Category: Christian Authorship

How Should Christians Write About… LGBT Issues

How Should Christians Write About… LGBT Issues

This post topic has been on my “to-write” list for a long time now because, frankly, it’s a scary topic to broach. I expect it will offend people (possibly those from multiple directions), and I don’t prefer to intentionally make people uncomfortable. That said, I believe this is an important topic that Christian authors should be addressing, one that Christian authors have largely ignored and abdicated the conversation around, and since it recently came up again I decided it was time to actually post about it.

As always in this series, this post is meant to be food-for-thought, to lay out the scriptural guidelines for a particular topic and what we do or don’t have the freedom to include in our stories (or how we do or don’t have the freedom to portray it) based on that scripture. I’ll put forth my interpretation, but all of these topics are ultimately between you and God and the intention is not to bind or to violate your conscience.

The Biblical View on Homosexuality

The most important question to ask is (as always): What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

(Verses are in NKJV, and I encourage you to read the broader context as well, on your own.)

While we have Continue reading “How Should Christians Write About… LGBT Issues”

How Should Christians Write About… Allegorical Religions?

How Should Christians Write About… Allegorical Religions?

One of the earliest installments in this series covered how to write about false religions, those that aren’t even real within your world. But today I want to cover the separate issue of how to write about religions that are designed to reflect the truth of who our God is within the context of a fictional world.

As always, this is intended to be food-for-thought, not the one proper Continue reading “How Should Christians Write About… Allegorical Religions?”

3 Literary Qualities (Largely) Lost to Time

3 Literary Qualities (Largely) Lost to Time

Classic literature did it better.

Okay, not always, but there is a lot to be said for classic literature that can’t (often) be said for modern literature, and I think that modern authors–even modern Christian authors–have lost sight of a lot of the values that can be found in classic literature and the lives of classic authors. Today I want to look at some of the qualities of classic writing that I see more rarely in modern writing, and encourage us to consider whether Continue reading “3 Literary Qualities (Largely) Lost to Time”

How Should Christians Write About… Cursing?

How Should Christians Write About… Cursing?

Here’s another “how should Christians write about…?” post, and this time the topic is something I’m personally working and praying through for a project.

As always, this post is meant to be food-for-thought, to lay out the scriptural guidelines for a particular topic and what we do or don’t have the freedom to include in our stories (or how we do or don’t have the freedom to portray it) based on that scripture. I’ll put forth my interpretation, but all of these topics are ultimately between you and God and the intention is not to bind or to violate your conscience.

All of that out of the way, let’s talk about cursing in fiction. (I know some of you are already squirming in your seats, but Continue reading “How Should Christians Write About… Cursing?”

How Should Christians Write About… How God Speaks

How Should Christians Write About… How God Speaks

Last year, I read two books back-to-back (Wishtress and Once I Knew) in which God or the allegorical God figure speaks directly to the characters. (Actually, I’m not sure I’ve read a Nadine Brandes book in which this isn’t the case.) As such, this topic was near the top of my thoughts and I mulled over it quite a bit because the idea of God speaking directly to characters in a work of fiction is something I always wrestle with to some degree or another when it comes up.

This post might sound familiar to those who follow my social media or are subscribed to my newsletter, since I wrote out my thoughts sometime last year, but I wanted to compile and expand on them here as part of my “How should Christians write about…?” series. As always, these posts are intended as food for thought and your conclusions should be guided by Scripture and your conscience, not Continue reading “How Should Christians Write About… How God Speaks”