Into the Fire

You could measure how much I know about nunneries on the tip of a preemie baby’s finger, but suffice it to say from my tiny understanding those who occupy them have a set of rules which do not get broken without repercussions to those who break them. I would guess some nunneries are more rigid than others. I assume there are vows taken and attempted to be kept by the occupants and leadership, and certain patterns and formats for what they consider true worship and living out their religion are exhibited in private and group settings for service first to God but logically and spiritually trickling down to others.

A good deal of fiction produced by CBA publishers could easily compare in theory to the product of pseudo-nunneries. Some of it is religious, formulaic, follows a distinct pattern, and desires to provide a service of sorts to its readers by not offending them and giving them “clean” literature. Within some categories there is little or no variation so those readers know exactly what to expect and for some reason can get irritable and vocal when their perceptions of what “should” be presented to them is altered in any way.

I do believe Christian fiction is progressing from “cloistered” to . . . well, to beyond that. It’s advancing and expanding as evidenced more predominantly with some publishers than others. The most avant-garde of the group would probably be Thomas Nelson (i.e. Immanuel’s Veins by Ted Dekker, The Passion of Mary-Margaret by Lisa Samson) because I’m fairly sure those two novels probably elicited a fair amount of complaints from the vocal nunnery-fiction crowd. That would be my guess anyway. Not at all conventional stories.

We’ve discussed here multiple times how the needs/desires of many Christian readers simply aren’t being addressed and therefore remain unmet in the Christian fiction industry. Since the industry perception requires making sure those readers within a particular target group carry the industry, by insisting that group occupies the biggest market share, some publishers write off the bulk of other readers who would prefer to find redemptive themes in all genres without formulaic religious stories appearing on the pages.

Since I read and review a lot of Christian fiction, and blog about it, I can say there are many talented authors who write amazing stories in most genres. The thriller genre is allowed to take some wild chances with serial killers and violence and very few references to God within their stories. They’re not squeaky clean by anyone’s measure and examine the evil in our midst without making it tidy.

I write love stories, heavy on the romance. I would say the romance genre is the weakest in that so much of it is category romance, predictable, and light on the realities of the male/female dynamic which is sexual attraction. However, this is also the biggest selling genre (and not only in the CBA). However again, this audience is limited and restricted by the invisible lines of what is acceptable in this genre, and the audience for those novels which examines that dynamic in a deeper fashion remains overlooked and ignored. Such is the nunnery of Christian Fiction.

God, thank you that you welcome all who seek you. Thank you that where we come from or how we speak has no bearing on your willingness to draw us to you. Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens . . . Thank you, Jesus.