When we last met our hero (that’s me, by the way), the wife and I were about to head to a bookstore to add to our newly installed shelves. In the horror section of the book store I found several written by my favorite horror author that I hadn’t read yet and picked them up. In the first book of the stack that I bought that day, there was a scene where two of the main characters were having a conversation and one asked the other if he was a humanist. The exchange was written as if it were a foregone conclusion that being a reasonable prudent person the character was left with no other realistic choice but to deny the existence of God. The other character responded in the affirmative and they moved on. To me it seemed kind of forced and unnecessary few lines, but they had a big effect on me. Now it was no surprise that those two characters weren’t Christians. One spent his life as a fake guru who bilked people out of their money, and the other had a long history of adultery with minimal guilt about it.
The scene made it hard for me to connect with the characters, but the more I thought about it perhaps that was the point. Their lack of moral compunction was consistent with the rejection of any higher moral standard than that of the individual. The author was simply making it clear who those people were and it was up to the individual reader to decide on which side of the issue they fell.
In the coming days I started to wonder why there are so few books that have Christian characters that live real lives rather than the stock characters we see so often. It seems like if there is ever a Christian character that isn’t in a ‘Christian’ (I put that in parentheses as many things billed as Christian are not. More on that in a later post) book, movie or TV show, they are usually Catholic with a cross constantly around their neck and spend their time butting heads with other people because they believe in God and the others don’t. Then there are the ones who are Christian but it only comes up once a season when it can help the plot. Faith is a minuscule part of who that person is and generally seems to have no effect on their actions.
That is best case scenario if they are among the good guys. More often than not if someone is ‘Christian’ they are a villain. Either part of a radical doomsday cult, shysters pretending to be faith healers, abortion clinic bombers, or a parody of the Westborough Baptist Church; groups who all are so far from orthodoxy that they are heretical.
There is also of course, the background protestant character, usually a white rural fundamentalist southern mom or inner city Baptist black grandmother whose faith is only there to act as an annoyance to the brilliant scientific main character whose humanistic beliefs are far superior to the backwards, uneducated, religious rube who means well but isn’t bright enough to see the truth. Or on occasion, to act as someone’s conscience if they’ve done something bad.
PG Bubble in an R Rated World
There are of course ‘Christian’ fiction books, TV shows, movies and shudder ‘Christian rock’ (which I think fails on both points). I would argue that generally, with these things Christian is merely a marketing label. The theology is atrocious and content lacking any substance and with fiction you’ve got ‘end times’ nonsense or yet another conversation story. Unfortunately, there is so little out there in the media that Christians are left with few options if they want to see something with a Christian character.
I have another gripe with the above mentioned ‘Christian’ geared entertainment and this is a result of what I call the ‘pearl clutching syndrome’. There is a trend in the Church for people to get in their happy, content, emotionally centered bubble. They don’t want to think about, admit, and especially see that there is a darker side to this world. People don’t want to think about that, they just want something uplifting. I’ve heard people say that they never read the book of Judges in the Bible because it’s ‘too violent’. Apparently, a book with some amazing theological truths be damned if something is even the slightest bit uncomfortable.
In fact, most of the world is pretty dark. It isn’t PG, but rather decidedly R rated, and to constantly do everything we can to live in a PG world isn’t realistic and isn’t healthy. Though it’s a great movie and gives a good picture of what was happing during the D-Day invasion, the 1962 star studded epic The Longest Day doesn’t give you as realistic a picture of June 6, 1944 as Saving Private Ryan does. Yes, Saving Private Ryan is graphic, it’s disturbing at times, and it sticks with you. It’s not a feel-good movie, but when it’s over you are a heck of a lot more appreciative for what it took to kick in the door of Fortress Europe.
But what if there was another option? What if you didn’t have to read unrealistic Christian characters being written by non-believers or the same rehash of the same themes billed as Christian fiction? I hope that the next statement does not reek of extreme hubris, but I have set out to try and change this paradigm. My goal is to write books that are different, interesting, feature characters who are Christian but who are real people, and above all tell a story that’s fun. Something for the rest of us who abhor pearl clutching, but at the same time can’t find characters to identify with; characters whose actions are molded and guided by their faith, which is part and parcel of who they are, but they don’t have to be like vegans and bring it up every seven seconds, slapping you in the face with it every single page. I want to write characters who aren’t perfect, who possess the same frailties and passions that are ingrained into the fallen human condition.
So, for what it’s worth, that’s why on a June morning I sat at my kitchen table with a laptop and coffee while the kids played in the other room and started pounding out a story. Now, over two years later, what I figured would be a project abandoned like so many others is one complete novel, two more near completion and parts of ten more in an ongoing series.
Famed 20th Century Christian writer C.S. Lewis said “The world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature.” Whether my writing is actually good or if anyone in publishing sees value in my vision is yet to be seen, but I really hope they do (for what it’s worth, my mom really like my book so I’ve got that going for me).
