Does God Read Fiction?

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God’s own blockbuster is the best-seller of all time – yes, even more than you, J.K. Rowling – but does He care much about other writers? Does He kick back, pick up the latest manifesto from Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens and have a great, big belly laugh at their expense?

'Hey, Son, come and have a look what these blokes have written about us this time!'

It might seem a strange question, but it’s one I’ve asked myself a lot for the past 13 years. Y’see, I’m one of them. A Christian. A Bible-basher. A God-botherer. A Jesus freak. A happy-clapper. Brainwashed and clinging to outdated beliefs, perhaps? My only redeeming feature, it seems, is I don’t own a brown skivvy.

Whereas most novelists boast that they have complete freedom to write about whatever they like, Christian fiction writers can’t. There are some topics – such as blasphemy, porn and adultery – I find too (hellishly) hot to handle. It creates real tension when I’m writing, because I want to reflect what happens in the world accurately. Life isn’t some sanitised soap commercial.

However, novelists who are Christian have to live by their faith at all times. We can’t throw blasphemy into a scene involving dialogue because of some flimsy excuse 'it adds realism' when the Biblical teachings on the topic are clear. There’s a real danger of thinking that just because it happens around us, it gives us complete freedom to report it in fiction. No, that’s the realm of journalism. Writing a novel is an act of creating. We are bringing it into the world ourselves. There has to be some sort of personal moral filter.

It’s a topic I haven’t heard talked about, probably because there aren’t too many Christian novelists who write for a secular market. Some might argue that Christian publishers exist to cater for Christian readers. But that’s like thinking that some sort of moral and social apartheid exists in society. Quick, round up all those strange, singing types and hide ‘em in the closest.

There are two reasons I raise the issue.

1)      Because in my new novel coming out next week, BEYOND THE KNOCK-KNOCK DOOR I created a realistic world with a skyline of universities, markets, schools, theatres and topically, churches. I had to ask myself: Would God/Jesus exist on other planets? There was no way I was going to create a religion, which was against my beliefs.

2)      There’s a worrying trend by some very popular authors to push their strong anti-Christian views in children’s literature.

I’ve always believed there’s an unwritten rule in publishing: children’s fiction is not the place for ideology. With the rise of New Atheism, this seems to have been trampled down. The line has been crossed. Kids are being targeted with a very strong nihilist view of the world, and one writer in particular is quite proud of it.

Most of the stuff I’ve read about religion is just plain dumb. It’s usually lazy, inaccurate and full of stereotypes based on three a.m. tele-evangelists who beg for forgiveness then everyone’s credit card number. In the internet age, it’s easier to hide behind a keyboard rather than talk face-to-face with real people of faith, right?

So the question lingers: Does God read books? Of course. He’s all seeing. But would some of us try to stop the Great Editor in the Sky reading our fiction?

Read the next article in the series here >

Read more about Scott Monk here >

Read more about BEYOND THE KNOCK-KNOCK DOOR here >