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11 August, 2010

Compromise

"If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him..." 1John 2:15 (my paraphrase). I picked up a book from the library. Recommended on a Christian writer's website. He said this book was written by a Christian and said it was amazing; that it tells the story of a man's journey in faith to God. I couldn't wait to read it. Started off good: overseas missionary, questioning his decision, wasn't a prayed over decision. Then I get to page 22 or 23, and the guy is having a discussion with someone and there in print was a very crude curse word. I slammed the book shut. It will be returned to the library today.
When did Christians believe it was okay to follow the world? I wonder if this author, or website owner were face to face with Jesus today would they turn to Him and spit out this vomitous curse word?
When did they loose the ability to see they need to be separate from the world? Can you imagine your pastor getting up on Sunday morning and launching into a string of curse words from the pulpit? Now these authors would argue that "they" are not saying it, their characters are. They would also say they use it to provide realism to their unsaved characters in their writing. I disagree. Thousands of words in the English language and your mind can only grasp a few curse words? If you take the profanity out guess what? It doesn't hinder your story. I actually did that as an experiment with a screenplay of a popular movie I bought. I took a black permanent marker and crossed out and either omitted or replaced all the curse words and used words with more depth and meaning, while still remaining true to the character. It worked.
In the novel I refuse to read further, the author had already established the vile nature of this character, ten pages ago without using curse words. So why add them now? Why add them at all? Christian writers are at the front lines of Spititual battle. Let's show our loyalties are fixed 100% on Jesus.

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