Have you read Christian FICTION stories/books...

That would be a tough sell in a Christian fiction market and probably very niche at best.

I have seriously thought of writing a novel that tries to answer the question, "What happens when a Christian couple moves next door to a gay couple and discovers that one of the members of the gay couple is dying of AIDS?"

This would probably have to be self-published.

Melody Carlson did write a book called Bright Purple: Color Me Confused which is about this topic, a teenage girl learning that her best friend is a lesbian. Carlson is pretty good with teenage topics and I liked this book.

Brain Of Ivane said:

Wow. O_O I thought as much. The Christian market does seem to have a lot of restrictions when it comes to writing fiction. Thanks for the information, Calla!

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Unfortunately, I never have read such a book.
From what I've learned about Christian publishers, most of the time, theh tend to be pretty strict in their content (ex: no swearing, no explicit sex, no sex before marriage etc).

I think it would be fascinating, but I'm likely not normal.

It would likely be a very tough sell. Consider the experience of my friends, Josh and Lolly Weed. Josh is gay and married to a woman. He had a fairly popular humor blog, and he decided after about 10 years of marriage that he didn't want to be in the closet any more. (Lolly knew from before they got married...I mean he didn't want to feel like he needed to hide it from everyone else). So he published this post and it went viral. Gay, married and Mormon turned out to be a hot topic.

He and Lolly got a lot of support, and appreciative comments BUT they also took a LOT OF HEAT from BOTH SIDES of the fence. The religious community apparently took offense to him sharing this information--better that he stay in the closet or something. The LGBT community apparently thought he was advocating this life-style for all LGBT people (he wasn't!) and BOTH sides were pretty vicious.

My point is that you run the risk of offending EVERYONE! You would probably have to self-publish it because no one would want to touch that hot potato.

OH yeah...years ago Carolyn Pearson wrote Goodbye I Love You. It was about her husband who was gay (she did NOT know this before they married). Eventually they divorced for this reason, but stayed friends. Her book is their story. I just checked; it was originally published by Random House in 1986.

My suggestion would be: don't publish with a 'Christian' publisher. And read God and the Gay Christian by Mathew Vines, published by Random House'

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F1W0RD2/?tag=absowrit-20

http://www.reformationproject.org

I think the gay character all by itself would be a deal killer in mainstream Christian fic houses. From where I sit, they're getting more restrictive, not less. I'd self-pub this. My last two books and upcoming title have gay secondary characters, mostly because it fits where these folks are in the story, and I've self-published them. Not for that reason alone, but the other factors that make most of my stuff a no-no for large C-fic publishers.

I've never been good at writing in the box. Thank heaven there's no reason to try to fit in that little space anymore.

allyn211 said:

I have seriously thought of writing a novel that tries to answer the question, "What happens when a Christian couple moves next door to a gay couple and discovers that one of the members of the gay couple is dying of AIDS?" …

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What might be an interesting twist would be to have an overtly Christian, "upstanding" couple living next to a gay couple … but it's the Christian couple that's soon grappling with AIDS due to a quick, previously unknown affair. They're forced to rely on the gay couple for some support/help, and discover that the gay couple displays more "Christian grace" than they ever did.

There's "A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend" by Emily Horner.

I haven't read it yet, but it was strongly recommended to me as having a young narrator who is a lesbian Quaker and being written from a Quaker worldview.

I agree with Deb, self-pubbing may be the way to go.

Not really Christian "fiction" but my short play THE REUNION is loosely based on/inspired by Thomas Hardy's A Ruined Maid and features a lesbian writer and a Christian homemaker who were best friends in high school meeting by chance in the big city.

patskywriter said:

What might be an interesting twist would be to have an overtly Christian, "upstanding" couple living next to a gay couple … but it's the Christian couple that's soon grappling with AIDS due to a quick, previously unknown affair. They're forced to rely on the gay couple for some support/help, and discover that the gay couple displays more "Christian grace" than they ever did.

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Love this idea. Once upon a time I thought I wanted to write Christian fiction, then I realized I'd never get published that way. But I will happily write fiction about Christians in the real world, and this would be a great story in that vein.

I read a blog post by Simcha Fisher, where she got a bit annoyed that people accused a famous Catholic author of not writing Catholic enough books, because her stories included swearing, premarital sex etc. I think Fisher ended up basically saying: that's the world we live in, people -- we don't have to like it, but these are things that happen. And I think I agree with that. We live in an imperfect world. Here everybody has their own heaps of temptations, and sometimes (even quite often) we give in to those temptations and do things that are bad for us. Ours is a world that needs saving. Saints are not saints because they were never tempted or never gave into temptation, but because they loved God and struggled to follow him to the end.

This is why it makes me a little sad to hear that C-publishers are very strict about these things. On one level I understand -- the general culture is so full of these things, that maybe they want Christian fiction to be a "safe haven" of sorts. But I feel like we're missing something if we ban bunches of themes from Christian fiction. The truth is that gay people exist, and they're not going to stop existing. Ignoring that seems weird. Besides, like all people, they're called to sanctity, and fiction can be a way of exploring what that means.

Just some thoughts I've been chewing on for the past few days. It seems like self-pubbing may be the only option, but I'd try to dig around a little in the hope that maybe there's a Christian publisher out there who would consider publishing a Christian take on this topic. But that might be wishful thinking.

Brain Of Ivane said:

I would honestly read this book. I've been wondering about this a lot. I mean, it's relevant. It's something a lot of us are seeking answers to. Situations like, what if a teen raised by a gay couple becomes a Christian? Or something to that end... How do you become Christ in these situations?

I'll definitely be looking it up! Thanks for the recommendation.

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I would like to adress the first paragraph of this for a quick second.

Just because a teen is raised by Gay or Lesbian parents doesn't mean they aren't Christian or would even need to "become" Christian. At least in the Hispanic and Black communities, many LGBT people go to church and are devoutly religious. This is also true of the Italian American or Irish American community as well. I have a friend who is religious and trans, and he believes that he was meant to be transgender. That god doesn't give you more than you can handle.

I can say that as someone who is LGBT and grew up going to Black churches, I know my verses and what people inside and outside the Black community will ue against me in regards to my not being straight. It was how I was raised into tweens, and I still read the Bible and discuss it with some of my relatives because I take comfort in it. Being queer and being Christian, they're not mutually exclusive things. My views are more a deeply spiritual mix of paganism, Judaism, and Christianity in some regards. But I haven't forgotten going to church or having to navigate more religious family members, and both of us having to learn how to interact with each other.

I wrote a gay Christian romance, but sold it to an LGBTQ publisher (Riptide Publishing). Won't know how readers respond for a few months yet, but there you go.

thethinker42 said:

I wrote a gay Christian romance, but sold it to an LGBTQ publisher (Riptide Publishing). Won't know how readers respond for a few months yet, but there you go.

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Oh, let me know when it comes out!

Lillith1991 said:

Oh, let me know when it comes out!

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Should be out this summer! (Lead Me Not by Ann Gallagher)

Lauren, I'm curious -- in your story, how did you deal with the negativity of Christian people regarding gay people in the churches?

Mind you, I am a Christian who believes the entire Bible to be the truth, so my curiosity is more intellectual than religious.

Deb Kinnard said:

Lauren, I'm curious -- in your story, how did you deal with the negativity of Christian people regarding gay people in the churches?

Mind you, I am a Christian who believes the entire Bible to be the truth, so my curiosity is more intellectual than religious.

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It was...a bit of a minefield. LOL My main character is actually an anti-gay preacher who realizes he himself is gay, so that negativity was front and center for a lot of the story. Sometimes the characters are discussing Scripture and how it relates to homosexuality, other times it's a question of "whether or not it's a sin, how should we treat gay people?", etc. (I'm way oversimplifying here, but it would take pages to explain all of it.)

Deb Kinnard said:

Lauren, I'm curious -- in your story, how did you deal with the negativity of Christian people regarding gay people in the church?

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Not all, or even most,* Christian people are negative towards gay people in the church. Two of my uncloseted lesbian friends are ordained ministers, in two different denominations and two different countries.

As a Quaker who became convinced in the UK, I'm used to my "church" actively campaigning and fighting on my behalf, as part of a Christian opposition to inequality. I've never faced negativity among British or Australian Quakers.

Just defending Christians against the accusation of negativity. There is homophobia, but that goes for the general population. There's no need to tar Christians in general with the brush of intolerance.

*"A majority of those identifying with major religions supported marriage equality, including Catholics, Anglicans and non-Christian religions." http://www.crosbytextor.com/news/record-support-for-same-sex-marriage/

The novel that I have been writing deals with a gay Gulf War vet who moves back to the place of his childhood and is caught kissing a farm hand while working on a tobacco farm. It becomes fodder for local gossip where Christianity comes in conflict with homosexuality. I have lots of Christian characters and they deal with homosexuality in both positive and negative ways.