Portraying Sin: Depravity and the Christian Writer
As a writer, I often have to deal with the issue of sin when I tell a story and in the prologue of a fantasy work I have been crafting over the years now, the issue is particularly thorny and is the reason for this post.
This particular work has seen considerable concept changes, plot tweaks, and world building through the years I've been crafting it, but now the tale that started in the mind of a seventeen year old young man chopping wood is coming to life with real words. The body of the text is still in progress, sometimes proceeding with dazzling speed and other times proceeding slowly as days fly by before I touch it again. I never force myself to write it, but rather continue the story when the spark hits (usually around midnight....yes, I'm one of those creative types).
The prologue has some content I want to address and explain here as it raises some questions about how a Christian author should handle the portrayal of sin in his stories. In my prologue there is a serious and wretched sin committed, a sin I will refrain from naming here as it is significant not only to the prologue but to the entire tale itself. Essentially all the conflict is the result of this one act of cosmic treason, and so I realized that if I went with this story, I had three obligations to uphold:
1) The integrity of the story by not skipping over a fundamental action or event.
2) The reality of sin in our world, that sin is ugly and grotesque and cannot be hidden in our representations of reality or of a reality meant to mirror our own.
3) The responsibility as a Christian not to be a stumbling block in my depiction of evil, either by tempting someone to the sin portrayed or in giving undue offense to more cautious readers.
These standards each factor into my literary decision, though some to a lesser extent than others. To explain and defend my prologue, I want to further illumine my three points.
I'm sure the first question running through your mind is why in the world would a Christian writer make a sinful act so vital to his story? A good question, and one best answered by pointing to Holy Scripture. The entire redemptive narrative hinges on that one act of disobedience in the third chapter of Genesis. Everything that follows both in Scripture and in the rest of human history can trace its origin back to that fateful day in Eden. Other great stories such as Macbeth, Lord of the Rings or even Star Wars use a display of depravity as the nucleus of the plot. Simply put, a sinful act as a catalyst is an effective literary technique with long and storied (pun intended) tradition.
The reality is we live in a sin-ridden world. It is both an external and internal disease that we cannot remedy ourselves. The gospel comes as the ray of light into the darkness that is human depravity and the water that cleanses the people of God, so we must also be careful not to deny the beauty of redemption. But even salvation is first portrayed in scripture with blood and death. In Macbeth the darkness only lifts from Scotland after Macbeth is slain by the one "not of woman born". Middle Earth must engage in brutal war as Frodo Baggins encounters darkness on his journey before Sauron is defeated. Anakin Skywalker must descend, quite literally, to the depths of hell itself (Episode III, Revenge of the Sith) and only forsakes the Dark Side once he sees his son suffer at the hands of the Emperor (Episode IV, Return of the Jedi). We cannot remove the effects of sin in our stories if we want to craft faithful representations or echoes of the world we live in, even fictional ones. The key is depicting sin without glorifying it or being more explicit than need be.
In fact, Scripture is our model here. Rape, murder, suicide, adultery, theft and almost every depravity conceivable make an appearance in the Word of God to expose our sinfulness. But the details are the essential ones, the events described as briefly but faithfully as possible.
But there is also my responsibility as a follower of Christ to be thoughtful in my presentation of sin. I do believe we have made depicting some sins harder than it ought to be. Consider the matter of language. Most Christian writers and readers have no problem with characters telling a falsehood (provided it is stipulated as being wrong) or of explicitly describing the sin of lying. On the other hand, most of the same writers and readers avoid foul language because it is sinful. With all due respect to their intentions and zeal, how can you permit lying to be portrayed but not the word "damn"? When you take a closer look, there are two sins which Christians seem either hesitant or unwilling to show. One is foul language as stated above and the other of course is sexual content. A minority might add violence to this taboo list but the majority are fine with including a little violence if need be. I don't condone anything the Bible calls a sin, but does this mean I cannot write of these things since they represent fallen humanity? If I cannot have a character say "damn him" because that is in fact a wrong and sinful use of language, is it not equally wrong to have that same character tell a lie?
I have no desire to offend my brothers and sisters in Christ or be a stumbling block to them. In fact, it is this concern that drove me to write beforehand, so that those who's conscience will not allow them to engage with literature that includes sinful acts will be warned to simply ignore my post when it comes. But hopefully if you've considered my views, you'll give the story a chance. I give you my pledge that the deed in question is kept as brief as possible and handled with the utmost caution.
Til next time! SDG
