A while back, I wrote a blog entitled, Things We Don’t Talk About, and it was mainly about sex. There are lots of people talking about sex, but the people who need to talk about it really aren’t talking. That’s usually the case; the topics that are taboo ARE talked about. They’re just not talked about by the people who need to talk about them.
In this situation, I am in the middle of writing a Christian novel about witchcraft. Yeah, that. Christians don’t talk about it mainly because if you take a literal view of what the Bible says–the Old Testament specifically–you run into trouble dealing with some people and some forms of entertainment in modern society. At the same time, those who are anti-Christian are eager to brand us as closed-minded precisely because of this kind of thinking.
So we don’t talk about it. Which is exactly why I decided to write about it, in a very direct and straightforward way.
But it’s not like I’m an authority on witchcraft or anything, other than watching Harry Potter with the rest of America. I’ve dressed up for Halloween before. I’m against what happened in Salem, Massachusetts, at least what we know of the witch burning: I wasn’t there, of course. So it’s a sticky situation. Which makes it good material for a novel.
We avoid these kinds of topics way too often in Christian fiction. We stay in our comfort zones, preferring to be predictable and make people feel warm and fuzzy. Jesus loves you, that’s true. But there’s a great deal of hate out there that we need to deal with as well. What are we doing about a dying world? What have you done for the homeless lately? Furthermore, what does caring for others do for you?
Let’s talk more about stuff that’s important, shall we? Time’s too short to avoid it.
The Great Adventure 