One of the things I am currently struggling with is showing the depths God will go to in our redemption. In "Marine", a "new adult" story, there are a lot of struggles the characters go through. Yet they go through them and live a Godly life. With mistakes.

Found an article that raised the same question. Thoughts?

Meh.

On the one hand, there are stories in the Bible that clearly teach us that we have no reason to be squeamish about dealing with real life. (Like David and Uriah and Bathsheba and Nathan).

On the other hand, God managed to inspire the entire New Testament without needing even 4 words of profanity. There was no profanity in the story of the woman at the well.

Somewhere, Philippians 4:8-9 needs to fit in there ...

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

For myself, I remember the first two episodes of the TV series 'SUITS'. I really enjoyed the plot and the characters, but the writers felt the need to include a certain profanity ('G**D***') in EVERY episode. It added nothing to the drama or the character, but I could tolerate it once and hope to not hear it again ... when it became a series trademark, I would not listen to it.

In the modern world, that probably rates nothing above PG-13, but 'realism' is a poor excuse for swallowing sewage.

That's one of the things that concerns me about the hope of commercial success. I don't think any of the books have words stronger than "dang", and if they do I'm liable to take them out. Haven't seen a real need for being explicit there.

However, Al "curses" when she's screaming in fear and anger. Lost Rat's background is only hinted at. Tala is an exotic dancer, and more. Marco and Irene conceive a child out of wedlock.

In each case the story asserts, in one way or another, that the behavior is wrong. I think that's what I'm looking at most.

I grew up in the south and drinking was a "sin". Make or partake, you were a sinner. Pretty funny, since it suggests they never read the bible and Jesus' first recorded miracle. We have "Family Supper" Wednesday evenings and we invite whomever God points out. We don't condemn and we don't preach. I color with a beautiful seven year old young lady who believes "if you have a boyfriend you get pregnant". Her mother has never been married. I don't turn pale when someone curses or talks about gang activity.

Pretty sure I'm not perfect. We've been doing the "missional" thing for a while now and are always learning new things. Some you just have to laugh at.

I agree with the article in principle, but because of the brevity of the piece, I think the application may get misconstrued.

The "content rating" of your art isn't the point. A G-rated story can honor God as equally as an R-rated one, depending on the context and execution. Simply including "content" or acknowledging darkness does not make your book more relevant--just like taking it out does not automatically make your book more pure and palatable.

I think there are a variety of factors at play:

--Target audience. Readers aren't as stupid as we make them out to be. Do we really think readers are rejecting books based on the number of swear words in them? Do we really think they will reject a masterfully written suspense novel just because the author uses less swear words than the other bestsellers--and do we really think they will accept an otherwise poorly-written, agenda-driven Christianese propaganda piece just because we add some "realistic" swearing and sex? Readers read for pleasure and art, and if the book fails to provide either or both, the content rating will not redeem it.

--Marketing. That said, content rating is as much a marketing decision as it is a moral one, especially for movies. The above point still applies--the quality of your art is vastly more important than the content thereof--but a shrewd artist will know how to dress their turkey. The problem is that most Christian authors do not take the time to fully research and appreciate their target audience or chosen medium and so make content decisions based off of stereotypes instead of actual market data. "I need to get my art-piece movie an R-rating because it is critically proven that art movies are not taken seriously at festivals and award shows with anything less than an R-rating" is a proven, shrewd practice. "I need to add swear words because people are expecting it in a realistic movie" is not a founded marketing decision. Additionally, so many Christians focus only on the moral aspect of content and completely ignore the marketing aspect, which usually lands their book in a genre/audience where it can't succeed.

--Supremacy of morals. In the case where your morals create a legitimate conflict with the needs of the industry (although I think those situations are far fewer than people imagine them to be--there is almost always an artistic solution), you are in the wrong industry. In the case of art, you are better off moving it into a demographic where it will be received than trying to unwisely balk the system. If you want to write G-rated fairytales, you are going to reach far more people writing actual G-rated fairytales for kids--who need your light too!--than you are trying to get hardcore true crime readers to read your book. I am all in favor of kicking social norms, but when you want to reach the greatest amount of people and have them truly embrace your message, you need to be "wise as serpents."

--Relevancy. And herein lies my main caveat with most articles on the subject of "content." Most writers get tied up in knots about things like language, sex, and violence. They either want to distance themselves from it or claim that including it makes their work "realistic." However, if you think adding or removing a few swear words makes your book relevant or irrelevant, you are truly missing the point. Yes, we need to expose the darkness--but we need to expose the darkness that people actually care about. Do you think there's a bunch of teenagers laying awake at night wondering if it's okay to swear or watch a movie with a few swear words in it? No, they're asking questions like...

--How can I be a Christian and struggle with legitimate depression/self-harm/suicide?
--I'm a boy but I like some "girl stuff"--is that wrong? Am I gay? Am I sinning by liking dresses?
--Can Muslims hear from God?
--Do Jews need to accept Jesus? How do Jews and Christians come together?

Yes, I agree with the general point of the article that we need to not live in denial about the darkness people are facing. But most Christians are caught up bickering about whether or not to include a couple of four-letter words and some references to sex, while they refuse to touch the real issues plaguing current culture with a ten-foot pole. And that is the denial that is killing people and killing art. You can swear all you want and be willing to admit that people have sex, but until you can look a young boy in the eyes, hear him admit that he's struggling with his gender identity because everyone tells him that he's sinning for wanting to play with his sister's American Girl dolls (a true story that's happened in my family), and be able to give him a genuine answer that brings him healing instead of suicidal pain, then you are not embracing the darkness.

Christians need to have an answer for the darkness--but they need to be answering the questions that people are actually asking.

Well, I have quit reading James Patterson; too gritty. Tried to watch "Jean Claude Van Johnson"; the spoof show. After a lot of "F..." and no real sense, gave it up and we watched something else.

Christians do need to have exposure to things like gender identity and self-harm. I get pretty frustrated when "the Christian" answer doesn't really come from the bible.

- "Don't drink." You know Christ made and drank wine, right?
- "Be a man. Don't dress like a sissy." And, um, he wore robes and sandals.
- "Don't hang around *those* sorts of people." Like, Mary the harlot, the woman at the well, a few hot heads, at least one zealot, and an accountant with sticky fingers?
- "Be tough." And, well, he wept, kissed his male friends, etc...etc...etc...

Some Christians have tried to counter culture poorly, and that's one issue. There's a huge difference between actual gender identity crisis ("Can I be a person of the opposite gender?") which defies biology and creation versus liking stuff our culture normally associates with the opposite gender.

I want my work to be relevant. Marco and Irene have sex before marriage. Marco curses when stressed ("Sonofa...") and it's referenced that his vocabulary grows with Irene. Al starts out selfish, Wilbur is hyper-critical. Guess where my material comes from?

Through the stories the characters face their actions and the reality of The Creator. Marco struggles to remain sexually pure, Irene hopes Marco loves her even when she's fat. Al learns to let her father be awesome and fearful and Wilbur receives a gift beyond measure.

That's been a thing for me for a while; being able to show the difficult, and sometimes wrong things believers do. My characters prove they are sinners; no doubt about it. Yet it's not just "I'm washed in grace and everything is beautiful now" but "I live in grace and still struggle with doing right".

I want my books to be on the main shelf; where a teen or new adult will see some interesting sci-fi and read a story that does go counter-culture. It shows friendship, trust, mistakes, inter-generational help, and the heroism of dealing with consequences of bad choices.