Into the Fire

There are a few, not counting Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills and Brad Thor, general market/secular authors I've enjoyed reading this past year. These authors wrote some good stories, complex mysteries, some well done romance mixed in with appealing characters. But what continually disappoints is the incessant use of graphic sexual scenes and sometimes an unhealthy dose of foul or vulgar language. In other words most of their novels would get an R rating because of these factors.

I'm not a snowflake. Even though I was raised – and appreciated – that swearing and cussing were wrong, I at one point in my rebellion years taught myself how to not only do it but to get somewhat good at it. Believe me when I say I'm not proud of it. So, although I might not like to "hear" it in the novels I read, if it's not used excessively, I can "take" it – the reason being if it truly fits the character and the situation, it is, after all, realistic, no matter how much we don't like it.

So. What I'm wondering is this: who gets off on reading graphic sexual encounters? And why? It's disconcerting when one realizes that 50 Shades of Grey and that series sold millions of copies when it was notoriously known to be poorly written, but the "hot" sex with BDSM (Bondage, Discipline/Domination, Sadism, Masochism) descriptions apparently captivated untold numbers of women – including Christians! Apparently, there are literally millions of female readers who pursue these passages because no genre in fiction outsells the romance novel, and it's fairly safe to say this genre prevails among the feminine reading population.

More on this topic tomorrow. Any thoughts?

Father, help me to effectively write the contrasts of the world to the beauty of what you created. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.