Why so many Christian books?

[mldavis2]

One learns, not by restriction to and repetition of closely held biases and beliefs, but by examining alternate perspectives with which one may not be comfortable, in order to expand the mind.

"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not sure that I have. The religious climate in the UK is very different to that of the US.

Thank God................

I mean that sincerely, folks.

[Native]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I wonder if some of the popularity of Christian romances is a reaction to how graphic and explicit some of the mainstream romances have become. If you want to read a simple love story, not something bordering on soft-core porn, where do you turn? Even YA books can be graphic these days.

Yeah. If the Christian genre share is bigger now, it might just be a welcome pendulum swing away from the "It's all good" mindset. Unfortunately, any genre is by definition limited. To me, uplifting messages are wherever I find them, though I seldom find them around gratuitous sex/violence/cussing or self-rightious belief-bashing.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Native

To me, uplifting messages are wherever I find them, though I seldom find them around gratuitous sex/violence/cussing or self-rightious belief-bashing.

I notice you didn't say "never."
That small bit of real estate that your "seldom" allows for, is where I tend to hang out. I don't like the easy messages; I like the messages that you have to search for... get a little dirt on your boots when tracking them down. Then when you do find one, you need to pry it out of the muck and give it a good bath before you try it on for size. But that's just me.

[melmac]

One problem I'm having is that some of the Deals are not marked as Christian fiction a lot are but not all, I'm not familiar with all the publishing houses etc so it's not until I start reading the Amazon reviews and see mention of faith/morals/religion etc that I realise what the book is marketed towards. I had no idea there wa so much of it available and the market is so big.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by melmac

One problem I'm having is that some of the Deals are not marked as Christian fiction a lot are but not all, I'm not familiar with all the publishing houses etc so it's not until I start reading the Amazon reviews and see mention of faith/morals/religion etc that I realise what the book is marketed towards. I had no idea there wa so much of it available and the market is so big.

There has always been a lot of it.

Read Swiss Family Robinson, or Heidi. It is not a recent genre, and really - much of it isn't written with the intention of preaching, rather the author's personal beliefs are reflected in their writing. That it preaches is a side effect.

Some is intentionally preachy and it comes across as awkward, as in some of Grace Livingstone Hills works, and sometimes it can be intentional but done well as in Johanna Spyri's Heidi.

In general I would say it is Christian fiction if it presents a summary of the gospel, but that if it even presents a worldview compatable with Christianity then Christian publishing houses may give it a look.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by frquixote

I have to agree. I've worked in the largest Regional Combatant Command Headquarters in the US military for over ten years now and can count on my two hands the number of times I've heard curse words uttered out loud by military officers or enlisted, no matter how tense the situation has become. It is considered very unprofessional and a sign that the curser does not handle pressure well. That's not to say people don't curse under their breath...

During my stint as an enlisted man I learned to swear, curse, grumble and bitch so much that when I returned to civilian life I had to make a conscious effort to strictly censor my speech for quite a long time. And we - lowly enlisted men - weren't swearing because of some pressure. We were swearing constantly.

I believe you would have been swearing too, if the army (with possible exception of prison where you would have to go if you refused to go to army service ;-) ) was the last place on Earth where you wanted to be at the moment. The most important thing in the life of ordinary private during my time was THE NUMBER. That was the number of days remaining till the end of the service.
But that was, obviously, different time and place.

[darknessangel]

Perhaps it's a revenge for the rapture fail?... Well, we still have 2012, let's hope =P

[RolandD]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

I wish I had a recording of conversation among Army cooks in the mess hall during the Viet Nam war... clearly 25 word vocabularies... which I 'enjoyed' while I was on KP duty peeling potatoes.

But salty language is part of the real world. There is a place and time where it does invoke some degree of realism into 'overheard' conversations as used by a writer attempting to re-create an accurate portrayal of life in the slums, or even executive boardrooms (Nixon, Blagojevich, et. al). My objections would lie only in those instances in which the language was inappropriate or unrealistic to the scenario.

I love hearing Nixon cuss. It just sounds so funny coming from him.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I know some non-religious types who like the books solely of the general lack of overt sexuality or violence (as well as limited "bad language"), as long as the books don't get "too preachy".

have these people ever read the Bible?

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I wonder if some of the popularity of Christian romances is a reaction to how graphic and explicit some of the mainstream romances have become. If you want to read a simple love story, not something bordering on soft-core porn, where do you turn? Even YA books can be graphic these days.

I read a ton of romance and I've found a lot of it where there is almost 0 cursing and even less sex. These books are still with the regular suspects, the main one being Harlequin but even some erotica publishers (like Ellora's Cave) publish a "sweet" line. I think that you just have to look for it (and not judge a book by its cover).

Take this one for instance: Ripping the Bodice. I got it free a while ago but it's pretty cheap at Amazon. The cover looks like sex will be happening. The name gives the impression of sex. What is it about? It's about a woman who loves to read romance novels, lol! The story line revolves around the idea that this particular woman cannot find a man because she's looking for a romance novel hero.

[Shimarenda]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I notice you didn't say "never."
That small bit of real estate that your "seldom" allows for, is where I tend to hang out. I don't like the easy messages; I like the messages that you have to search for... get a little dirt on your boots when tracking them down. Then when you do find one, you need to pry it out of the muck and give it a good bath before you try it on for size. But that's just me.

What messages have you extracted from the gratuitous?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Well of course they exist. But have you ever seen one? I was simply pointing out that there are a heck of lot more Christian Book Stores, in keeping with the idea of the original poster and the question posed. I'm pretty sure we've all seen those. Personally, I've never seen a dedicated Detective book store. I'm sure that using the net I could find a dedicated Dinosaur Book Store too, though I've never seen one of those either.

I could not without looking it up find a Christian bookstore in Sweden. I have personally been to a couple of crime bookstores.

In the US I used to visit a lot of bookstores and have been to bookstores specializing in crime stories. I do not remember seeing Christian bookstores but that might be because I did not search them out.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

But were those sex scenes truly gratuitous?

No, as I said, part of it was very central to the story. If you read the rest of my post, I point out the gratuitous part.

It was very eye-opening to me that I was fine with the sex in one part of the book (and genearlly rarely have an issue with sex in books), but in the latter part of the book it irritated me to no end because it just didn't fit.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by kacir

During my stint as an enlisted man I learned to swear, curse, grumble and bitch so much that when I returned to civilian life I had to make a conscious effort to strictly censor my speech for quite a long time. And we - lowly enlisted men - weren't swearing because of some pressure. We were swearing constantly.

My brother went through boot camp a few years ago, and when I went to meet him for his "graduation" he was swearing like I'd never heard him do before. He apologized with the words "Sorry, I've learned to cuss so ****ing much here".