Christian SF: Is it a Contradiction?

[cyn]

One of the important tasks of a Christian speculative fiction writer/ publisher/ publicist is to inform potential readers that Christian SF is scripturally sound. It is true that details may escape authors but often these details are either open to debate or are so minor that no one will ever notice.

It is the novelist's responsibility to ensure that her/ his work is scripturally sound. Although books I have published have received criticism here and there about the scriptual soundness of one detail or the other (and I send my authors over to discuss these issues), I don't react blindly to all opinions. I rely on Stephen Rice as the authority. He can differentiate between doctrine and gospel.

Rick Sutcliffe came up with this great list of objections that Christians have about SF:

"Some Christians object to the very idea of fantasy, speculative literature in general, or even to fiction in its entirety, for some or all of the following reasons:

-elements of magic call on powers other than God
-elves, dragons, and such creatures are the tools of Satan alone
-intelligence is ascribed to creatures other than humankind
-the anti-Christian worldview that suffuses much speculative literature
-they are hostile to science and hence to science fiction
-all fiction is an extended lie, and lies are all from Satan

They therefore regard "christian SF" as an oxymoron."

There are elements of some of these arguments that ring true. It is, however, up to the author to make sure that the elements in question don't defy scripture.

c.

from Arjay Books www.arjay.bc.ca

[Frank Creed]

There will always be purists who take things too far, like the Muslims who insist on fourth century clothing, and the Amish who insist on nineteenth century technology.

I honestly expected the Lost Genre Guild to debate more of these battles than we have. In our modern world there are far fewer proponents of these positions than Rick Sutcliffe had to fight when he first battled for our cause on the Web a couple decades ago. Rick's been fighting our good fight far longer than anyone. Find him at arjaybb.com

Faith,
f

[Caprice]

But didn't Jesus tell parables? I guess He is exempt from the rules of storytelling for its own sake.

If you ascribe to all of these ideas, then ALL fiction is bad/wrong/sin, including all the great classics of literature. By extension, pretty much all children's books are out the window too. Not even Dr. Seuss's "Cat in the Hat" can withstand point #3. This would also mean nearly every TV show is taboo, because they are all fictional. Ditto with movies.

My question is: what is left for people like this? The Bible, devotionals, how-to books, textbooks (well, some of them are still true) and informational type books and magazines. They could watch the news on TV, but surely they'd have to be bothered with the level of bias in the media.

Besides "BORING", the only thing that comes to mind is... so Heavenly minded, you're of no Earthly good.

[debkinnard]

Isn't that throwing the baby out with the bathwater, though? It's nowhere to be found in Scripture, but I believe there are possibilities we cannot see...among them, 'what ifs', the stuff that spec-fic has always been about. Scripture does say we see 'through a glass darkly'. To me, this verse opens the door to the idea that there are many facts of the heavenlies, and even how things work in this earthly realm, that we cannot understand.

Maybe the time travel question will be debated as my novel reaches a few (or more) minds. Perhaps people will chastise me for invoking a common motif in spec-fic. No matter that time travel's not currently possible for humans. No matter the Word doesn't mention it. I imagine there are folks who'll take me to task for writing a time travel story in the first place.

To them I'd say: how do we know it doesn't happen? And where in Scripture does it warn us not to ask 'what if'?

[Frank Creed]

It used to be frustrating, but just like Christian rock music went through its can't-glorify-God phase in the 1970s, spec-fic has been accepted by most in our subculture. I expected the Lost Genre Guild to meet with far more objections than it has.

They say controversy-sells-books, but we don't have even that promo angle anymore.
8-(

Faith,
f