Denominational Coyness in Evangelical Christian Fiction

 Some time ago I consulted a book about how to write (Evangelical) Christian fiction and read the following advice: the church in your fiction should not be Faith Baptist Church or Grace Pentecostal Church. Instead, just call it Faith Church, or Grace Community Church.

Now, my first impulse was to run out and claim that if you drop the 'Catholic' from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church or Immaculate Conception Catholic Church that would make it all neutral and non-denominational.

But I see the purpose in the advice. 'Evangelical' encompasses a wide variety of denominations (and non-denominations) and by being neutral as to church names, a wider group of readers can feel like the church in the Christian novel they are reading is just like their own church.

Another aspect of denominational coyness is that the author bio on normal Evangelical Christian books almost never gives a hint as to the author's denomination. If the author's home church is mentioned, it is sure to be a non-denominational church, or at least to have a non-denominational name.

One problem with this denominational coyness approach is that most Christians today are highly ignorant about the many church denominations and their beliefs. Many Christians had the good luck to attend religious education classes of some sort during childhood, and some of these classes actually taught the basics of what that particular church believed--- perhaps even got into the history of the denomination. But even those Christians likely know less than nothing about what the church down the block of some other denomination believes and teaches.

As a result of this ignorance, there are some Christians out there who honestly believe that nearly every Christian church in the country teaches the pre-tribulation Rapture theory. That's what was taught in most of the churches they attended in their life, and so they think it's taught everywhere.

Other Christians have attended a variety of Bible-believing churches and never met with one that taught the pre-tribulation Rapture theory. These Christians might look upon the Rapture theory as something taught only in the oddest 'fundamentalist' churches where you can't play cards or drink beer but you are encouraged to handle poisonous snakes.

Another problem with denominational coyness is that it often helps a naive Christian to hang on to a belief that the Christian world is divided into 2 groups--- the churches who do everything exactly the way their church does it, and the churches who 'don't believe the Bible'. For example, if the Christian's home church rejects infant baptism and quotes proof-texts to back that up, they assume that every church that does infant baptisms is a church that rejects the Bible. They are often amazed to discover that the other side has proof texts, too.

Denominational coyness can sometimes produce (Evangelical) Christian fiction that is Christian fiction 'lite'. Vast amounts of Christian topics are scrupulously avoided since they would require the author to take a side on some issue of doctrine or church practices, and thus spoil the illusion that the church in the book is just like the reader's church. Even basic things like baptisms or church services may have to be hidden from the reader lest the reader discover the writer's preferred doctrines and practices and find them wanting.

The best Evangelical Christian fiction defies denominational coyness. Think of the Left Behind series which broke out of the Christian fiction ghetto to achieve best-seller status. (I read that series while I was a Neopagan and enjoyed it.) That whole series was based on the controversial pre-tribulation Rapture theory which is far from universally accepted even among Evangelicals. I think it was in large part the authors' boldness in standing up for what they believed, even though there were many Christians who disagree with them, that made the Left Behind series strong fiction and worthy of reading even if you don't agree with all the theology.

The reality is that Christians today live in a world of many different denominations and non-denominations. More Christians than ever switch from one denomination to another--- even between denominations that are pretty far apart like Pentecostal and Catholic. I think that the intelligent reader of Christian fiction today is aware of these differences, and doesn't demand the old illusion that all churches are like their church. Look at the popularity of Amish fiction, featuring a religious group that has significant differences with the Evangelicalism of the readers and writers.

I think most of us are ready to move on to 'meatier' Christian fiction, written by authors from throughout the Christian spectrum of denominations and theology. I myself am a Catholic (convert) and yet I read fiction by Evangelicals, Protestants and Mormons without freaking out that the characters don't go to confession or pray the rosary. I may particularly like fiction by faithfully Catholic authors, but I'll accept fiction by any follower of Jesus Christ as something I might identify with as a Christian. I mean, if I read secular books by authors that seem actively hostile to Christianity, I can surely put up with a little 'wrong' theology from my fellow Christians of different denominations.

What do you think? Do you think it pays for Christian authors to hide their exact denominational background? Or do you think most Christians are ready to accept fiction from a variety of Christian denominations?

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