Arrant Nonsense

And, you know, the idea sounds pretty cool. As a Christian, I like to think that I'm not the only one of us toiling away in the trenches here.

That being said.

I am unsure of my welcome at a thing like this, because while I'm a fairly fundy fundamentalist in my doctrine, barely anything I actually write qualifies as "family friendly." Yes, I write fantasy and science fiction, with a smattering of horror, so "realism" goes out the door just on the premise--but the characters populating those stories still have to be people that readers can relate to. These characters rarely share my beliefs, and they drink, swear, and kill people on a depressingly regular basis, because that's how real people act in the sort of situations I'm interested in writing about.

My fiction is not a platform for my religion, and I don't want to be pigeonholed like that anyway. Besides, I write short fiction. Where are the Christian markets for that? And do they pay anything? Because yes, getting paid is important. I don't sub to "for the love" markets and I'm not going to start just because they're Christian.

So, I'll probably be forever at the fringes of this thing, no matter which side I'm looking from. "Gritty Christian" might be a thing, and I've now penned four stories starring recognizably Biblical angels and demons (sort of, I guess), but the subject matter of two of those stories is frankly disturbing and I'm pretty sure that my sainted mother-in-law (who is a lovely lady I love dearly) would be appalled by them.

But, hey, the Bible isn't exactly filled with sweetness and light either. And maybe I'm wrong and I'd be welcomed with open arms. I'll definitely keep an eye on them and see who populates the guest list. Maybe I'll even go, if finances permit and it doesn't conflict with the local ComicCon...

I just read some guidelines for a new antho that implied that atheists and agnostics were "marginalized" in the SF/F community. I won't name the antho, because there's no sense burning bridges, but that strikes me as...

Well. Patently ridiculous.

Marginalized among "mainstream" America? Perhaps, depending where you live--Lampasas, TX, yeah; San Francisco, not so much. Marginalized in the SF/F community? Dude, no. Don't look now, but you gotta little persecution complex on your sleeve there. This gets back to the whole thing where I feel "marginalized" as a right-wing, religious, gun-toting woman writing in the SF/F genre. I mean, seriously, it's gotten to the point where I'm surprised if a SF/F writer (male or female) is actually conservative. And if they're religious too??? Madness!

Sometimes, I just... side-eye this business. Really hard.

Which got me to thinking about how Christians are treated in "mainstream" entertainment, and how Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series is a refreshing breath of fresh air.

For years, it was a given: Introduce a Character of Faith, and that character would soon be shown to be crazy, evil, stupid, bigoted, hypocritical, or all of the above. Stephen King, you're brilliant in other ways, but I'm looking at you. Any cop show where a priest or pastor was involved in a plot at all, yep, he did it. It got old. It got very very old very very fast. They were never just normal people, or God forbid, the actual hero of the piece. They were set up to be knocked down, and Hollyweird seemed to like it that way. Oh, sure, there were a few exceptions (Father Dowling, I suppose, and Touched by an Angel; and I adore Father Mulcahey on MASH), but those seemed more like bones tossed to appease the frothing masses than anything else.

Science fiction was no less guilty. Possibly more guilty. Christians were either villains or buffoons, and there was very little in-between there. That's if faith was even a Thing in the far-flung future where humans were now More Educated Than That and the idea of God was a Quaint Throwback to More Primitive Times. In fantasy, you have your Burn The Witch villains, again, if faith in the God of the Bible is even mentioned at all. I stopped reading SF/F for a long time because of this.

And then the lovely and effulgent appomattoxco introduced me to the Dresden Files. It was the first time I'd dipped my toe back into written fantasy in awhile, although I was an avid watcher of Buffy and Angel by then. I side-eyed real hard when Michael Carpenter was introduced, waiting for the inevitable Gotcha Moment.

It never came.

And for that, I will always be fiercely, fiercely grateful to Jim Butcher. I was at a panel on Faith in Fiction at this year's WorldCon, and brought Michael up, and one of the panelists (I don't remember who) actually looked dismissive and practically offended. Apparently Michael's faith is too... simple, or something. And I realize that the sort of simple rock-solid faith that says "God said it, I believe it, that settles it" gives a lot of people an uncomfortableness, because they're not that certain of anything and how dare you be (or something), but for some of us, faith really is that simple and it's not a stretch for it to be that simple for a fictional character.

I mean, do we struggle with it? Of course we do. But the Dresden Files is first person from Harry's viewpoint, so we see Michael through the lens of Harry's eyes. I'm pretty sure Michael keeps any struggles with his faith under wraps where Harry doesn't see it; I know that I'm pretty private about those kinds of things myownself. And even Michael had his own Moment of Darkness when he nearly, in a cold rage, killed the dude who kidnapped his daughter.

And I'm probably rambling by now, as I tend to do. I think my point is that Jim Butcher opened up a door with Michael--where an overtly Christian character could actually be, if not the hero, at least a hero, and it's given me, myself, more confidence to write Christian characters who are also heroes, and to write angelic and demonic characters that are at least nominally Biblical.

So maybe this is, in a way, a love letter to Jim Butcher and Michael Carpenter, and, to a lesser extent, Uriel. Thank you, Mr. Butcher, and I look forward to seeing you at MisCon where I can possibly pick your brain.