This is a post that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I wasn’t really sure how to say what I wanted to say, but someone recently made a remark to me, or rather asked me a question, that brought this whole thing to a head. The question was this: “How can you be a Christian and write about vampires?”
So…a little background on me. Yes, I’m a Christian, and I consider myself a religious person. I’m not aggressive about it because I don’t feel like that’s the way to be. I don’t force my beliefs on others, but am glad to tell you about them if you want to hear it. That’s how I’m able to get along with my friends who are Jewish, Pagan, agnostic, and atheist. I don’t push my religion on them. Everyone has a choice as to what they want to hear and do. Do I wish everyone believed the same way I do? Sure. But that’s not the way the world works.
Anyway, back to the topic, which is basically how one can be both religious and still write paranormal stories. My question in return would be…why not? The way I answered the person that asked me about how I could be a Christian and write about vampires was “It’s fiction!” I don’t understand why people don’t get that. I don’t believe in vampires, ghosts, wizards, fairies, or anything like that. I’m way too skeptical to believe in them. And that’s what makes this whole thing fun to me. I get to step into this great fantasy world and make up whatever I want to. A reviewer recently mentioned that I didn’t “explain how the vampire could eat real food and walk in the daylight”. (Hey, Spike ate real food!) Why do I have to explain that? Vampires aren’t real; therefore, I don’t have to adhere to any rule (although I don’t want to be totally stupid about it). People give Meyer a hard time because her vampires sparkle. Yeah, that’s kind of weird, but it was her book, her rules. I love the world of fantasy and see no reason why a Christian can’t write about it!
So now you know the biggest reason I write under a pen name. This just kills my mom because she wants to tell everyone that her daughter writes books. And she has told quite a few people. I just hope the ones that she tells don’t spread the word so that it gets around to the people who wouldn’t understand. Because I have friends who believe it’s wrong to write about this stuff. So I have to live two different lives and keep them separate. I don’t understand why people can’t understand that it’s fiction, and that’s all.
So what do you all think? Do you see anything wrong with a Christian writing about the paranormal???
lauralynnelliott.com 
Oh, Lauralynn, you are so preaching to the choir here! And I mean that semi-literally! 🙂
I’m a follower of Christ, too (I don’t like to say “Christian” because there’s so much baggage with that word). I’m not using a pen name. I write fantasy, but I want to write fantasy that appeals to the general public, not just Christian fiction readers. So I write magic–faery-type people, magicians, sorcerers, etc. I love that stuff. And I know a lot of folks in my church who read the same things I read.
BUT–they seem to expect different things of me. I’ve had a lot of looks down the bridge of the nose… And I’ve had a couple of people take me to task for the “impurity” of my writing.
I think what they take issue with isn’t so much the fantasy world, but rather the fact that my characters are very fractured and imperfect and morally ambiguous. They drink, swear, have sex outside of marriage, and blaspheme. But I can’t help it–that’s how I see the world. That’s how Jesus saw the world–as a big honkin’ mess that needed mercy and forgiveness.
What *I* find amusing is that compared to some fantasy, my stuff is very tame. I think of Goodkind, for example. Holy cow–I am so not writing any Mord Sith! And even when there’s sex, it’s off screen–fade to black. Yeah, there are some F-bombs, but that’s how people talk.
So the funny thing is, the same people who think it’s okay to READ stuff that’s no so tame don’t think it’s okay for me to WRITE stuff that’s not perfectly tidy and clean. Well, if it’s not okay for me to write it, why is it okay for you to read it?
Anyway, no, I don’t see anything wrong with a Christian writing… anything, really. It doesn’t matter what you write–your worldview comes through, whether you’re Christian, atheist, pagan, whatever. It just does. We all write from our worldviews. You can still write about Christian themes such as forgiveness, mercy, sacrificial love, courage, morality, etc. You’re just wrapping them in a different package. 🙂
Sorry to rant–you hit a berserker button for me! 🙂
Amy, thanks so much for your reply! It’s so funny that you mention the swearing. I STILL can’t make myself write those words. And yet, the characters do have sex in some of my books…and almost do in others. LOL
What you say is true. We’re writing what really happens in the world (real or fantasy). Whether it’s right or wrong isn’t even the issue. We aren’t writing books to be used in Sunday School class.
Exactly. And the thing is… It’s really between you and Jesus anyway. It’s no one else’s business. They can simply choose not to read your stuff. I’m absolutely certain that if Jesus has a problem with your writing, he can get your attention if he thinks you need to change something. He’s quite good at getting attention. Ask Saul of Tarsus.
For me, words are just words. It’s the meaning we ascribe to them that matters. So I could make up words that are “swearing” in my world if I wanted to be less obnoxious, but in my head and in that world, they still mean the same thing and then I just have to do more explaining to the reader, which means they mean the same thing to the reader at that point…. So to me, why not just skip all that and write the word everyone knows?
But that’s me. Everyone has their own boundaries and limits, and there’s a place for ALL of this fiction. Every book has an audience. 🙂
Amy,
What I find bizarre is, I’m NOT a Christian (I don’t really have a spiritual label but the closest descriptor would probably be Buddhist). I have a moral code and I’m not out to harm people and I believe in a higher power and yadda yadda yadda, but… I don’t take the bible as my literal holy book. And yet… my Christian family thinks I should be writing stuff that follows THEIR morals. No sex, no demons, no profanity. Um… yeah. No. LOL.
But what they don’t realize is that doing so is one of the EXACT things Jesus preached against–hypocrisy! If you don’t believe it, don’t write it. Simple as that. And if I don’t want to read it, I won’t. That’s the beauty of this being, you know, AMERICA. Sheesh.
LMAO!
I seen nothing wrong with writing paranormal (obviously) as a Christian and I’m inclined to think anybody who believes otherwise is too narrowminded to be a true friend.
Kait, the weird thing is that the person who actually asked me the question about being a Christian and writing about vampires wasn’t a very religious person. It’s someone I know casually from the business of my full time job. That makes less sense than my Christian friends that would be bothered by it.
No.
And while we’re on the topic, I don’t see a problem with a Christian writing sex and profanity either. Because it’s just entertainment. It’s just words on paper. I think some have taken certain things completely out of context with regards to what is moral behavior and what isn’t and have ludicrously applied it to “fictional words on paper.”
Zoe, I don’t have a problem with authors writing about sex and profanity. I still don’t know why I can write about sex, but can’t write curse words. I guess it’s just because I don’t use them, so it doesn’t feel natural to write them. It just doesn’t come out when I write. It seems silly to put them in there just to be doing it. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that characters in a book just might not curse. Almost no one I’m around in real life says anything beyond the little mild words, so there are many people in the world that don’t curse. LOL
I read a post by an author the other day that said a lot of people give her bad reviews because she writes Christian romances that have sex in them.
I get what you mean about moral behavior and words on paper. There are lots of things you and I have written about that we wouldn’t DO. :0)
hehe most of what I write I wouldn’t do. Like I sure wouldn’t be living in a house with an incubus. I would put that thing up for sale so fast it would make people’s heads spin.
And yeah, I don’t think people should have to write profanity if it is genuinely unnatural for them. Everybody has a style and word choice is personal.
lauralynn,
i really appreciate your blog post. i’m not an aggressive paranormal writer, but the title of my book is “the haunting of pastor butch gregory” and it does contain some specters in it. i am also a very committed Christ-follower and pastor. nevertheless, one of the local christian bookstores refused to carry my book because the word ‘haunting’ was in the title. “we would never offer a book like that here” was the reply.
people are just funny with their preconceived notions and i guess that holds true for Christ-followers as well as others.
thanks for writing such a thoughtful blog.
Thanks for commenting, Jamie. The remark that person made hurt me and I just don’t understand why a person couldn’t write paranormal and be a Christian. I love to write about ghosts, but I don’t really believe in them. Fiction isn’t real life. This has just been bothering me and I wanted to get other people’s thoughts on it.
Hey, Jamie! Good to see you over here. How funny about the bookstore–that’s just… weird, I guess. I mean, are they saying people can’t be haunted? Even in churchy circles, we say people are “haunted” by regret or whatever. That’s so strange.
But hey–whatever. It’s their bookstore, I guess, and being as there’s that whole America thing, I guess they can do what they want. 🙂
I wonder if this person would have asked the same question if she saw you reading a paranormal romance book (vs. writing one). It seems that digesting popular entertainment would be less scrutinized than creating something from your imagination. People who don’t write (or create in some other art form) often don’t understand what a rich inner world we have that has absolutely nothing to do with our everyday lives and beliefs. Some of the most controversial writers in history were also very religious.
Exactly, Michelle. You have to separate fiction from real life. I certainly hope you wouldn’t be faced with “The Gardener” in real life! *shudders*
Or flesh-eating zombies….or gnomes that kill!
LOL, Michelle! :0)
I’ve been waiting for someone to ask or say the same thing to me. There are so many ‘Christians’ out there that look for something to be offended by that writing anything but a concordance is wrong. I know we both know people like that. Shame, Jesus told parables but we can’t write fiction.
I keep the majority of language clean in my books; but sometime to be anywhere near realistic some of it has to be there, sometimes to make the point, I never use the Lords name in vain but there are words in some of my books certain people would find an exception to. I write some scenes that lead to sex; but I stop at the bedroom door, inmost cases, or it’s between married people. But it makes a point in the story or a general point about the characters.
Then we can talk about Science Fiction and the ‘you believe in little green men?’. Maybe I do because I will not put GOD in a box and not believe He just might have worshipers somewhere besides earth in His creation. There is a certain amount of violence in both my Sci Fi and murder mysteries, but have you read the Old Testament? I had another Christian writer tell me she couldn’t read another Christian writers work because it was so violent. She ordered The Last Cabbandeum so I’m waiting for what she says after reading it. I’m sure she’ll have an eye opening experience but I know I can’t please all the people all the time.
Lauralynn, I appreciate your thoughts and concerns. Write what you believe works and is good for you. The people who question it would probably question if you wrote Children’s books.
Hey, Jon, I was wondering when you were going to weigh in on this topic. LOL
I’ve definitely learned you can’t please everyone. Honestly, I don’t think your books are that violent compared to most in the same genre. But you are going to have some people who might not like science fiction because of the content. I’m like you, though…even though I said I don’t believe in ghosts, vampires, etc., I still think there’s a possibility of life on other worlds. Even if there’s not, though, it’s still FICTION.
Regarding taking God’s name in vain…I would definitely use the “F” word before I would do that. LOL
Lauralynn & Jon, I’m the same way with cursing. My characters do say “gods,” but I see that as different. And even in my book, they don’t use the monotheistic deity’s name in vain. I can’t do it.
But the F-bomb? Yeah, they do that. 🙂 And they say “d***” and “a**.” But even C. S. Lewis used those two, so I’m in good company…. 😉
But because I’m writing in a medieval setting, and being illegitimate has significant implications for inheritance and the main character’s story arc, I thought it was important to use the word “b*****d” in its true sense. People insult him that way, and he uses it right back at them. It felt consistent with his character.
On the other hand, I didn’t think it made sense to use h*** because there isn’t really such a place in that world. Not exactly, not in a recognizable form. And when I used s*** in the first couple of drafts, beta readers said it felt out of place. So I took it out.
I dunno. It’s all about the story. If it makes sense in the story, then do it. If it’s gratuitous, don’t. 🙂
That all makes sense, Amy. I don’t get bent out of shape over the little words, anyway. They just aren’t in my vocabulary, so it doesn’t feel natural to use them in fiction. LOL
Why would s*** feel out of place? Didn’t they use that word in medieval times? Or maybe they used “dung”? Hee hee.
That was my question, too. It is an Old English word, so I wondered why they thought it was out of place. Same with “son of a b****.” I mean, the b-word is an old, old word. I don’t know when it became used as an insult, but it’s been around a really long time.
But, what it came down to for me was that those two words were jarring readers out of the story, and I didn’t feel strong enough about them to keep them, so I took out the handful of times I used them. I either found something else or just took out the instance altogether. And it wasn’t that these people were prudes, because they didn’t object to the other cursing. And, since more than one person was jarred by them, I figured it wouldn’t kill me to give in…
Anyway… Again, it’s about the story and the readers, right? I’m not a huge curser in real life, but I have been known to punctuate things with a well-placed F-bomb on occasion. I used one in the car with a friend a couple of years ago, and she started laughing so hard she almost drove off the road. Lesson learned about when to use the F-bomb. Not worth a car accident… LOL…
This is just like when people from my ex-church looked at me funnily for taking a class on the history of witchcraft in college. I was tempted to say, “It’s about evil people calling themselves Christians who burned women alive for being intelligent and self-aware,” but I didn’t want to alienate my friends.
No, people, studying history and folklore does not make you an evil person. Neither does the study of anything, really, no matter how repulsive the topic: it’s what you DO with knowledge that defines your character.
I cannot STAND that kind of judgment. Wasn’t there a guy recently kicked out of his church for writing about murder and sex in his books? I think Nadia Lee blogged about it once?
That story was so anathema to my experience that I barely believed it. Even if everyone in an entire congregation condemned my work, no church I have ever attended in either the West or the East Coast would have expelled me, but YMMV.
I no longer call myself a Christian or practice it because of the bigotry that so often comes with it. I want to view people as worth caring about, and I just can’t do that when some politics mixed with religion are so harmful and kicking me in the gut within my faith. That being said, some of the best memories of my life were when I was young and naïve and in a Baptist youth group, so take from that what you will. LOL.
It’s frustrating to hear about people’s complete failures of logic and inability to understand the difference between fiction and reality, and I’m sorry that your circumstances have made you use a pen name.
Of course, it’s always wiser to use a pen name anyway, for privacy and protection from enemies, mentally ill fans, and stalkers. I already had two of those before I started writing, so you can bet I have no regrets about concealing my real name!
Do what you have to do, you know?
Thanks, S.V. Everyone has had different experiences with religion. I hate it when people get turned off of Christianity because they’ve been treated badly by Christians. Because the whole purpose of Christianity is to convert people by loving them, not by being mean. And not preaching when others don’t want to hear it.
I just don’t get why people think that other people are going to DO what’s in a book if they read it. Fiction is entertainment for me, so I like reading about situations I would never (hopefully) get into in real life. LOL
Yes, the pen name is partly for protection, too. Several authors have had stalkers.
I struggled hard with the idea of my Christian faith and belief hinging on how Christians treated me. Then I realized I believed because of the belief, and GOD, not the people involved. Some of the best friends I have in life are fellow Christians; some of the people I have been the most frustrated in are as well. I love them because they are Christians and I appreciate their faith in the religion. But the way they treat people and even (especially) the way they treat people in their own religion. Many lean on the idea of ‘influence’ and define it much broader than it was ever intended.
If been told I was a ‘sinner’ because I liked drag racing, had long hair (which meant you could not see an inch of skin between the tops of my ears and my hair; this was in the 70’s) actually having friends outside of the church, about anything they could think of. I wonder what would of happened if I’d had a tattoo or (heaven forbid) had an ear ring in one ear.
I truly believe many Christians would do better to keep their mouths shut and be an example. Plus I think many of them are Christianities worst enemy while their trying to be it’s biggest asset. Read my blog for more of my thoughts on this.
Other wise; sorry for taking so long to comment Lauralynn, I was working hard on what I wanted to say and how to say it. Bless you, editor.