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*pops back in* I keep meaning to get back to this conversation and then get busy. 😛 So, I agree with a lot of what’s being said… and I think most of us are saying similar things in different manners. 😉 A few thoughts, @mlbolangerauthor

We have taken that position that it is ‘wrong’ or ‘dangerous’ to make an attempt to see things from a point of view that is different than ours, even if that opposing view is presented as non-hostile in attitude.

Now I do agree this can and does happen. And that we should be able to see things from other people’s povs. As a writer, I love doing that with all my characters, making them understandable and relatable, no matter how good or bad they are.

At the same time, while I don’t think it’s at all ‘wrong’ to attempt to see things from another view point, I do think it’s something one needs to be cautious in the executing of. Namely, sin needs to be shown as sin, and the repercussions of sin also need to be shown. The value in understanding others comes in that we can see ourselves and understand ourselves better. We can see how we are similar to these people (be it a LGBTQ character or any other kind) and hence how we need the truth all the more.

Empathy and acceptance for the lost seems to have vanished. I clearly remember what it was like to be on the outside, and to be treated as such. Perhaps that has given me a unique desire to get to know people who believe differently than the Bible teaches.

From what I’ve seen in other posts, one of your passions is showing the church how they ought to treat and view the unsaved. It’s not a theme I’ve thought about a lot, probably because I’ve not had to deal with this problem myself and have a number of good examples of this in my own life instead of the the less than perfect ones you seem to have interacted with. 🙁 Anyways, I think it’s a cool theme and one that could be very powerful.

My main question though is what this empathy and acceptance looks like and what the end goal is. I’m assuming your goal goes beyond ‘accept them for who they are’. That’s what the world is teaching already. As Christians, we are to love everyone, no matter their sin (because let’s face it, we’re all sinners) because Christ loved us. The end goal of this is to show them the truth and bring them to God though, not just like them because we should like them.

I’m not even sure acceptance is the right word, because when one accepts something, there is this stamp of unspoken approval as well as a sense of normalcy. And something that is sin should never be ‘accepted and normal’ in this sense, be it LGBTQ or other kinds of immorality or abortion or human trafficking. Yes, we love because God loved us. Yes, they are just people with struggles like us. In writing, as in life, the sin needs to be separated from the sinner, with love being shown to the sinner while one doesn’t ignore the sin just to make people feel good.

Back to one of the things you mentioned, this is related to the reason I’d not write a LGBTQ main character. If the point of your book is to teach Christians, then generally the MC goes through an arc related to what you want to teach. Hence, you’d be much more likely to bring across your message with a Christian character confronted with these problems. Because if your target audience is a Christian with these problems, then you can’t expect them to ‘step outside those’ and read your book when it falls outside the lines of what they’d read already because of the MC. Not… sure that made any sense. *furrows brow* But if I were trying to convince, say, a target audience that abortion was wrong, I wouldn’t give them a MC who was on the ‘opposite side’ and marched in pro life rallies. Instead I’d give them an MC they could relate and agree with, then gradually draw them in and open up more points of view and show, through the events of the story, how right and wrong really lay.

But I will say this. I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing if a Christian decides to not read a book with, say, a LGBTQ main character. Yes, I like books that challenge me. But if I think a book is going to normalize sin, such as a couple who lives together out of wedlock or a gay couple, I probably won’t read it. Not because I hate those kinds of people or because I think they are somehow less than human. But, as Christians, we are supposed to be in the world, but not of it. We are supposed to think on good things. And yes, that does include darkness that makes the light brighter. Yet it’s also a matter of controlling what one puts in their mind. If I read or watch a lot of stuff with swearing, those words will pop up in my head without me meaning it and I’ll realize I need to stop watching such things for a bit. Same thing with all kinds of immorality and other sin. If I watch or read a lot of that, it tends to become more and more normal and less and less a sin in my own mind… something I don’t think is the goal of anyone here. 😉

With topics like these, I think they can make great themes and books. I also think not everyone is called to write on themes like this, nor is everyone prepared and able to write on them. And that’s fine. But for me the issue is not so much ‘I don’t want to learn about these people’ as ‘how is sin treated, alongside grace and mercy’?