My Unusual Journal
My Unusual Journal 55, Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 2:30 AM
A Word about Christian Writing
I recently read this on Bishop John Fonzer’s blog:
“Keeping it real” need not be an excuse to be crude, rude & tell-all. It only needs to be felt, seen, heard or sensed & true. Then it's real! < apostlfonz Bishop John Fonzer >
(By the way, you can read more of this wisdom from Bishop Fonzer on his blog as listed above.)
Apropos of the good Bishop’s remarks, I have a friend who is a professional writer and she has told me that in order to make her short stories become real to the readers she has to employ a minimal amount of crude and/or profane language. I haven’t told her yet (I am telling her now) that I tend to disagree with that assessment. I believe Christian writers should not stoop to the gutter language of the world, even if it is in a minimal way and they deem it necessary to make their stories authentic. Nor should Christian writers have to be too detailed and explicit in describing a lewd situation or act. (Incidentally I do not write fiction, but one day I possibly could and I am anticipating this sort of pitfall for the Christian writer.)
Of course if their goal is to steer their readers in the right pathway, they sometimes have to get very close to the fine line separating the explicit but permissible from the vulgar and taboo. Their purpose is clearly a worthy one, which is to make the situation they are describing true to the life they are describing and from which they wish to steer their reading audience. Nevertheless it seems to me that sometimes we Christians who write are trying so much to please our readers that we pander to their appetite for the obscene and salacious at the expense of the righteous impact we wish to make. We must never forget we have a God to please at all times.
My writer friend is skilled enough that she could lead up to a situation that is borderline pornographic, using words that are consonant with a staunch Christian writer’s standards. But I don’t think my tentative arguments have yet convinced her. That does not alter my thinking in the least; I am an old pit bull that has latched onto an argument and will not let go – old dogs can be that way.
When we write for publication, let’s be explicit up to a point; let’s describe objectionable scenes in a way that we do not cross over the “fine line” separating Christian writing from the lurid and the obscene. In other words, when, in making a point for righteousness, we have to lead the reader to what is lurid and obscene, let’s do it with finesse and wisdom. We do not have to plunge into a cesspool just because we are forced to walk on the brink of it. It is necessary always to keep in mind the righteous One for whom we are writing.
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