A most bizarre event took place some time ago.
A man, acquainted with me and religious in every sense, read a portion of the first novel I wrote and asked me how I can write such books and at the same time call myself a Christian. The man was quite upset and moved, because, in his mind, I was committing perhaps one of the greatest sins, one can endeavour to commit. He, in no shortage of elaborate words, accused me of various atrocities and I could see that the words I wrote, clearly did not sit well with him.
That is putting it mildly.
Now if you’ll allow me, a bit of background here will add some flavour to the incident mentioned.
A little over five years ago, I lost my employment and with no alternative income, I had to find a way to financially sustain myself and my household. My pastor, a man whom I trust in these matters, told me to write a book. To his credit for the great man that he is, he did not promise me that riches would come from writing books, or even from the act of making novel writing a career. Neither did he tell me what book to write. It could have been fiction or nonfiction. It could have been a book about Christianity, a hobby, work-related, or any interest that took my fancy. He did not venture into specifics.
He just told me to write a book.
Me, having an ardent love for stories, fiction, and a good movie, did not think twice about embarking on the Nanowrimo challenge, and indeed, that November I wrote fifty thousand words of the manuscript.
I had, some eight years prior to that already thought of writing a book, (being a journalist that sort of notion comes quite naturally) but it was an entirely different concept.
The book I penned that November, I was told by a trusted Beta-reader, fell into the Small-Town Psychological Thriller genre.
And indeed, if one reads it, it can easily fall into that genre, though at a later stage I have come to think of it being more in the range of Psychological Horror. The argument for a thriller is strong because, in the novel, I do not hover too much on the details of the atrocious acts that had been committed. In most cases, I only show the after-effects, and the reader comes to the conclusion of what happened.
Crimes within the novel include sexual abuse, child molestation, alcoholism, emotional abuse, murder and conspiracy to murder, arson, abuse of power, and much more. The violence in the book is not to my mind explicit, but some text insinuates what happened, or what is happening.
Now I’ll admit this much. It is not a light read. It is not a feel-good story. It is not the type of story you would read to your children at bedtime. It is heavy, it is dark and it is straight to the point.
But. And here is a big but.
Neither is it the type of horror with the intent to shock. You don’t have a monster going about on a killing spree and all you read about is throats being slit with blood and gore all over the place. The feeling and the tone, I should want to think I aimed for, was more that of sadness, than fear, without treating the subject of fear too lightly. Sadness, that people can fall so low, and allow such evil to happen. But then also hope. Because in the end, good triumphs over evil. The atrocities get stopped.
I don’t want to give away too much here, but I want to be clear on this: In no way, does this novel glorify evil in any way. It is meant to be a portrayal of the weakness and the evil within people’s hearts and minds and ultimately their actions.
Still, this person who scolded me with so much intent that I didn’t write a word of fiction for a great while after the incident, was adamant that as Christian, I had overstepped some boundary. He was, unfortunately emotionally too moved to have a clear rational conversation about it and tell me exactly where that boundary was. I am very open to discussion about these matters and quite comfortable with the subject.
As for me? I have a clear conscience. The fact that I struggle to sleep at night has more to do with the fact that I write and edit five books simultaneously. Keeping the storylines nice and snug does take its fair share of mental strain.
Now all of that leads me to the burning question.
Should Christians read and write in the horror genre?
Or parallel with that, should Christians write thrillers, fantasy novels, or science fiction?
Herewith, I will attempt to put forth a view, and I would urge anyone who has the same question, to not believe anything I say outright but test it using knowledge of the scriptures and insight from the Holy Spirit.
No doubt about identity
Firstly, I would like to state that I am a Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit and worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Creator of the universe, in and through Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I believe the Word of God as truth and I have enough faith in God, that when I do something, not in line with His will, I know He will lead me and guide me on the right path. And it is my belief, that any Christian, regardless of profession, should have at least that bit of faith, to know that we can trust in His guidance, the guidance of a loving Father.
If I have a shop that sells goods and I’m grumpy all day, then it does not mean my shop is “Unchristian.” It means I should continue with my shop in the secular world, serving both Christians and people of every faith, and the more I read the scriptures, the more I will become holy in my work, swearing less at my employees and working with more joy and peace.
It’s an oversimplified and crude example, but I think I made my point.
Trust in God, seek Him, and He will, through time, trials, patience, and endurance, guide you to become better and wiser in your pursuit to serve His children. And when someone comes and throws accusations and tries to tell you otherwise, do not heed that person. It could very well be an attack to prevent you from fulfilling your calling.
Boundaries
Secondly, that brings me to boundaries. Which I firmly believe there are. As a Christian, I am not likely to write in genres classified as Romantic Erotica or the like. Just because a lot of those genres glorify acts that do not reflect the truths of the Kingdom of God. It gives the reader pleasure in the form of lust, something that is addictive and something that destroys the soul.
Likewise am I not into the popular horror genre of modern Hollywood, which mixes a lot of truth with the most horrible garbage but is portrayed as truth. The aim I feel with the majority of these is not to tell a good story, but to use cheap tactics for the sole purpose of scaring people.
There are a variety of genres and sub-genres that I would not be comfortable with, either reading or writing. But likewise, I would not condemn anyone for the reading or writing of these. We each know what we prefer to allow into our lives, and depending on a multitude of factors, this can vary from person to person, culture to culture and society to society.
Again, seeking God and His wisdom will shape you into making the right decisions as to what to allow in your life and what not.
Literature as a whole
Thirdly, we look at literature as a whole. The form and art of storytelling. Why do we love stories? Why do we like telling stories and adore hearing stories?
It is because we are wired that way. We were created to find meaning in stories. It is how we live and it is how we perceive the world. It is how we understand our own lives. We do not think of our lives and our existence in an abstract way. We are constantly trying to find meaning, in things and events, and we find meaning through stories. Hollywood and its counterparts constantly remind us of the battle between good and evil in all its various forms.
We live through stories, and we cannot escape them.
Even the most basic math problem has a sequence of values and a language, the basic ingredients of the story itself.
So what then is the purpose of storytellers?
At the beginning of time, people told stories as both a method for survival and for the improvement and advancement of civilization. A story in a tribe about a man being killed by a lion probably saved more than one child’s life. So also which fruit and herbs to eat and which to avoid. Or how to react in the face of calamity, hardship, floods or draught.
Six thousand years later, not much has changed. People read newspapers because they would like to better understand what society they find themselves in. We watch movies because it speaks directly to the desires we all have in our hearts. To make sense of the world we live in, how we fit into this world, and how to navigate the space around us without getting hurt too much.
Yet in all that, there are truths and there are falsehoods.
And that leads me to my next point.
The Scriptures we know as the Bible.
Apart from the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, a few of Paul’s letters and so, the Bible in its entirety is made up of narratives. And in case you have not thoroughly gone through the narratives in the Bible, it covers almost every thinkable and conceivable wrongdoing on earth.
From murder to theft, rape to cannibalism, practices of the occult, devil worship, the burning and killing of one’s own children, torture of the most vicious kind, genocide, prostitution, dismembering bodies, mass killing of babies. The list is long and the list is extensive. I can go on a pretty while and when it comes to some of the worst atrocities in humankind, the Bible is not holding back. Make no mistake. It gets brutal.
What’s more, if you closely examine only the first book of the Bible, Genesis, you’ll see that most of the major issues in life we struggle with today, are right there in black and white. Hatred, revenge, greed, murder, theft, innocent people getting what they do not deserve, that list is long too. And the Scriptures do not exclude these issues, ‘lest we offend someone.’ No. It’s hard. It’s the truth and it gets to be the fundamental script according to how we conduct our lives.
And it’s all done through story. Through some of the most remarkable narratives you’ll ever read in your life.
Sure, as an example, if we as Christians come together with the task of writing the story of Samson perhaps, we would all agree that in our version of the man, he would not have spent some of his time with prostitutes. We would argue that that is not the way a man of God would have behaved. It is quite ‘unchristian,’ or quite ‘unrighteous,’ we would say. We would also argue that he would not have killed out of revenge. He would have forgiven his enemies. That is much more ‘Biblical,’ is it not? We would even argue that should he have done any such thing, God’s mighty power would have left him.
Well, not so. We all know the story. And we all know that things did not really happen according to our so-called perfect understanding of what God’s Kingdom should or should not be. In the end, it wasn’t the prostitutes that got the better of him. It was, sadly, his own iniquity. Tragic beyond words for him, but of great value in insight for us.
Yet the story is there in its full glory. No playing Holy here. No religious games to play. No theological debate. It’s there and it’s the truth.
And so are countless other stories, right throughout the scriptures.
One argument is that I’m taking all these stories out of context. That I’m using scripture to try and prove my own conviction in regard to the book I wrote.
With that, I have one answer and one answer only.
I think that any person putting that argument forth is taking my book out of context. So there’s that.
What’s the difference, though?
Does it mean we can write whatever we want? Does it mean we can write in detail about the most horrific or lustful stuff and it’s OK just because it’s mentioned in the Scriptures?
Not by a long shot.
The Bible clearly states, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…” Isaiah 5:20
The difference is, the stories we read in the Bible have meaning. There is a purpose to them. They bring a message across. They testify of certain values people ought to have and certain dangers people ought to avoid.
And, they were written with a certain Spirit. A Spirit that gives life. A Holy Spirit who makes no mistakes when it comes to delivering a message to us as human beings.
This is then how we can measure the value of our work. The same as we value a tree.
By its fruit.
Does the book, or story portray the Kingdom of God with a spirit of love, in accordance with the truth? Does it reveal the constant battle between good and evil amidst broken people and broken lives? Or perhaps the longing for people to be together, and after a journey, is actually happening? Or does it perhaps portray the tragedy of the human condition?
All of this has meaning, and cannot just be discarded as the work of the devil.
If we would attempt to write the perfect Christian book, then no character in the book would ever sin. There would be no conflict, and ultimately, no story.
That, to my mind, is as far away from the Kingdom of God as one can get, and would be useful for nothing but a mere existence without purpose.
The fight between good and evil is as real as the very oxygen we breathe. And we make sense of that fight through stories. And to make sense of it, we cannot tread light foot around the challenges we face in this day and age. Are some people going to be offended by what we write? Of course. Look at how many people Jesus Christ offended, and he is the ultimate light and truth.
If we write with the aim not to offend, we will end up writing not at all.
I will say it again.
The Horror genre is perhaps the best genre to portray the fight between good and evil.
So keep writing. Keep reading. And keep fighting for what is right, just, and righteous.