My newest book, The Masked Bird, is a Robin Hood remake. I would like some way to put my faith in it, but their faith then was either Catholic or pagan. However, I'm not Catholic. How can I be historically accurate without saying something I don't believe? Has anyone else had to work through this, or something similar?

There's nothing saying that you can't have individual people's beliefs differ from the official Church's. You can have people (lay and clergymen) who have much more protestant views on things. You can also take the simple basis of all faiths that call themselves Christian but leave out the more complicated beliefs of Catholicism like purgatory and praying to saints or whatever else you disagree with. You can have people talk about and believe in original sin and Salvation through faith in Christ without getting into the specific Catholic beliefs. Also you could pick one person from among the Catholic church to dissent and be your spokesperson. You by no means have your hands tied when it comes to putting your faith into a story, even historical fiction.

Historically, Baptists have been there since Christ. They have never not been there. Just people don't mention them all that much.

I've heard Catholics say that they were the ones that have been there all along :P

I'm a Baptist, myself... but I guess this is getting off-topic.


Your main character doesn't necessarily have to believe the same as everyone else does if you don't want him/her to.

If you look at the traditional Robin Hood stories, most of the main characters didn't really follow the Catholic Church's doctrines, anyway. They robbed many rich, wicked clergymen. Friar Tuck is often portrayed as what I call a "Stray Friar", or a friar, who doesn't have much to do with the church (although, the "Stray Friar" character often comes in handy in stories, especially if the church members are wicked; see Ladyhawke for an example). In most, if not all, of the traditional Robin Hood stories that I've read, Robin Hood doesn't seem to have any prominent religious beliefs. I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that it would be easy for you to make Robin Hood and his Merry Men a band of rogue protestant-thinkers, as well as a band of rogues.

Anyone here read RoseBeast by Adrianne Redding? She faced a similar problem when she wrote her historical fiction/fairy tale remake. She focused the beliefs of the individuals rather than the official stance of the Catholic Church. There were many Christians even before the Reformation that did not believe in all of the Catholic doctrines.

Although all these peoples' advice is good, I usually stop writing when I come to that. Don't write about something you don't believe in.

And I'll add onto Apollo's suggestion. I wouldn't write about anything you don't know about either. People can call you out on that kind of stuff which is why it's crucial to research.

With my historical fiction story, I vaguely mention her in church, but most of the story won't have to involve it. Which is one reason I don't have a lot of politics in my stories since I'm not very well learned in that arena. :P

I don't think it would be wrong to write about it, as long as you portray it as something untrue and NOT what you believe in. If you find it very hard or impossible to do that, and it would look like you're endorsing it, then you'd best stop writing. But that's just my two cents.