I was recently asked by a younger writer friend whether it was OK for a writer who is a believer to feature characters in their stories who do not reflect their own belief system. It was an interesting question, even though at first blush it seems so simple that with all the time left after providing a response, I could go visit an Orlando vacation rental place.
But it’s not that simple when you consider the context of her question. She said that for her fiction to be accepted in a religious market, she feels compelled to include faith-based content and faith-based characters. And yet, when she has read such fiction, she feels the writing is awkward and subpar, at best.
So really, it becomes a question of audience. She wants to write to people of faith, so the question becomes, what will they read? Must main characters always be blatantly people of faith and must the story always include lengthy passages of preaching that takes a person out of the narrative flow in order to succeed in the religious fiction market?
I don’t believe so. The Left Behind series of books has done quite well and was less blatant in its religious content than most of what came before it, though the first three books were better at this trick than the final nine.
Also, Ted Dekker has pulled off some wonderfully subtle novels within the religious market that almost never sermonize but operate on an allegorical level instead, to get the religious message across while still delivering pulse-pounding suspense stories.
Besides, as my wife observed, “If everyone in a story acted consistently with Torah principles, who would the villains be?”
