More thoughts about romance novels...

I appreciated Mel's comment and I started writing a comment, but realized it was becoming a very long one! So, here is my comment as a post instead...

Question: What about Christian Romance novels? Janette Oke? Karen Kingsbury?

When I wrote my last post, I was speaking specifically about Christian romance novels. I actually avoid secular romance novels altogether. I look back on when I was a teen and some of the adult romances I read and my stomach plummets. I realize now that they really took my mind places it shouldn't have gone. Most secular romance novels now have graphic sex scenes. They did even when I was a teen. Someone once said that romance novels can become like pornography to women. I know that sounds extreme, but I was taken by surprise a few years ago when I read a book by an author who used to write Christian books and now publishes with a secular publisher. There was a very graphic sexual scene between two women in her book. I don't really want to explain more than that. The scene took me by surprise--I was expecting an inspirational book and then I read this scene. I cringed.

Christian romances have really expanded in the last few years. When I was growing up, I enjoyed Janette Oke's books and I think they are quite different than most Christian romantic fiction that I've read this past year. I would single out Francine Rivers, Angela Hunt, and Janette Oke as being much more realistic about how they've written romance into their books. Karen Kingsbury is an interesting author to me. I know everyone loves her books a lot! And I haven't been able to figure out yet why she isn't an author I usually choose to read. I'm still trying to articulate that one. I know it unsettled me when I opened up her last book and found an advertisement for a cruise with her as the guest speaker.

Honestly, a few years ago, I had heard people talk about how reading a lot of Christian romances wasn't a good idea--and the people I had overheard were talking about Janette Oke. But, Janette Oke's books aren't who I'm referring to when I mean that I have to guard myself about reading Christian romances.

Back in January, I read a Christian romance that used words like this example: one character felt "ravenous" for a man as she stood close to him. "ravenous"? It feels like Christian Romances have been getting closer and closer to secular romances in how they describe men and women physically. In that same book it referenced men and women staying overnight together and unmarried couples living together (with the other Christians in their lives believing this was okay). That book really made me start thinking about the words authors use to describe the attraction between men and women in their books. I began to feel that there are some words that get very close to the line between romance/love and lust.

Romance is a part of life and so it should be a part of the stories we read, but the other thing I've started to see in the Christian romances I've read is that it is love and romance which is what life is all about--not God. The love of a man or woman is portrayed as what can save the one who loves them. And recently, I have also read several books where one person is a Christian and the other is not. The Christian enters the relationship with the hopes of saving the other. That's a dangerous idea to plant in the minds of teens and adults. I know that when my daughters and son begin to date (many years from now) I will desire for them to date and marry a Christian man or woman (in my son's case). If you are a Christian, dating people who aren't Christians is dangerous and is a very slippery slope--God showed me that very clearly when I was in high school. I'm thankful that he showed me before I would have regretted. It only took a kiss to make me realize that this boy who said he was a Christian but wasn't and he was not someone I should date.

I hope all of this explains in more detail my feelings about Christian romances today. I think we have to be careful and wise about what we read and watch.

Comparison of Verses

Tonight I was reading the Mom's Bible again (NCV) and compared this verse: NCV Ephesians 5:22-24 22 Wives, yield to your husbands, as you do to the Lord, 23 because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. And he is the Savior of the body, which is the church. 24 As the church yields to Christ, so you wives should yield to your husbands in everything. NIV Ephesians 5:22-24 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. The Message 22-24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewis...

Grieved

Why is it that my generation (I belong to Gen X) and generations after us always seem to think that they know more than the generations that have come before us? Why is there such a lack of respect in our generation for our elders? Why do we think that the liturgy of the church and hymns are irrelevant? It is ironic to me that the emergent movement is saying that the seeker sensitive movement is irrelevant. It seems as if it was only a few years ago when it was the seeker sensitive movement that said to the traditional church that it (the traditional church) was irrelevant. I'm reading a book with all of these big words and I want to be honest--I didn't understand a lot of it. I'm not dumb. I understood most of it, but the author was assuming a lot of background knowledge on the part of the reader. Most of the time I learn deep theological concepts and then I have to store them in my "attic" (as Autumn would say) because there isn't enough room in the ...

Missing Pieces

The other day I was discussing a book with my mom and explaining to her my concern about how "blame" is cast upon the child in the story. My mom commented about how deeply I read and consider what is written. Sometimes I wonder if I go overboard. Am I questioning too much? Am I overreacting? Why am I reacting this way? I come back to knowing that God wired me this way. But, I also reflect on how God has guided my path through the maze of books I've read over the past few years and what I've learned from the books themselves and from reading them. Recently, I read a book that troubled me. The book I finished reading was Guiltless Living by Ginger Hubbard. When I began reading it, I found myself puzzled and then disconcerted. And in the end, I cried. But, I cried for a different reason than one might suspect. I'd like to explain. I did not read Ms. Hubbard's previous book “ Don't Make Me Count to Three ”, but I knew from f...

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