"Hello, Literature! I'm Real Life!"
In many ways, Christianity has been misunderstood. Unfortunately misunderstood by non-Christians, and tragically misunderstood by Christians. Somewhere along the line of trying to be good, faithful followers of Christ, Christian culture has developed the notion that striving for holiness equals being perfect – or at the very least, looking perfect. We have become so caught up with maintaining high moral standards and upholding strong “Christian” values that being “Christian” has overshadowed what it means to be Christ-like. Like an unwritten rule, Christians have drawn up an invisible scale that is never explicitly pinned up on the bulletin board, but is commonly adhered to. On this scale, sins are measured according to their severity; the more common sins that good people succumb to every now and then such as insecurity, jealousy, worry, and gossip are negligible little sins that are “ok” and nothing to get too concerned about, but huge sins such as abortion, murder, homosexuality, pornography, and adultery…Oh no. We don’t talk about those. Those are things we need to keep our innocent children from. We don’t want them to be exposed to such evil – we need to protect them; we need to protect ourselves. And so, in order to bubble wrap the purity of the saints in the midst of all the perversity in the world, we provide Christians with Christian literature: Good, wholesome entertainment that is safe and full of good morals; clean – no sex, no swearing, and no mention of any other taboos that might cause discomfort. Much of Christian literature today provides a place for Christians to bask in ignorance and hide from reality where Jesus, Scripture, and prayer are thrown in to ultimately seal the package for an all cushy and soft experience where the reader can come away feeling warm, snuggly, and sentimental but completely delusional.
Perhaps such a description is a little exaggerated and slightly unfair, as there have indeed been some solid Christian books in recent years that touch on serious issues that need to be addressed. However, the sad truth is that such books are scarce. While there is nothing specifically wrong with sweet romances or wild adventure rides where the characters happen to be “good Christians” and “good Christian values” are still taught, these books do not reflect reality and because of the lack of Christian books that do delve into real life struggles, the overwhelming representation of the Christian life set forth by Christian literature as a whole is that life with Jesus is all candy and no medicine; church is a place of hugs and smiles, just believe in Jesus and everything will be ok.
The stage is set for Christians to believe that Christians do not struggle with the same things that non-Christians struggle with and so when these Christians who have been so protected for so long are confronted with problems within the Christian community that they never thought possible, they are shocked. Completely aghast and unequipped to respond to such situations, they end up coming across as judgmental and hypocritical while their entire foundation is shaken at the very core and they find themselves doubting the faith they had so piously clung on to all their lives. Here lies the problem: the Jesus in Christian literature is often but a mere fraction of the Jesus we find in the Bible.
The Jesus of the Bible left eternal glory, stooped down to the level of humanity by taking on human form, hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors, and as if that was not enough, bore the sins of the entire world on the cross where He breathed “Father forgive them” and then died. This does not sound like a Jesus who would be perturbed or astonished by sin. When the Jesus of the Bible said that He came to save sinners, He was not just talking about the small, acceptable or negligible sins; He was talking about all sin. In Jesus’ eyes, sin is sin. There is no scale to measure sin and no one sinner can say to another that “you need Jesus more than I do” because the fact of the matter is that we all badly need Jesus with equal intensity. Therefore if Jesus was willing to bind Himself to human flesh for all eternity, there is no reason why our literature cannot get a little “sullied” as well.
If Christian literature wants to be Christian, it needs to explore the idea of getting down and dirty with the rest of literature. If certain issues are being discussed in secular literature, it is all the more reason for Christian literature to address those same issues and provide a solid Biblical response to them. Christian literature needs to equip the saints, not shelter them; to act as supplementary materials that come alongside the Bible in teaching Christians how to be Christians. It is in the bloody and gory Gospel of Christ’s execution on a criminal’s cross that the beauty of God’s love for humanity is most evident; it is in the saving knowledge of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection that Truth is embodied, emotion is so intellectual it is beyond comprehension, and immeasurable beauty is displayed. Such should be the message that drives all Christian literature. Maybe then, Christians will be a little more acquainted with the Jesus they claim to follow.