I feel the same. I believe and love God, but he wouldn't want me to stop reading and writing the things I love. Ridiculous.
You see why I left. But you have to realize, I live in a little southern town in the Bible Belt. Very narrow minded community because of the limited outside influence. They really don't know any better.
Wrey I love your question! I actually had someone come to me with this conflict on another forum I'm a member of. Luckily, I kinda set her mind at rest a little. She is a Christian and had conflict about writing Fantasy. I sent her some links to Christian Fantasy Magazines. There is a market for it! That seemed to help her feel better. Knowing that she could write what was in her to write and do it to glorify God. Ok, let's get personal with this. I'm a Christian. I write anything from children's literature, to 'adult' literature, and it any genre I feel the urge to. I don't think that writing or reading things changes who you are or what you believe. If it did, then you didn't truly have a strong conviction in what you believed to begin with. Once you are based completely in what you TRULY believe, if you read things that don't agree with your POV, then it can be a challenge to your faith and help you grow. I also as a Christian believe in free will. You have to make decisions for yourself. But, if you are a Christian, you have to deal with your convictions. Basically it's between you and God what you feel is wrong or right. Also, I believe that God created us in his image. I think part of that is creativity. He gave us the ability to create new things. We can either use that for good/bad whatever. I think it's dumb to think that all people are the same. But it seems that is what people want us to believe sometimes. Like a Christian writing a non Christian character. There is nothing wrong with that. Not everyone in the world is has a faith! It's the same with sex. It's a real part of life. You can't just ignore it, or the issues people have with dealing with it, just because it makes you uncomfortable! It's a fact and part of life. I'm not saying that you have to write sex scenes or anything. I'm just saying you can't take everything you don't like about life and ignore it completely. You are lying to yourself, and people won't want to read it because it will end up preachy. I would say, let your heart be your guide and write what is in you to write.
Good post Becca, I agree with lots of your points! I have an ongoing internal conflict between what I want to do. Not just in writing, but in everything. Writing-wise, when I finish any work I am proud of, I like to be able to show this to my family and friends. Now my family, I have 9 vicars in my family. And whilst I don't want to limit my writing, I also want it to be something that I'd be happy for them to read. I would want their approval and their blessing. My friends - are a completely different kettle of fish. They would be more likely to reject a book if they knew there was no sex scenes / swearing / etc. Now although I am a Christian and I (like to think) have a strong faith, I'm also a regular 22 year old who enjoys the same things that my friends do. I don't always have the best self-motivation when it comes to what I want to do vs what I know I should do (hence me getting pregnant at 18 haha). In writing, because it's such a conscious thought process, I am more able to do the 'what I should do' rather than 'what I want to do', because I'll sit and have a think and my conscience always wins. In life, I'm more impulsive and so I'll admit I'm more like to go the other way, and do 'What I want to'. Although it's hard sometimes, I try my hardest in writing to do 'What I should do' (read: what I'd be happy for Rev. Granny to read). And I try to do it with the thought process that if I am a good writer, then I should be able to write effectively even with certain 'barriers'. I have my own 'Mam Litmus Test' - if I'd be happy for my mam to read it, I'd be happy for Jesus to read it. There's a bible verse that says (paraphrasing) 'And on the day of Judgement, God will call for me to account for every single word which comes out of my mouth.' And I think that also covers what comes out of my pen. This belief though shouldn't make my writing preachypreachy, and I wouldn't stop my daughter from reading things because I believe in making own decisions. Don't know if that makes sense. Hope it does Rachel xxx
I understand where you are coming from. But life isn't perfect and neither are we. It's the struggles and flaws of people that make them real. I think sometimes as 'Christians' we don't want anyone to know or think about the hard things or the struggles. It's a major misconception that Christians don't do anything bad. We are humans who are trying to hold ourselves to a higher standard (which I think anyone that has any religious faith, no matter what they may be, does). We are just flawed people like everyone else. We aren't going to make all the right decisions. Everyone learns lessons as they go through life. Not everyone is presented with the same circumstances, so we won't all make the same choices for the same reasons. Diverstiy really is a beautiful thing. I really don't like when people try to pigeon hole God. He knows more about everything than we do, but still we limit things in our minds. God knows what you are thinking and how you feel and how you 'meant' things. Even if it's not always clear to other people.
My lack of belief has nothing to do with what I look for in fiction. In fact, I quite like reading fantasy because it's so ridiculous. I'm not looking for strict, real-world systems when I read fantasy. Science fiction is another matter - things have to be technically possible - of course, and general fiction should stick to real-world rules. But being an atheist doesn't have any impact on the books I read, no.
My beliefs don't conflict with what I read or write. I believe that God gave us our creativity for a reason and he appreciates what we do with it.
