Big news for Christian fantasy:

http://www.christianretailing.com/index ... sy-imprint

What do you think? Is this good or bad?

I think it's something God can use regardless, but I believe is shows a certain immaturity of thought when things like this happen. Christian work as a literary or audio genre isn't usually meant to reach the lost. It's better served creating a safe and edifying environment for Christians of all ages. It's the individuals themselves that ought to be reaching out to the lost. Compromise of this sort usually just leaves both sides dissatisfied, because most Christians will gravitate toward cleaner works, and the unsaved can find their storyline or violence or worldly content in other stories.

I think it depends on what they do with the imprint. If they use it to give a good discriminate between younger and older readers(for example, the Echoes from the Edge series, and possibly the Dark Sea Annals series are for more mature readers and prob not for 9 to 11 year olds) and it doesn't encourage more fiction of this kind then fine. But if they use it to encourage content of this kind, then I'm very cautious about the wisdom of this decision...

'More mature' is an entirely subjective term. One of their books that I've read already has the icon, and though it was not a children's book, definitely, I think it was very good, and it had a good purpose. I am not entirely sure about the idea of making a book cruder simply to appeal to a crude audience, and so forth, though. I'm not sure if that's what they're doing, but it's something to think about.

I agree with pretty much all that's been said...not knowing what they are doing exactly with this stamp (as in, not having read everything with that stamp thus far), I can't know if they're simply marking content that isn't for kids, or if they're encouraging certain content for the sole purpose of getting more people to read Christian fiction. It sounds like the latter, and I think that is very bad.

This article hits all the wrong chords with me. While I don't find the idea of "more mature" content within a Christian story particularly offensive, Marcher Lord Press' approach to the issue is bad, and they should feel bad.

"we’re pitching as the Christian answer [read: knock-off] to George R.R. Martin". If George R.R. Martin's works are good, read them and write your own book. If they are bad, then don't read them and write your own book.

If they had explained their decision in terms like, "we believe realism makes our message more compelling, although we recognize that children should be protected from some aspects of this reality until they are older, hence the new imprint.", that would be one thing. But noooo. What the article boils down to is "we want to get secular people to read our books so we are including sex and language to attract them".

Well said, that's what it sounded like to me, too.

I don't necessarily have a problem with such content, provided it's NECESSARY and sin is not portrayed as attractive/applauded. But what I'm understanding them to say is, "we're adding gratuitous blood, sex, and language, so that non-Christians will think we're cool." (As if all non-Christians gleefully enjoy such things. I know many who do not, and scorn such pulp fiction.)

I'm hoping it was simply poor communication.

I'm not saying whether this is right or wrong. I merely want to point out something.

If adding these things are attracting people to books that could lead them to Christ, is it a bad thing?

If lives are saved, is adding these things a bad action?

Didn't Paul use an idol to tell others about Christ?

I don't know what's in these books. I don't know all of these details. All I'm merely pointing out is that these books, even though you may not prefer them, may be being used as very effective tools in ministry.

I'm not saying what these people are doing is right or wrong. I just wanted to share that observation.

I don't really like what seems to be MLP's approach. I have no issue with mature content, and I think more Christian books should have it, but the way MLP expressed their reasoning behind why they were adding it.... Well, I agree with what everyone else has said. Reasons behind things matters tremendously.

Yes, it is, if the things that are added are wrong to use. Presently, there is not enough information to accurately judge.

I guess we can only wait to see what kind of books they turn out, but frankly, based on some things that Jeff Gerke has said in the past, I'm a little concerned.

Another thing that concerns me is some of the things that I've seen in Gerke's fiction, he has had at least one scene with questionable "mature" content in it that seemed to have no purpose aside from getting something in there that a non-Christian would enjoy (and for all the wrong reasons). And this book had no such stamp, if I remember correctly.

If we want to witness to a thief, we don't start stealing. If we want to witness to a murderer, we don't run out and kill someone. It almost sounds from this article, like they're saying if we want to witness to an unsaved reader, we have to match their reading content. Which, unless you're referring to the quality of the writing style (not content, just how well it's written), story arcs, etc... sounds very bad. I have no problem with realistic Christian books that try to witness, so long as we don't lower our standards and they are something that we know Christ would read and want distributed. We are supposed to be a light because we're so different than the world, not because we look like them with a different glitter to our shine.

Does that make sense?