Godless by Pete Hauptman

Godless is a novel about religion and finding meaning in the everyday.  Jason is a teenager who is questioning Catholicism, the religion he was raised in.  Jason considers himself agnostic, but almost atheist.  His parents force him to attend a youth meeting, where he jokingly invents a religion that has the town water tower as its God.  He names his religion "Chutengodianism" and calls the water tower which is its object of worship the "ten-legged god".  Jay's new religion seems harmless enough at first, but soon leads Jay and his friends into dangerous situations.  When they decide to climb the water tower, the Chutengodians have bitten off more than they can chew and end up in trouble with the law.  Jay's best friend Shin becomes disturbingly serious about the mock religion, causing Jay to question his sanity.  Henry Stagg, who begins the novel by punching Jay in the face, becomes a part of Jay's religion (he shows the others how to climb the water tower), and later begins his own splinter religion.  Henry is an interesting antagonist, in that Jason and Henry start as enemies, become friends, and then enemies again.  A main source of this conflict is the beautiful Magda Price, another Chutengodian on whom Jason has a crush.  Magda's attraction to Henry becomes obvious, to Jason's great dismay.  Ultimately, Jason's religion causes nothing but trouble, and Jason wonders how something which was made up in the first place could have become so real.

Analysis:  I find the title of this book to be somewhat off-putting.  Although the book does concern atheism, it doesn't portray religion in as negative a sense as its title implies.  Jason is not "Godless", he has created his own God.  While this might have seemed like a radical thing 20 years ago, in today's society Jason's story is not terribly controversial.  It is almost as if Hautman is trying to drum up controversy with the name, but the content of the novel doesn't really seem too controversial to me.  That said, some religious parents may have a problem with both the name and the content of this book.  It is openly critical of Catholicism, and seems to present the agnostic and atheist points of view as the correct way of thinking.  As an agnostic, I would be reluctant to assign this book as required reading because I wouldn't want parents to think I was preaching my own beliefs.  Also, this book does not really take a thoughtful look at the characteristics of religious thought, limiting itself to snarky comments about Catholic belief.  I would understand if a devout Catholic was offended by this book- perhaps they should be.  All in all, not a great read.  This book would be appropriate for 8th through 10th grade.

Ideas: I would not be inclined to use this book as part of a class, but it could make a good addition to a school library.  Many kids deal with religious doubt, and although I feel that religious discussion is best kept out of the classroom, kids who are experiencing this type of doubt might relate to this book.  One could challenge readers to create their own religion as a literary exercise, but this could also be a bad idea due to possible parental reaction.  This is a book that is best left to the individual.  Religion is really a subject that should be avoided in schools, in my opinion.