Some years ago, my wife and I took a group of students on a short-term mission trip to Belize, the only English-speaking country in Central America, where our main task was refurbishing a church-run elementary school. At the end of our time there, the congregation held a celebration dinner and program including traditional foods, costumes, songs, and stories: One of them was a traditional children's story. It told of a monster who would periodically come out of the thickets and eat bad little children, tearing them limb from limb. The storyteller was very effective in evoking terror with her vivid details, and it was clear how some of the behaviors resulting in their punishment might be avoided as a result of hearing the story. But, of course, there was a good boy in the village. Eventuall…