A Discussion on Writing Spiritual Journeys (Part 1)

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I’m part of an author community that prides itself on following a particular set of morals and ethics in their lives and in their writing. I’m not even going to debate the validity of that. What I’d like to start discussing today is this:

When you want your work to reflect certain spiritual values you have, what’s the best way to go about it?

There is a major issue these days with the faith-based publishing industry being just that — religious, even zealous, literally preaching to the choir, and not even attempting to reach people who don’t share your beliefs.

I like to think of myself as a pretty tolerant person. I do subscribe to a set of spiritual beliefs and try to practice them on a daily basis. I won’t deny that I believe what I believe, and that I find it extremely important. However, I want people who randomly come across my books on Goodreads or Barnes & Noble to feel that I’m approachable. That my work, while it does focus on Judeo-Christian lore and values, is approachable, even if they never go to church. Honestly, I don’t care if they alter/maintain/develop any spiritual views after reading my books. That’s not what I’m here for.

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But my hope is also that people who may be spiritually seeking might take away something about the messages of love, grace, mercy, and redemption that I include in my writing.

So, we come back to the beginning point: How do we, as authors and Christians, portray these concepts in our fiction, without seeming to do so from behind a pulpit?

Here are some crucial points I’ve determined over the years of being a reader, a writer, and now an author:

1. Don’t act superior. Meaning, don’t give the impression that your Christian characters (or Christian-esque, if your fiction has an allegorical religion) are “better” than those who aren’t. You’ll definitely send non-religious readers packing. Also, please don’t make your Christian characters perfect — stunningly beautiful, intelligent, excellent job, happy family, can stand in for Superman during a city-wide emergency. Not only is this totally unrealistic, it’s very discouraging. Readers like characters they can relate to — fictional people who drop pens, forget to feed their cat, cheated on their diet, skipped that math class, swore when they sprained their ankle. People who need the compassion of a Savior.

2. Don’t indicate a religious conversion will solve all of a character’s problems. Again, this never happens in real life. Plenty of people who go to church and pray and help old ladies across the street suffer from financial concerns, sickness, unemployment, addictions, have been divorced or broken up with their partner, lost a pet, or can’t find decent parking ever. And, once more, including bumps in the road in a fictional life makes for characters we can connect to — and if we see their faith help them through some of life’s crap, we might even want that aspect for ourselves.

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3. Make sure your character’s faith is at work in your pages. A narrator who tithes 12 and a half percent, never misses a Bible study, only exclaims, “Oh, drat,” when a deer runs into their car — and then is rude to shop clerks, berates a jaywalker, tells someone whose dog accidentally got off-leash they’re an idiot… Well, this type of narrator will make people throw your book at the wall. Readers will want to know more about a protagonist who apologizes to the jogger they yelled at the day before, who dumps a guy by text and can’t sleep afterwards, who buys lunch for a Goth kid that lost their wallet.

4. Embrace diversity. This is one I see a lot of Christian publishers edging away from, because the term “diversity” has gotten misaligned as a politically-hot-button issue, rather than the modern way we say “tolerance.” It goes directly against one of the instructions in the New Testament, to bring the good news of Jesus’ resurrection to people all over the world. That means different countries, different races, different religions, cultures, all of it. Even folks that think putting mayo on fries is an acceptable practice should hear the Messiah’s message.

These are just suggestions, remember. Ultimately, I can’t force anyone to write their story a certain way. But it’s been my experience that most non-Christians won’t read preachy Christian literature — and therefore could be missing out on the really important stuff.

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As a younger reader, at a point in my life when I wasn’t really sure what I believed spiritually, I was intensely dissatisfied with people who claimed Christians “shouldn’t” read fantasy, “couldn’t” learn about ancient religions or polytheistic cultures, and that basically everything that wasn’t specifically “Christian” was “wrong.”

All of this is a load of bunk. Setting yourself apart from the majority of readers in today’s Western society will not bring them the love and mercy of anyone.

This doesn’t mean I’m encouraging compromise on our part. Not when it comes to your morals and values. If you find it necessary to write text in which no one swears out loud, never graphically explains their sex life, and isn’t gratitiously violent, go you.

But don’t avoid the tough subjects, either. Christian-themed novels need conversations on racism, prejudice, bullying, child abuse, committing crimes, sexual misconduct, eating disorders, drug use, self-harm — all without being condescending to the characters who are going through it. 

We are all human, we all make mistakes, and we shouldn’t act like we’re better than someone who’s still struggling with the same burden we once bore. That is absolutely not the reason Jesus literally took up His cross for us.

So, that’s it for this time. Next time, I’ll be digging deeper still, into writing from the perspective of someone who wasn’t always a Christian, for believers and non-believers alike.

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