I just got an email, and I wanted to address it beyond just the email with that person. It is a question that comes up often when people discover that the guy making gritty dark stuff is actually a Bible thumper who believes in the love of Christ. So, there is a disconnect in modern culture or both the secular world and the Christian world. This is a sensitive subject and I am equally at threat of being drawn and quartered by both sides. So without further word salad lets begin.

The defining thing that makes a Christian is believing they ultimately are cursed beings that will sin eternally with no ability to save themselves from their nature. This means I cannot help but sin. I will always sin and I have no ability to not sin. If you need proof of this lets look at the 10 commandments.

Thou shalt not kill. That is an easy one, right? Well, no because while we may not physically kill someone, we can murder someone in our hearts. Ever been wronged by someone and really wanted them to drop off the face of the earth. That is an example of sin. Our nature desires something that we know is wrong. Regardless of our ability to resist it, that nature is in us. It can come out.

Ever look at something and really just wanted to take it but resisted it? That again is an example of a desire to steal. We desire these things and we can resist them for some time but if put in the right situation we would violate these principals and morals. The fact it comes across the mind exposes our base sinful nature.

So I recognize Christ is my remedy because he explains that this nature is from a curse we accepted on ourselves. He paid the price as sacrifice and one day he will remedy it all. We just need to accept it. Even today I find myself having these thoughts less as I grow as a Christian.

This does not make me any better than any other person. In fact it makes me worse. I recognize what it is and I am still victim to it. I know better.

So, why do I write such horrible fiction? Why would I not? The events that take place in my writing or subjects of my art is about overcoming evil. Evil must be displayed in order to identify that evil is there. So I go to where evil lays and rip it open to be plain to see. I write evil just like evil is, evil. Evil is not the hero of my stories, it is the villain. The good guys don’t do evil acts for evil reasons. When they do it is a stumbling moment. Just like we stumble in reality with our own sin natures

My writing is a journey of discovery for every character. There may only be one character in the book that is the good in that world. However with all my writing there is a faint light in that darkness. That is why I can write such scary and horrifying things and use the dark subject matters that I use and still be a Christian. I am a writer that is a Christian, not a christian writer.

If I am going to be honest christian writers often leave a bad taste in my mouth. I find it vile to put words in God’s mouth. I try to never do such a thing. This is also why I write fiction with worlds separate from our own. I don’t take the LORD lightly when I do write. I would not want to inadvertently slander him by writing fiction about the real world. I think that is a greater sin than being someone who does not know God. If I know God and yet still subvert his authority of the world through my fiction of it, I tremble.

I don’t ever want to have to justify myself before God and be told because of my fiction several people got the wrong opinion of God. So I don’t write about God aside from non-fiction honest belief. I warn anyone who writes to keep that in mind when you are writing fiction about our world. It is God’s first and he has authority over it. Don’t usurp him.