Godly is defined as being of God, full of God, and glorifying to God. Now, I could sit here and go on all day about why I think you should write Godly fiction...but don’t take it from me.
Take it from other writers!
My friend Daisy Torres (author of The Art of Deception) at Writing Daisies wrote this post not long after God gave me the idea of Book Nations, actually, and not only was her post affirmation for me, it was extremely encouraging! You can read the full post here (which you should definitely do), but I thought I’d highlight some of the most pertinent parts!
"Don't be too preachy with your writing, or it will scare readers away."
"Be careful adding God in your writing! It could scare readers away."
"Oh, don't name 'Jesus' specifically, just slip in 'God help me' every once in a while. That'll draw someone to Christ."
Do these sound familiar? Do they sound like thoughts you've had, lies you believed, or blog posts you thought were right?
Picture this: You're chained up in a dark room, all alone, unable to get free.
I'm here to take off your shackles with this Key I found: It's called Truth.
We, as Christians, are called to share this Key. You take this Key called Truth and go unshackle someone else. Tell them to do the same thing that I did for you, and that you did for them.
See a theme here?
This is what we do with Christianity.
If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and rose again so that you could go to Heaven and live with Him, then you, my friend, have been unshackled.
Now take the Key and pass it on.
Don't hide it, don't be ashamed, don't be afraid that the shackled person won't want their chains off. Offer it anyway.
Put this Key in your writing. Share this Key through a text to an old friend. Sing about how to find this Key in a song. There are a thousand ways to pass the Key on, but do it! Truth isn't something you collect over the years and store in a closet to be forgotten, it's a light! It's a way to free yourself from the enemy's claws! So if you got free, if you have this Key, share it.
I believe Satan has slipped a lie into our Christian Writing industry.
'Be subtle with Christianity, or no one will read your book, and no one will get saved.'
But isn't that exactly like the devil?! Of course he doesn't want us freeing his prisoners with our Key! Those are his prisoners. Why would he want them free?
So he lies. He tells us to be quiet with our Key, while books that will chain people flourish.
Let me rephrase that.
He tells us to be subtle with Christianity while books written by witches about witches become best-sellers.
We shouldn't quietly let Satan take over the writing industry because we're too afraid that someone will steal our Key. Maybe it's about time someone stole it! The thief needs it more than we do!
Be bold with your Faith in Christ Jesus. Be bold with your writing. Dare to stick out a little uncomfortably. Share the Key.
And then my totally awesome friend Kads, who has weird taste in music (which is irrelevant), wrote this amazing post which seriously gave me chills (the Holy Spirit is all over this girl’s words, let me tell you)! Please read the full article, because she has a lot of awesome stuff to say - what I’m sharing is just one element of her post!
Magic is even beginning to pop up in books by Christian authors. I respect Christian authors most of the time, but this is beginning to break my trust in them. The Bible specifically tells us that no magic is good or Godly. We cannot write about magic, even if it is “good” magic (because such a thing does not exist), and say that our writing serves the King at the same time. It is one or the other: God or the world, and frankly, if I were you, I wouldn’t choose the latter.
Deuteronomy 18:10-11 has this to say: “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, (v. 11) or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.”
Well, you’re probably like, “I’m not practicing magic or casting spells or anything, so what’s the big deal?” The big deal is that, by including that in your writing, you are claiming it to be acceptable. Magic is not Godly at all and, in the words of Peter, we should run far, far away from it and run to God.
So you might be thinking now, “Well, if all of this stuff you’ve talked about is bad, then how do I get around it? What if it messes up my story?”
First of all, let me ask you this: Is your story more important to you, or is God? Think about that. Following Biblical truths should not “mess up” your story. In fact, it will make it wonderful and pleasing to God.
“Well, does that mean that I have to quote Scripture on every page or something?” you might ask. Not necessarily. I think the reason Christian writers shy away from creating righteous fiction is because they’re afraid of it being too “preachy” and that nobody is going to like it, and that their audience will be narrowed if non-Christian readers don’t read it because of this. Fantasy writers especially. “What’s a good fantasy story without magic, right?”
In my opinion, as long as things are portrayed through a Biblical worldview and care has been taken to pray about it and write tactfully, including topics such as depression, self-sacrifice, and others, including this sort of thing in fiction is fine. In one of my books, (sorry, spoilers) the protagonist gives himself up at the end in order to protect his people. I think that this is fine, because he is doing it out of love for his family. However, very dark topics like suicide, murder, and assault, where things are not resolved or portrayed Biblically, I believe you should be very careful about writing them and pray for clarification – is God really calling you to write about this? If He is, and you feel clear of conscience, then simply be very careful about writing it. Be careful in making sure that it will not trigger or impact people in harmful ways.
Friends, we need more God-loving fiction in the world today. This article might make you very uncomfortable and convict you, and if it does, then I am glad. Sometimes a wrestle with conscience is just what a person needs. I’m not sorry that I’ve written this, and you can argue with me all you want, but I have said what I have said.
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You’re not alone.
There are other writers who struggle with following God’s call or following the crowd.
There are other writers who see things differently.
There are other writers who want to write for Christ.
You’re not the only one.
I hope these posts help you understand the concept of Godly, Christian fiction and just why that is important in our world, as well as open you up to the community of Christian writers who are giving their all to Him!
With love and blessings always,
Grace
Romans 1:16