Over in Faith*in*Fiction Dave Long started a discussion about the problems with non-CBA fiction. He gave eight reasons, but I will focus on one--#2--the weaker brother/sistah.
I’m hoping to summarize the critique that non-CBA Christian fiction has often received from folks within CBA. Remember this isn’t me speaking. It’s my coalescing of the overall prevailing criticism that I’ve seen or heard over the years.
If I’ve missed some, feel free to add them. (I added one Wednesday morning...2. We’re ignoring the Bible’s command to watch out for the weaker brother. When our fictional characters act inappropriately, it may serve as a stumbling block to others.
-Dave Long
J. Mark Bertrand started a thread on the discussion board on this notion of writing for the weaker brother. And it is incredibly good. If you haven't hung out at Dave's Excellent Coffee House, then you need to click on the title and hop on board.
But first let me share my response to this topic. And then you can comment either here or on my tagboard whether you thought I was either way off tangent or on point.
I have read all posts and you all have brought up some very thoughtful points. But my take on this--to me--may be different than everyones. :)
Weaker brothers...at this point I am weak. I've been in the faith since I was eleven, but I have straddled the fence, backslid and everything in between, sideways and in the closet(not a homosexual reference.)
But at the same point I have grown strong and tall in my faith. I feel God moving in me.
I began writing on what I thought was my death bed to my daughter, who was a newborn at the time. Eventually, my writing moved to christian reporting and last year I did 40 days of purpose and believed God wanted me to write parables/fiction and relate what I know to the common man--the weaker sistah also.
When the Lord and I talk about my novel in the mornings we don't talk about how my writing will be so universal that my stories will transcend all ethnicities, denominations, philosophies. Or will I offend a single christian mother struggling with her faith and her urge to bed any man who would have her just to appease those who haven't experienced that kind of desperation, who don't know that God satiates. But, I about what I know for sure--that weak sistah, that weak daughter, that weak saint.
Just like Nehemiah wrote about how to pray and repent to God. He didn't try to tackle all of God in his work, but what he knew for sure. After all he was the king's cupbearer.
When Solomon wrote Song of Solomon, Ecclesiates, and Proverbs he didn't try to tackle everything in Heaven, but wisdom and love...things he knew for sure.
So unless I'm really missing the point here. Are we trying to tackle all of Christiandom when we speak about weaker sistahs instead of what we know for sure, the thing that we struggle with when no one's around, the thing that causes us to lay down our faith, the one thing that the Lord wants us to tear down so that we can truly live his creed?
Because if it is, then would our writing parallel violence with the tone and the theme of the novel as it relates to God's wrath? Because if it is, then would our writing parallel sex with Esther's yearlong bathing ritual or Vashti's refusal to parade around naked for everyone to see? Or are you saying that writing sugary sweet, small towns without ethnicity (except for that one hard working black man that creeps up in just about every faith fiction book I've read lately,) violence(as if Average Deacon Joe's aren't living secret lives as serial killers,) or sex, whereby Bishops are bedding every woman that steps two feet toward the altar, helping the weaker sistah?
As you can see I'm confused. Because what I got from Roman's is that we need to write in a way that doesn't offend each other not write in a way that doesn't keep us from delivering the message God created for us to give.
I grew up in a small southern town on a hog farm, so I'm not as jaded as I sound.
It's just on a daily basis I receive blood curdling news that ministers, politicians and such want me to flip and fluff around as not to disturb Atlanta's Christian world. Yet, people are walking around wondering where is our faith? Have you seen the news this year?What say you?
Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee
Check out my novel writing process at
Angel on the Back Pew
