How is it possible for me to go merrily along in life one moment and be broiling towards a fellow Christian the next? Who is this unfortunate soul, you ask? No one I know personally, lucky for him and me. He's a narrow-minded individual even though he's saved by the same blood that covers me and all his fellow believers. Most of the time I love being a Christian, following Christ, learning His commandments and realizing how much He loves me. Then, sometimes, I meet a few of His other children that frustrate me no end.
There's a marvelous movement in the Christian publishing world right now, that of the vampire Christian fiction. Tracey Bateman has written a few books about vampires and there's another author Charity's reading at the moment that is also written from a religious viewpoint. I couldn't be happier! Why, you ask? Because what are the kids reading right now? Think about it. They're reading VAMPIRE books! The secular, sexy, unhealthy kind that gives them all kinds of bad, bad, very bad mental images.
Soooo, what is the teen market demanding? Vampire fiction. What should the Christian publishing world be giving them? Vampire fiction. It's a no-brainer to me. Imagine what good Christian writers can do with creatures who are potentially soulless and in need of redemption! Can there be redemption? Is it possible? Do they still have souls? There are all sorts of possibilities that can be examined if vampire fiction makes it into the Christian publishing market.
Which leads me back to my original paragraph that ranted without much detail. In my hunt online I ran across a brother in Christ, seemingly sane, who compares vampire Christian fiction with Christian porn. As in a, "If we allow this into the Christian world then this will follow." Say what? He belittled any Christians who read or watch anything to do with vampires. Now, I'm not saying this man has to read vampire Christian fiction. I don't read Amish fiction and have no opinion on it one way or the other. He can do the same. What troubles me the most, though, is how he is tearing something down that is just starting to make an impact. Authors are tentatively feeling the waters on this taboo subject matter. Loud and belligerent voices like his are only going to send them fleeing back to the types of books that every Christian author writes.
Whether he likes it or not there is a group of avid Christian readers who aren't being fed. Their literary interests are being ignored and they are those of us interested in fantasy, science fiction, and the supernatural realm. I LOVE these types of books but they are non-existent in the Christian publishing market right now. They're thought to be dangerous, evil, precipitating an unhealthy interest in magic and the supernatural. Hello? If Christians write these types of books, don't you think there will be some smidgeon of God's truth hidden in there somewhere? What about C.S. Lewis? Or J.R.R. Tolkien? The latter who, by the way, this blogger insulted, upsetting me even more.
What I'm really saying is that Christian readers who are avid lovers of these genres need to make their voices heard. We have to speak up or there will never be a genre added to Christian fiction for us. I, for one, don't want to see that happening. Fortunately I found a publisher whose original purpose, the reason for its existence, was to publish Speculative Christian Fiction as they have termed it. It's Marcher Lord Press and I encourage you to give their books a glance and see if your libraries carry any of them. If they don't, consider putting in a request. I know that's what I'm going to do!
