I tend to be in a hurry when I'm online and I have a slight intellectual deficency so my writing tends towards the messy side in regards to grammer. Thanks for the responses so far, this story has been bothering me for a while because I'm worried I'll piss people off, especially since around my area there are some 'Christians' who are causing trouble and I odn't want my story to come across as a dig at this particualr congregation. There's a lot more in my story that is controversial as well and I really don't want this story to offend anyone it doesn't have to.
As soon as you mention the words church and religion, lots will be offended. Hell, people get offended over anything. Fuck them, write what you want. As long you as you don't go too far as to completely bag the church, you will be fine. As an atheist, I couldn't care less. Everythingwritten, said, sung, WHATEVER will get haters and lovers. Let's hope the ratio leans to lovers, but at the end of the day, who cares?
There will always be people who take offense at what you write, the trick is to not offend so many people that you have no audience left. There have been plenty of religiously objectionable books, but as long as the writing itself is good they still sell. For example, I think someone earlier mentioned Dan Brown's and Philip Pullman's books. They said that they themselves would not read them, which is quite understandable since they are Christian, but these authors are also examples of writers who have used religiously objectionable themes to create immensely successful novels. Write your story, but be aware that yes, some people will take offense.
sure, but it sounds like Resident Evil... I'm beings very generalized when I compare your story with Resident Evil, but in some cases it kind of reminds me of scenes from RE4. In RE4 there were los plagues that worshiped at a church and these creepy dudes were very much demonic in nature. You don't have to look far and you run into great directors like Wes Craven and John Carpenter who have both done several films mixing religious icons with the undead or otherwise demonic. You're asking a tough question, but at the same time there's an entire sub-genre devoted to the kind of writing your thinking about. So my verdict is; dive in with both feet. You're writing for a niche audience, but hey who isn't?
Thanks for the replies on this question. I've been stressing out about writing this because I don't want to be the one to piss people off by writing a story which offends a lot of readers. Having read the responses on this thread I feel reassured about forging ahead with it. I might just merge into one of my other stories so it's not so much of a focus.
Just don't have Mohammed coming to anybody in a dream and saying that he put falsehoods into the Koran. That has been known to cause problems... ---------- Post added at 11:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 PM ---------- Just don't have Mohammed coming to anybody in a dream and saying that he put falsehoods into the Koran. That has been known to cause problems...
The idea is quite interesting and parts of it may have been done before, but if you're worried you'll offend someone... that's what a pen name is for In regards to portraying the "church" I think it would be understandable to house the group inside of an old church building. There are thousands of ghost towns across the Midwest and great plains that a cult could take up residence in, some of them quite close to regular settlements. Portraying the Church leaders and doctrines is where you'll probably face the difficulties. Every religion in human history, at some point, has had the "convert or die!" phase. What you'll probably want to do is flesh out the doctrines of this cult- what makes it appealing to the people who have joined it, and what turns it off to the majority of the population? No matter how "out there" you make the cult, there are ways to make it believable that someone would join it. For example, you have 2 families in the community, each with a newborn baby. The babies both become sick and need medical attention. One family takes their child to the hospital and receives regular treatment etc. Everything is fine and they go about their lives. The second family, however, is visited by the head of the cult as they're getting in the car to take the baby to the hospital. By miracle, sleight of hand, or coincidence, the cultist is able to save the baby's life, assuring this family will follow the man's word and come to the cult's meeting place. Roll with the punches, write what you want to write, and when it comes to the second draft, then you can worry about trimming things back. Until you get to that point, let your imagination run wild and forget who you might offend
Exactly, the only experience I've had with religious people has so far been very negative and lately around my area things are getting a bit... heated... I'm just worried my story will be taken as a comment on this particular troublesome group, or that my negative experience will come through and this will look like an attack on Christianity in general and that's not what I want to do at all, this is doing my head in.
I am about 500 words into it so far, so basically the consensus on this thread is that my plot is not going to offend the average reader?
If it were me I wouldn't worry about offending anyone, in my opinion the the best books are ones that tackle big issues like child molestation (which is, I'm assuming, the nasty stuff?) or brutal murder etc. Put it like this; there is very little you can write that wont offend someone. You just have to ask yourself how much you care
You described the Spanish Inquisition and any religious persecution that ever happened minus the creature. If people are offended they wont read it. You have the freedom to write it. You shouldn't worry about those you offend because you will have lots more fans. Seems like a cool idea anyway.
Ah... no. Just rather horrific murders, usually involving fire and crucifixion, unless that would be too blasphemous in which case I can just leave that out (I have a strongly religious group of close friends, non-Christian but I still want to show respect towards all religious beliefs in my writing). What I will do is write it regardless, post it for review on this site and decide what to do from there.
I've heard about this book "God is not Great: Why religion poisoned everything" so compared to that your plot is well away from offensive!!!
You show respect for all beliefs by treating them with integrity. If you suggest that murdering people who don't agree with them is normal, or even likely, behaviour for a small-town church then you are not respecting the beliefs of Christians. If you make it clear that this is aberrant behaviour for a church (better yet: show how they went off the rails) then that shows more respect. An exemplary case is Margaret Attwood's A Handmaid's Tale, which portrays a brutally oppressive religious regime, but which also shows the resistance to the regime being mainly organised by religious groups. Be careful of your first publication rights. Better to arrange for private reviews.
I agree, though that book's title itself is enough to offend leagues of people. In fact, it has. I remember the author being on CNN. I also remember thinking, "lol, someone is in need of a 'Jesus loves me' bookmark". He obviously didn't get enough of them when he was a young, poor soul. For a fairer comparison, how about The Golden Compass? God dies in that one, I think (I didn't read the whole thing through). As for the plot, I think I'm only offended because I've seen this same thing time and time again. You're not the first one to come up with an evil church; so many people have done it. Personally, it's tiring. So don't fret over who might or might not be offended and do as you please. People who do get offended will move on to other things. The ones you see picketing about a book are usually the ones who haven't read it and regurgitate what they've heard from other people.
Religion, on the whole, is on the decline. I keep reading, time and time again, about the rise of secularism and people who are willing to state they have no religious affiliation. Very prominent writers have written blasphemous novels in eras where populations were predominantly religious and were often banned. The very idea of being afraid of offending religious people in this day and age is quite redundant. Furthermore, it doesn't sound like it's your intention to expose religious dogma or discredit the Church.
I don't plan to get this story published professionally, I don't fancy my chances of being published as I write poorly. That's going to be a tricky point to get right, if I push to far in the 'this is not what the mainstream group does, here;s what the mainstream group and why they're good' direction it can do just as much damage as if I push to far in the 'all religions are like this, evil!' direction. THe middle ground is the hardest to walk, I'm afraid I'll get run over by someone on their high horse who thinks I'm veering to far in a direction they don't approve of.
Given that in a writers forum I would assume that words matter: Humbert Humbert is no pedophile, he is a hebephile at most, possibly. But not even that, as he states in the book that he is attracted by the adult, aged Dolorez, he can't be a hebephile either. Pedophile = sexually exclusively attracted to pre-pubescent children Hebephile = sexually exclusively attracted to pubescent and post-pubescent children. It's not the word "child" which is relevant (especially in our day and age, where the word "child" connotes a legally redefined age of non-adulthood) to accrue the proper term, it's the words "pubescence" and to a lesser extent "exclusively."
