Christian fiction

A) creepy


I agree there have been excellent books written by christians, and I've even read some of them..
and having a company that promoted that could be a smart business -
but this seems to be about more "modern" books/solicitations.

Hi Osso, yep, I thought maybe it was more a company sensing a market. But that in itself has implications, are Christians ghettoising ?


I can almost see a place for some organisation putting out list of YA books that don't flout Christianity for parents who are afraid of their children's ability to process conflicting world views, sort of like those parental advisory stickers on sweaty CDs, I don't like it but if it floats your boat...

I can see various business models selling 'safe' books for teens, and they probably already exist and I have paid no attention.

I remember my pleasure at being allowed into the adult part of Santa Monica Library once I turned fourteen. Not so I could see salacious stuff, I didn't know from that, but that I could see what I thought of as real books. Me, I hit the medical history/science section, but I was an odd one.

Clever marketing ploy is all I can say. But isn't it interesting that the so-called Christians find it necessary to market their product, i.e. religion? It has lost any attraction it once had and now has to be "sold."

This is interesting, I agree. It's in the same vein as Barbie type dolls with modest clothing or little families of mouses or turtles with Christian values. The fad hit the children's toy industry years ago.

There probably is a market for these kinds of books. Some people can't take the real in reality. I always wanted my children to take religion courses in school, but only if it was a comparative religion class. They needed more information, rather than someone else's idea about what they should know. There is a sub-culture of Evangelical Fundamentalists who have institutionalized ignorance. This is another example. It's sad. But hopefully our children will help out grow this obsessive dependence on the bubble.

I'm quite sure that that's a fairly safe prediction. The very fact that the churches (as you suggest, primarily Evangelical fundamentalists) are in the midst of a marketing campaign indicates that they're not at all happy with the general trend of independent thought emerging among the young today.

I used to use, to myself and rarely others, the term belligerent ignorance - and I didn't at the time direct that to people I now think of as neo christians in particular, I was just using that as a word to myself when it seemed to fit some circumstance.

But your term institutionalized ignorance catches my eye.

I think this is refering to such things as the "Left Behind" series. There is a Christian bookstore around here that sells everything any church goer could ever want and some of it is Christian oriented fiction. Check out their website and you will see they have an entire fiction section.

There are a # of books out there that are considered Christian Fiction due to the type of stories they tell. My wife has read many authors that write books for Christians that do not contain the sex and uber violence of some authors. For them it is a way of reading good books without all the things they do not like. I haven't read them ( I read lots of Sci Fi books. My latest being Star Wars Thrawn Trilogy) but I guess for some people this is a good choice.

I've seen plenty of Christian bookstores Eng - it's the fact that this marketed to librarians (mostly in American Public Libraries) clearly the marketing guys think either librarians get requests of this nature, or have boards that a political librarian might think would look favourably on these purchases, or are themselves of that bent.

I don't think it's about Left Behind - it felt more like they cover other genres (like the ones I mention in the next paragraph) with a 'christian perspective', whatever the heck that is.

My local public library has a science fiction section, a big print section, westerns, romance, young adult, crime/mystery all in their own little sections - I think it's bizarre to have a 'christian' collection.

The two main sponsors are David C Cook publishing and B&H Publishing Group - both specialist christian materials publishing, although their sites push mostly biblical stuff, some non-fiction and kids lit. From their perspective this is business, but it just feels weird that the dominant religious culture might be attracted to niche marketing. Which is what I meant about 'ghettoising'. I guess I'm a little naive to be surprised that ALJ is sponsoring the event as well. It's almost like that's confirmation that it's catering to a minority.

I have no problem with special interest groups identifying literature that supports, or is acceptable to, their creed - but editorial prescription of a novel's contents just seems creepy.

I guess I'd like to know that the novel I'm reading is from the writer's heart - I don't care whether that heart belongs to God, Satan or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but if that book's existence is owed to a set of narrow publishing guidelines centred on promoting a certain perspective - well I'd want to know up front so I could avoid it. Not sure why - I guess we all have our own rules for authenticity.

Ummm...do you know if they sell Bibles in the Christian Fiction stores?

Do you know I deliberately avoided mentioning that cheap shot? It wasn't easy.

As has been pointed out, it's about mind control.

Well, Baldimo, I think you have a point. My sister has trouble watching many TV series because she feels offended by the violence and explicit (to her) sex. The most recent is The House of Cards. She has been watching it, but I can tell that it really bothers her. I have my opinions about whether I would want to be so sheltered and avoidant of the larger culture, but I can't really say that she should not feel uncomfortable, when in fact she does.

To reject the Christian fiction being discussed does not constitute or even imply endorsement of certain crap on TV these days, as far as I am concerned. I reject stuff like Two Broke Girls and such garbage.

Still, I can understand if a person is offended, whether I think they should be or not. It's only natural to want to read something that is pleasing and doesn't cause too much distress. After all, reading should be fun, or at least entertaining. Who am I to say that someone should be willing to be uncomfortable just because I think they shouldn't be?

I can image a world where all people were willing or able to appreciate realism in fiction. It might even be a better place, our world. But just because I would like it doesn't make it ok that I demand that my sister should.

I think it's kind of funny given how gory and horror filled the bible is....

I think I might start reading the Left Behind series, just to be able to catch allusions to it in other people's conversations and know who's a born-again.

And I plan to relax and the ride!

I found the first two "Left Behind" movies entertaining. They were works of complete fiction, and yet they took themselves as seriously as any historical drama. It added a sense of urgency you can't get from ordinary fiction.

Another classic endtimes flick:
<-- Lucifer and the "world court" put a Christian leader on trial for crimes against humanity.

"Relax and enjoy the ride", I meant. Clearly it's too late in the wee hours to be on a2k, and I have better stuff to be doing (like looking up endtimes movies on Netflix to put in my queue).