Writing a full-length, 450-page book is no easy task to begin with. But once you’ve finished your masterpiece, if you’re like me, you’re then wondering “who will be interested in this book?” The first dichotomy that popped into my head was whether or not it was a Young Adult story or General Fiction. I wanted it to be General Fiction, but a lot of elements in it made it more geared for YA.
But the big question for me is one that not everyone will face. I’m a believer in Jesus and a regular worship leader at my church which means that most people who know me would be expecting me to write a “Christian” book. But does this book fall into that category, and more importantly, do I want it to fall into that category?
I actually would be happy to not have my book on the shelves of the Christian bookstores because to have one’s work in Christian bookstores, you really have to gear it to a niche audience and I want it to be appealing to a large audience. It could also be argued that gearing a story to a Christian crowd detracts from the overall quality of the work. I don’t think that’s necessarily true; I think there are an equal number of bad Christian books as there are bad secular books. It’s just very easy to pick out the things that make a bad “Christian” book.
Here are a couple things about Christian fiction that stand out to me as subpar in quality: One, for a book (movie, story, etc) to be labeled as “Christian”, people believe that it needs to have a blatant message. There needs to be a “come to Jesus” moment at the end when everything is made right. Now don’t get me wrong; since I believe in Jesus and the inerrant Word of God, I wish that everyone would have a “come to Jesus” moment. But I have a problem with forcing this into a story because I think that Christians should sometimes make art for the sake of making art. It doesn’t have to have a brick-in-your-face message. The other thing is that this sort of happy ending just doesn’t always exist in real life. I wish it would. But it doesn’t. For a story to maintain realism, sometimes you’ve got to explore the darker side of life.
That leads me to my other reason: There are dark places within everyone’s soul and in everyone’s life (even Christians) and outside the church-going circles it gets even darker. I think a lot of Christian authors are afraid to go there. There are borders and boundaries that authors don’t even want to get near. But I think a lot of those boundaries are put there as misconceptions.
I’ve heard Christians say before that any entertainment that isn’t appropriate for their children isn’t appropriate for anyone. That’s just silly. I understand the overall principle, but to use it as a blanket rule is ridiculous. The movie “Ewok Adventures” terrified me when I was very young, but once I got a little bit older it no longer had the same impact on me. That’s because it wasn’t appropriate for that specific age and I don’t think anyone could make the argument that it’s an inappropriate movie in any way.
I can already hear you screaming at your monitor: “I’m talking about sex, violence and language!” Yes, I know. I just used that first example to set the stage.
Sex is a tricky one because it really can have a detrimental affect on anyone’s mind at any age and what might cause one person to stumble might have no effect whatsoever on another. Where exactly one draws the line is difficult but I think it’s better to err on the side of caution and avoid anything sexual.
Violence is simple to me because I grew up watching cartoon violence, Ninja Turtles movies, and even “Last of the Mohicans” when I was under ten years old. None of those things influenced my desires to scalp my friends or coworkers. Of course, there are limits. Having a ten-year-old watch the gratuitously violent movie “SAW” would be a mistake. But my point is that you can’t paint with broad strokes – just because a movie, book, whatever has violence in it does not make it inherently evil.
But the last one is the one that prompted me to write this article in the first place. It’s a touchy one, probably the most difficult to pin down, and everyone has a different opinion and tends to defend it to the bitter end: Bad Language.
As a Christian and a worship leader I struggled a lot with how to write my book and the argument of whether or not to include some cussing went back and forth for a long time. In my personal life, I always come back to the Ephesians verse that says something to the effect of: “let no unwholesome talk come from your mouth.” That is why I personally do not use bad language. I think this verse is including more than just the culturally-deemed “cuss words”, but more on that later. Even though I don’t use bad language in my everyday speech, I did opt to have the characters use mild language (none of the big ones) in my book. Before you freak out and call me a heretic and hypocrite, let me tell you why.
I included some bad language for three reasons: One, this is how the world speaks and they don’t see it as anything more than standard conversation. That’s true of a lot of Christians too. To omit it would be a glaring anachronism and I don’t want it to be dismissed right away because the way the characters speak isn’t realistic. The main character in the book is a military guy who doesn’t believe that God exists. So naturally, he uses some bad language. It helps create a sense of reality. Only in very special stories can you get away with not having cussing and it still seem realistic. When you’ve got a story revolving around a bunch of hardened military men, it would be unreasonable to think that they’re going to say “oh fooey” when something bad happens.
The second reason I chose to have bad language in the book is to illustrate the difference between these worldly people and the godly people who show up about halfway through the book, and none of them use foul language. It’s subtle, and it’s not explained in the book because (like I said before) I don’t think every message has to be shoved down the throat of the reader. In fact, I think it’s better absorbed when readers figure it out for themselves. And also, I don’t want readers to get the impression that I think everyone who uses bad language is a terrible person. That’s just not true. In any case, the way the characters are set up, the military guys are very emotional, violent, rash people and the other character is calm, assured, godly, and doesn’t see a need to shout obscenities.
The third reason is my own conviction: I believe that the language one uses is an indication of one’s heart. Jesus said that anyone who says to his brother “you fool” is in danger of the fire of hell and that is WAY milder than a lot of things I’ve said without cussing. I think it’s because when you speak words in anger, whether it’s the f-bomb or calling someone a nincompoop, the heart is the same. It has nothing to do with the words. Think about it: our most crude, harsh, hurtful words mean nothing to a Russian, though he could probably pick up on the gist of them from the way in which they’re said. The heart is the issue. For this reason, when writing a fiction story, I know my heart is pure so I don’t have a problem with the characters using mild language to make them more realistic.
Some words are considered offensive and I can’t honestly tell you why. Why is ‘hell’ a cuss word? It doesn’t have a dirty meaning behind it. It’s a real place. It’s not used in a manner that is insulting. So why is it offensive? Because society says it is. I personally don’t have a problem with it and I’m not offended when people use it. However, I still choose not to use the word because of the fact that it does offend some people. Whether or not I agree with their sentiments is beside the point. Because if my heart is right, then I’m going to try to never offend people. Impossible, I know, but I try.
And the words themselves are important too. I think some words are inappropriate any time. One particular word that starts with “f” has real meaning behind it whether or not you stop and think about it. But when someone is casually dropping f-bombs, I’m not going to clap my hands over my ears and cry or go home and grumble about how offended I am either.
All that being said, the issue of children comes back into play. Kids pick up on the tiniest things and run them into the ground. If a parent uses casual swear words, then the kids are probably going to emulate it to the “n”th degree. Like I said before, I’m not offended by cussing, but I also don’t want my children to cuss because a lot of people are offended and kids don’t always know where to draw the line which is another reason that I choose not to use that kind of language.
Growing up, I knew a LOT of kids who thought that if you even uttered the syllables of a cuss word that it was the worst type of sin. Even I fell into this to a degree. They were actually afraid of cuss words! While I don’t want my children to cuss, I REALLY don’t want them to be afraid of it!
A lot of people forget that as Christians, we are free in Christ. It’s not a license to kill or a blank check to do whatever you want, but it does mean that you don’t have to be afraid of bad language. They’re only words and they will not send you to hell.
This has been long and I thank you for reading this far. I want to sum it all up by saying this: If you don’t want your kids to read my book because of the language, that’s great. More power to you. I don’t think my book is intended for a very young crowd anyway. But if you think I’m a dirty rotten sinner because it has bad language in it, you might want to think about why you’re offended by these words. Are they really hurting you? And if you’re thinking that a worship leader shouldn’t be using that kind of language, I respect that, but keep in mind, this is a story. It’s not real life. In real life, I don’t kill people, battle monsters, live in the future, or use bad language. Most people aren’t going to have a problem with the first three in the story, so what’s the problem with the fourth? Words are not inherently evil.
