When I was in high school, I read the 1741 Jonathan Edwards sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Its first few words sum up the kinds of lessons so many children were forced to learn in the world outside Acorn. Edwards said, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire.”
