Toon Theology

The paper house

Conversations

Qing Ming morning at a hillside cemetery. Theophilus and Hannah have come with their friend Wei Ling and her family to sweep her grandfather's grave. Her uncle is folding a paper house, complete with a paper car, to burn.

  1. NoticeTheophilus

    "The grave looks brand new. You repainted all the letters. And that house has a car in the driveway." He says nothing more. He has noticed, and said that he noticed.

  2. Ask whyTheophilus

    Later, while the incense burns down, he asks Wei Ling: "Who taught your family to do this? And when you burn the money, is it for your grandfather, or for everyone?" She explains that it is for Ah Gong, so he will have what he needs, and so the guards in the Yin World will be kind to him.

  3. Explore the theologyHannah

    Hannah asks what Wei Ling thinks happens to Ah Gong now. Wei Ling says he faces judgment for what he did wrong, and the money helps shorten it. Hannah says that much of that is close to what she believes: that a person's spirit lives on, and that there really is a judgment. Then she asks the question she has wondered about: "Does the money shorten the sentence, or does it just make it easier while it lasts?" Wei Ling isn't sure. Nobody in her family is sure, she says. That's why they burn so much.

  4. Offer an alternativeHannah

    Hannah asks whether she can say what Christians think about the same worry. Wei Ling says yes. Hannah tells her that Christians believe in a judgment too, and that the part they could never get past was that they could not pay it themselves. "We believe the Judge came down and served the sentence himself. So there is nothing left to pay."

  5. Leave it open

    Wei Ling's mother calls them over to eat. Wei Ling says, "I've never heard it put like that," and goes to help. Hannah doesn't follow it up. The paper house burns, and the conversation is left where it is.

    The conversation stops here on purpose. It is not an argument to be won.

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