| | Lately, I've been on a reading frenzy, having read over 2000 pages of books within the last week and a half. Though my inherent self-righteousness would like to claim that it was all Biblical or Christian literature, nothing could be further from the truth.
I like reading fiction a lot.
I love the stories authors are able to weave. I love learning from books to somehow imbue their good qualities into my own writing craft. But lately, I like reading fiction because it gives remarkable and honest insight into how non-Christians think, how they live, how they love, what they struggle with, and how they come to terms with God.
This realization is doubly meaningful in light of NCA's rekindled vision to reach non-believers. Sometimes the best way to reach someone isn't through abstract and lofty morals and sermons, but being able to relate with the world's Catchers in the Rye and Great Gatsbys.
Secular fiction relates a lot of truths about life and how people deal with its problems. I firmly believe all these truths and lessons can be found in the Bible, but sometimes secular writers, in their different voices and eras, can touch upon God's truth more eloquently and more relevantly than any Christian writer could. Sometimes secular writers can illustrate even clearer how desperate people are without God.
Which brings me to another point--Christian literature and film is highly marginalized in this world. No serious critic will ever take books like the 'Left Behind' series or films like 'The Omega Code' seriously--come to think of it, neither would I. As soon as it's discovered that a book or film has strong Christian values, it's dismissed as propaganda or sophomoric or treated with snobbery, being limited only to the 'popular' appeal of the 'ignorant' or 'narrow minded'.
I'd like to be able to change that, though, even in just an insignificant way. I'm tired of seeing Christians portrayed in fiction and film as these overzealous, closed-minded, self-righteous, and cliquish moles. Who in their right mind would want to associate with people like that?
I certainly wouldn't, and I don't--that's clearly evidenced by the church I attend.
Maybe I have it within me to write that crossover piece of literature--that one where it shows a person can be a Christian AND literary in this post-modern world. Most of all, I want to see the Kingdom of God and its people represented honestly and not in condescension.
When I tell people I'm a Christian, I don't want the first image that pops into people's heads to be that of televangelists, sitting on their gaudy and glittering thrones of gold, asking for money in return for salvation. I want people to think, 'hey, here's a really decent person that seems to have his act together.'
I don't have to write the Great American Novel to accomplish this. I can do this by simply living my life as God intended it, but writing that novel sure would be fun. |
| | Posted 9/4/2003 2:58 PM - 1 view - 8 comments
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