Not too far from where I live is the headquarters for the International Storytelling Association. The telling of stories is nothing new but the appreciation of this art has seen a rebirth in recent years. A good story can be entertaining, but it can also be a means of conveying historical events. In such cases it may be hard to separate fact from fiction.
One famous example is the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. This tale is found in the collection of stories by the Brothers Grimm and traces back at least to the 13th century. The plot is simple: The town of Hamelin, Germany was suffering from an overabundance of rats. A man mysteriously appeared, offering to take care of the problem. The townspeople agreed, promising to pay him generously if he would only get rid of those pests.
The man, dressed in pied (multicolored) clothing, began playing a flute. Rats began appearing from everywhere, following the flutist as he led them to the river. The tune kept playing as the rats leaped into the river to their deaths. When the townspeople reneged on their promise to pay the piper he began playing his flute again. This time it was their children he led out of their lives.
There may be fact behind this fiction. Records have been found lamenting the loss of 130 children from Hamelin. An entry into the town’s records of 1284 says, “It is 10 years since our children left.” Theories abound regarding what may have happened to those children. Was it disease, with death portrayed in pied clothing? Was it a Crusade that lured the children from their homes? No one knows for sure, but the theories cast a shadow over what has otherwise been a nice little fairy tale.
There’s plenty of facts over which to be concerned in our modern world. You likely won’t spot a man in pied clothing playing a flute with children following. But will you have any difficulty finding others whose influence is leading young ones away from where they need to be?
The book of Proverbs begins with this urgent warning: “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent” (Proverbs 1:10). The first psalm also recognizes the tendency of young ones to follow others into sin: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful” (Psalm 1:1). Was the psalmist writing about the dangers of television, video games or the Internet? He might have been.
This danger of modern Pied Pipers means that good people have to be proactive. Rather than watching passively as sinful melodies lure our children from wholesome teachings, we must work hard to ground them. Paul gave a solution: “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Doing that will require deliberate effort and the investment of quality time. But it must be done.
A Pied Piper must have been at work in the generation after Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land. Judges 2:10 says that “… another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord …” No wonder that book reveals a nation in chaos.
Our children’s souls are at stake. We have work to do before they are led away from us.
-Timothy D. Hall