“How can you call yourself a Christian and write all those horror stories?”
Not a-fan.
I’ve been asked this question repeatedly over the years and
the answer is twofold. One part is philosophical/theological. The other part is
practical. The former I am always quite ready to share. The latter, not so
much. At least I have not chosen to share it in a public forum such as this
before. However, I will do so this once.
I will start by saying that I am not ashamed of my faith in
any way. I think that no matter what I am writing, my faith is not hidden. However,
I think my faith, as expressed in my writing, tends to be more overlooked than
sought out. It happens in the same manner that f-bombs are skimmed over by
readers who don’t like their use. But on to the question at hand.
First, the philosophical aspect of the answer. It’s really
quite simple, for me, horror reduced to its elemental parts, is nothing but a
battle of good versus evil. Sometimes good struggles while evil seems to gain
the upper hand. This is done not to glorify evil, but to paint a realistic
picture. Being “good” isn’t always easy. In fact, sometimes the narrow way is
paved with tribulation and pain.
Goodness always comes at a price. It is a price not everyone
is prepared to pay which is what separates true goodness from the “I’m good
enough as I am”. Spoiler alert—in my stories, good wins every time. That, to my
way of thinking, is not fantasy, but fact.
The second part of the answer always leaves me feeling let
down. When I say let down, I don’t mean disappointed, more a kind of
bittersweet sadness. I said this part was practical, and so it is. The bottom
line is that people buy and read my horror stories. They do not buy my
faith-based work. I’m not complaining, I’m just telling it like it is.
Would I quit writing horror and write only stories of faith
if the opposite were true? No more than I have quit writing my faith-based
novels. I will say this though, for the last eighteen years I have written for
readers. However, while I write for the reader, I write whatever inspires me at
the moment. As a chef who cooks, because he likes to see people eat, I write to
see people read. If that were not true, I wouldn’t be publishing books in the
first place.
Few people buy my Christian stories, which means few people
read them. Numbers don’t lie. The strange part is—it doesn’t mean I’ll stop
writing them. Hope springs eternal. So,
there it is, the mystery unraveled. Christianity is not a roadblock to life. It
is the superhighway of real life that gives meaning to everything else.
Maranatha
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