A Christian who writes...

I get the whole view that a Christian should write only about things that are good, nice, edifying, and whatnot.

To me, the creative arts are meant to have an effect on people. To entertain, yes, but also to maybe make them see things a bit differently. And I don’t think I’m doing any good for anyone if I present them with a whitewashed world where no one ever swears, drinks, has sex, uses violence, etc. That would be a fantasy world.

You could even argue that it robs God of His redemptive power, if the world is not presented as the depraved mess that it is. A safe, family-friendly world does not need an all-powerful God to save it. But ours does, and badly.

My goal is to write stories that tell the truth, and the whole truth. Which is a bright, optimistic truth, in reality. We are in a depraved world that is currently ruled by the devil, but we have a great God who is saving us. We were lost in a world of evil, but the Lord redeemed us.

We need the ugliness of the world to fully appreciate our redemption. I believe that. I also think stories should have “teeth” as I call it... be a little bit dangerous, maybe make people a little bit uncomfortable or afraid. An accurate reflection of life, basically. The “realness” of the evil can help you feel the “realness” of the good. Yeah, that’s a word...

Anyway, God and His people have never whitewashed the ugliness of the world. The Bible records just about every kind of ugly thing that can be done... not for the sake of shock or thrills, but to show where evil leads us and, by contrast, what good can do for us. One of the main reasons God sent prophets was to cry out against the evil in the world. John the Baptist called certain religious people snakes! And Jesus criticized many of them too.

The point of this spiel is, I can write stories that glorify God. And I can do it pretty well. But I need to utilize the darkness as well as the light. It is a tool, of course. I hate bad language; I get upset when I even hear a “bleep”... but when my characters swear, I can see where it makes sense to them. I won’t get physical with a woman before marriage... but I can see where my characters might want to give in to that. And so on...

Writing fiction has a lot to do with putting yourself in another person’s head, a fictional person. And I’m good at that. Some of them may be saved, some not. Swearing, drinking, drugs, sex, violence... it’s not a reflection on me. I’m reflecting what I see in the world. It’s not good... but God is.

I understand some people won’t want to read what I write. That’s to be expected.

I suppose I can put myself in an unsaved person’s head, because I was unsaved for many years. I became accustomed to the lifestyle, even though I never felt completely comfortable with parts of it.

Perhaps God wanted me to use that experience. A story can be a subtle yet effective way to teach people.

Serving Zion said:

My main concern is what new evil are you putting in the reader's mind that wasn't there before? Consider why parents won't let children watch some movies - because the child's mind doesn't conceive of anything evil (violence, sex, filthy language) - those things all come from exposure to corrupting media.

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Most people are aware of the things I’ve mentioned... if they wanted to do them, I’d think they’d be doing them already. I write for adults, not children or teenagers.

Serving Zion said:

Well, you go your way then those themes you mentioned I would rather not have in my world

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Sure. They’re not in your world because you choose not to have them there. People who want it, choose it. They don’t just fall into a certain behavior because they read a book where it happened.

This might be why writers have pen names; some people cannot separate fiction from reality. You can write murder mysteries and not be a murderer. You can write about alcoholics and detest alcohol. It’s storytelling. It’s about introducing darkness so that the light can come and conquer it.

The Bible says man born of a woman is but a few days and full of trouble. Doesn’t sound to me like he’s born pure. In fact Job makes several references to man born of a woman... that he is neither clean nor righteous.

We’re all born sinful, that’s why we need to be born again.