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My Perspective on Christian Fiction (hereafter called CF):

Let me begin with two caveats.  First, keep in mind that I do sometimes read CF.  Honestly, Redeeming Love by Rivers is one of my favorite books.  And I have read Kingsbury’s first Baxter series (all 5 books), and I cried when the mother died.  I have read other books that have been recommended or I’ve just picked up for a light read.  So I’m not opposed entirely, all the time.  Second, I am not accusing anyone who likes these books of being less spiritual, less thinking, less anything.  I’m not sharing these thoughts to put you down (if you like CF).  However, I do have my own opinions about this genre and here are my primary concerns:

1. These books are not realistic.  Take Kingsbury’s Baxter family, for example.  How much can one family go through in five books: cancer, AIDS, 9/11, premarital sex, cohabitation, affairs, adoption scandals, drug addiction, near-drowning, family crises, personal crises, and on and on and on…  Seriously, it just doesn’t happen like that. 
     Also, all the “bad” stuff all works out fine in the end.  Regardless of the family crisis, no one stays angry
or holds grudges. They forgive and move on.  The sister whose daughter is nearly drowned and suffers brain
damage (Book 4) “really” struggles to reconnect with her role as mother
but finds herself blooming into a tender-hearted woman who can even
love her husband after he basically deserted them out of guilt. 
     And the “happy ending” is guaranteed, even if it takes a couple of books to come. Take the ending of Book #1 of the first Baxter
series. It was so frustrating to me!  After struggling like a “good
wife” to reconcile with her wayward husband, he’s tragically (yet
conveniently) murdered at the end of the book, and two books later,
she’s married to her first love whom she should’ve married after high
school. 

2. These books can be emotionally unhealthy.  Sometimes, CF novels are pretty much emotional porn for “good” women (sorry if that offends people).  It’s addicting, and we have to have the happy ending where “the girl waits patiently for her good, though slightly flawed man until through struggles and separation, they are finally united in eternal bliss”.  It’s escapist.  It’s shallow.  It makes us wish our husbands really did those kinds of things (when they don’t always) and really were those kinds of men (when no such man actually exists anywhere).  A more realistic story for Baxter book #1 would have been to watch the reconciled couple actually fight (for 4 more books) to have a marriage that was based on love and honored God.  Instead, the struggle was replaced with his murder and her eventual marriage to her “true” love.  And honestly, because they were so “perfect” for each other, the new couple wasn’t very interesting for much of the other books. 

3.  The end result of #2 is that CF books are good for a light, mindless read.  You don’t have to worry about sex  (or other “bad” stuff) popping up, but neither do I get any glimpse into a real struggle.  “Happy ever after” doesn’t help me live this life; it gives me a place to escape from it.  And while that can sometimes be a good thing (I told you I do read the books sometimes), that is ALL that most Christian women read.  And they “live” vicariously through these, often historical, novels where men and women were exotic and strange and find themselves in some new and exciting circumstances every other chapter.  They are romanticized.  Everyone loves these books about the Amish communities, but my in-laws live very near some Amish, and they aren’t much like these books would suggest. It’s a false, shallow world where the stuff that happens in our lives doesn’t happen.  And exciting, romantic things happen instead. 

4. And finally, call me a snob, but CF is not good literature.  The people you meet in CF aren’t really well-done characters who grow organically and change into better, more human people through suffering.  The plots are cheesy, driven by emotion instead of real action and the choices of the characters.  They try so hard to avoid all the “bad stuff” in secular novels that they become moralistic, and thus, most of them lack any real value. 

So that’s part of my problem with CF.   There are other issues I have (why would an unsaved person even want to be the kind of people described as “Christian” in those books most of the time?  Why would I, for that matter?), but that’s enough for now.  Feel free to respond.

15 thoughts on “”

  1. I haven’t read a lot of the type of CF you’re referring to, but I’ve read a couple – enough to agree with most of your observations. Oh, those cheesy “literary” devices are so annoying!

    I’ll have to check out the authors Marla recommended, ’cause most of the time I just stay away from CF. Which means I don’t read too much fiction at all (Christian or otherwise) these days. The last several non-Christian fiction books I read definitely did more harm than good in my faith (not that they pulled me away – just had me thinking very worldly thoughts). While CF might not be quality literature/realistic/ideal models for our lives, I guess at least it’s better than reading utter junk!

  2. It’s funny b/c a lot of the things you wrote about CF are exactly the reasons why I’m not overly fond of 2-hour love story movies where the characters meet, have no time to build a relationship & then end up married at the end.  i sit back and think-MAN, where’s the meat to this relationship.  It’s so annoying to me.

    And I think those types of movies ruin, really ruin & cause marriage troubles when movie-like expectations are present in a wife’s mind.  especially when such movies are seen starting at about 10 yrs. old and on up until marriage happens.

    I can’t say I’ve ever felt that way about CF; I have however, rolled my eyes at predictable endings, annoying one-sentence end of chapter hooks (like the ones in the Baxter books. oh brother, they drive me nuts.), and cheesy scripture relations where they don’t even fit.

    but, i’m a sucker for a light read & a happy ending.

    on the other hand, in some of the CF books I’ve read, I’m glad for the example of how things should be (i’m not saying all CF books are how things should be-definitely not.).  For example, if it only takes a wife one book to forgive her husband instead of three books; I say, right on.  Because forgiveness should be something we strive for.  We do hold grudges, but we shouldn’t. 

    In high school i read a lot of non christian fiction romance books (not harlequin, mind you…but……), and I think those are much more dangerous and damaging than CF.  So, if I want a sappy love story, I’d choose CF any day over a sex-filled NCF love story, just b/c I personally, want to keep the graphic descriptions out of my head. 

    But–like I said, I totally understand & see what you’re saying. 

    And I think it’s good to throw in the occasstional Catcher In the Rye.

  5. I haven’t read much Christian fiction…so this was interesting to read.  Last summer I read a series of three books by Kristen Billerbeck.  I bought the first one for a friend and she loved it and bought the next two, then I borrowed them and really enjoyed them.  I’m not sure how similar they are to the other books you all were discussing.   http://search.barnesandnoble.com/With-This-Ring-Im-Confused/Kristin-Billerbeck/e/9781595540331/?itm=1 (that is the 3rd and final book in the series)

  6. mtaviano suggested reading you blog, so here I am.  I totally agree with you about the emotions it brings into our lives concerning our husbands.  I noticed that after reading a Christian Romance I am grumpy and snappy with my husband.  it’s not his fault and he’s not a fictional character.  I am trying to stay away from those kinds of books now that I’ve figured out how it plays with my head.

  7. I agree but I also know what many of the restrictions are with christian publishers.  My husband works as a “consultant” with a christian writer who tries to do suspense or mystery type books.   She has to be very creative in things, such as if a stabbing is involved she could not use the word “blood” or “bleeding” to describe the result of the stabbing.    Too graphic.

  9. @mtaviano – I agree completely about genres within Christian Fiction (see Marla’s blog for her opinion!).  Alcorn and others are very good writers. They just aren’t what mostly people mean when they talk about CF (which is probably good for them in some respects!).

  10. And the book where the girl’s husband dies and she marries her old sweetheart is the most CLASSIC example of what is wrong with many Christian romances. GIVE ME A BREAK. Marriage troubles? No problem. Just wait for someone to off your husband so you can have your old boyfriend. (I wonder if KK hears that a lot from outraged people.) 🙂

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