help or pick the lock. Giant Despair says he will search them in the morning. Christian and Hopeful spend the night in prayer, and just before dawn, Christian is inspired, "What a fool I am! To lay here in a stinking dungeon, when I could just as easily walk at liberty! In my coat, next to my heart, I have a Key called Promise. I'm persuaded it will open any lock in Doubting Castle." They use the key, and sure enough, the dungeon door creaks open. It makes such a loud sound, that Giant Despair is awakened and rises to pursue his escaping prisoners. He is so enraged that he suffers one of his fits again, so Christian and Hopeful are able to make their escape.

At the steps over the fence, Christian and Hopeful erect a pillar in order to warn future pilgrims: "Over these steps is the way to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, who despises the King of the Celestial Country and seeks to destroy His holy Pilgrims."

Thoughts on this chapter
Christian foolishly leads Hopeful off the path, and into Doubting Castle they go. This chapter is rather personal to me, for I grew up as a Christian, and went off the path about the time I graduated from college. I was in a state of serious doubt for twenty years, denying my faith. Why did I do it? Looking back at it, I was disappointed in some things my church was doing. This was 1982, and the Moral Majority was in the news all the time. I had more leftist views then, and I listened to the media's criticism of the Moral Majority and believed all of it, and slowly began to resent some activities my church was sponsoring, such as protests at abortion clinics. Rather than discuss my concerns with my pastor, I let my unhappiness fester until I couldn't stand it anymore and I walked away. I didn't even consider going to another church that would have ministered in another way. My mind had been poisoned to the point where I thought evangelical Christians were the bad guys, and even the mainline ones were just a waste of time.

What led me back? It's hard to identify one thing really. From a political point of view, events in the last half of the 1990s led me to think that all the leftist spiel I had believed was a flat out lie. I began to reconsider all the criticism of "The Religious Right" I had believed for so long. Now I still have some concerns about how Christianity is presented by such groups. For one thing, when the main emphasis is on morality instead of grace and forgiveness, I don't think there is much there to attract sinners to repent. They're going to look at religion the same way I look at a plate of liver and onions and snub it. But getting back to the point -- I reconsidered my doubts, and I started reexamining my lifestyle and my beliefs. I didn't think my lifestyle would support my marriage over the long haul. Sure Amy said she loved me and supported me, but when I looked at our religious environment (we were Unitarian Universalists back then) and what I was giving to the marriage, I doubted that we had a solid rock that our marriage would stand on for the next fifty years or more. I looked at Christianity as a faith that could save my marriage, and I didn't want to wait till there was a real crisis to depend on it. It took a while, but I could detect God doing things in my life. In 2000 I started praying again, though I was still hanging on to some independence from God. In the summer of 2001, I decided to repent and give up my last bit of resistance, and I let Him have me. The difference in my life that day was as sudden as if I had pulled a key out from my coat pocket and unlocked a prison door.

Posted by joelfuhrmann at March 24, 2003 10:28 PM