Do you like Christian fiction with a strong Christian message?
Yes 🙂
And no.
Some novels marketed as Christian fiction have little or no faith content, but are still clearly Christian fiction because of their themes. An example is The Baggage Handler by David Rawlings. Anyone who reads the story will see it’s an allegory about how we need to let go of the unnecessary emotional baggage we carry through life. A Christian reader will understand we let go of that baggage by releasing it to God.
The story doesn’t mention God or Jesus.
That doesn’t make it any less Christian fiction.
Other Christian fiction doesn’t have clear faith themes, but the characters are Christian and their decisions and actions reflect their beliefs.
I enjoy reading these stories.
(In contrast, I loathe reading stories—general market or Christian—where the character’s problems could be solved by them getting right with God.)
I’m also not a fan of overtly Christian stories where the faith element seems forced or where the characters speak in Scripture all the time.
These stories often feel preachy, because the dialogue and actions don’t feel real.
That comes down to how well the author has created the characters. I know people in real life who do speak in Scripture and who punctuate every other sentence with “praise the Lord!” or something similar, and it sounds perfectly natural.
I’ve also met people who speak like this and it sounds forced, as though they’re speaking like that because they think that’s how a good Christian speaks … not because that’s how they speak. I can tell the difference in real life, and I can tell the difference in fiction.
So while I do enjoy fiction with a strong Christian message, I don’t want Christian fiction that crosses the line into preachy.
