I just read this outstanding post on Her.meneutics (a blog I wish I remembered to read more often than I do, because it features the writings of some of the most outstanding Christian thinkers of our time). The question posed by Sarah Pulliam Bailey is one I've grappled with as a writer. My novel, No Penalty for Love, and the subsequent work now under consideration, are what is termed wholesome romance. In fact, in the editing stages I was asked to remove some of the pointedly Christian scenes in the novel because this is not what the secular publishing company did. As Bailey says, it was a matter of subtraction.
Funny that just this morning I was praying about writing. I feel pressured, from the outside sometimes and from within at other times, to write Christian fiction. It shouldn't be a problem. I loved writing the plays for Stained Glass Theatre. As a Christian, the work should just be an extension of who I am - just like when I read something I bring a Christian worldview to it, when I write I do the same thing. The trouble is that predominate formula Bailey speaks of that treats faith in God as something of a "golden key" or "get out of jail free card". It absolutely is not!
