Fair point. I generally, for the purposes of novels, do not subscribe to death of the author personally. For me, under most circumstances, the text means what the person who wrote it said it meant. Regardless, I concede that what is explicitly in the text, without outside context, is kinda messed up.
I've been writing a story that is religiously inspired as well, and just like in your case it was somewhat an accident. I started by throwing in an aside reference to a mezuzah and next thing I knew the main character was an observant Jew and the story was based on what it's like to be a religious minority in a place where nobody gets it. In my case, there are not so many direct parallels to Biblical narratives, though the main character is aware of the stories (in altered version as befits the world she lives in), but still steeped in more modern practice.
I can send you a link to my story if you want (since you did ask for such) but I'll warn you that it probably is too preachy. I'm not really writing the story for anyone except for myself, so I'm going with the "fuck it" approach and writing whatever I feel like with little regard to anything else. Some parts are directly based on things that happened to me or stories I've heard from my parents about things that happened to them in college. As such it's probably kinda terrible X_X. But it is, at the very least, in a similar sort of vein to what you describe.
Thanks. Yeah, I was partially leaning towards the narnia type thing for my stories, at least the first part if the allegory thing. Like as a good example, tales of phaeton. The protagonist is both an Adam type figure at the start (he bungles up big time and ends up releasing evil into the world) and develops into more of a Jesus esque figure towards the end as he learns to sacrifice himself to save everyone else abd redeem the mistakes of the past. So it’s more just the general themes abd arcs type of thing in that regard more or less.
If you want to avoid preachy narratives, avoid “us vs them” type of stories. When you are setting up the Christian character as being better than everyone else and vilifying all non-Christian, it gets super annoying. Especially how I met a lot of people who were raised Christian and dealt with trauma from the religion. Or people who have different religious beliefs or are just not religious. Not everyone agrees with Christian beliefs and that doesn’t make them evil.
I have an angel in my story but he’s not a messenger of god. He’s just some guy with wings, because people with wings look cool. Nothing religious about it.
Edit: I forgot I also wrote a comic about a Christian character but it is not really about him converting people. He prays and talks about God and works at a Christian thrift store but the story isn’t about religion or anything.
I say that you put effort into the parts of the story that have no religion involved, like character development.
For example, take the film The Prince of Egypt.
Try to avoid being preachy or obsessive, and simply write the religious aspects with care, make them a part of the story yet not the ONLY part.
Lol yeah. I remember bibleman. I was all over the live action versions as a kid (which while still a bit preachy, are definitely a lot more self aware and campy in a Adam west vbatman meets Kamen rider type of way)
Yeah, I’m definitely not gonna be going that direction with my stuff either, so don’t worry. XD
That's good. Although I'm an atheist I feel that Christians media is oversaturated with poorly written, annoyingly preachy programmes, and not enough decent stories that involve religion.
Yeah, that really bums me out as well. There’s so much potential for interesting and engaging religious stories that the fact that most people seem to just settle with just doing knockoffs of things like facing the giants and god’s not dead is just depressing to me….
We Jews have it a little better in that regard but only slightly so. I've learned lately that interestingly enough, the highly orthodox Jewish children's media is often a lot more interesting, nuanced, and better-produced and written than the ones meant for more reform/"modern" (with massive quote marks to be clear) audiences, which I find striking and kinda fascinating. It's almost the opposite of how Bibleman is described above - without feeling as much need to cater to every audience, the creators have more room to use their extensive knowledge of the source material in fun and creative ways because they're more confident their niche audience will get it, rather than water it down into nothingness. To be honest, I think that's the true irony of shows like Bibleman (again, based on the above description rather than personal experience): If one presents your religion to your children as something so bland and dumb as "Bible and Jesus = good, anyone who doesn't think that = bad" then surely you have nobody but yourself to blame when your children grow up to think there's nothing meaningful to be had and so stop being religious?
Regardless, one of my pipe dreams is a Talmud-themed heavy metal band. I like to imagine it would be the sort of thing religious Jews could get a lot out of, while also increasing awareness and interest among the sorts of people who are Jewish but never actually learned anything beyond basic information growing up and found themselves drifting away because they didn't know there was any depth there. Maybe a song about the Oven of Akhnai would convince a few people to read the story themselves and learn that the tale of the Laser Eyeball Rabbi, y'know?
I think there's not going to be a general set of rules to follow, and I think what works for some may not work for you. You know your faith. You know your story. You know there's such a thing as banging the drums too hard and the music goes away. I believe if you keep those in mind as you write and edit, you'll do well. You may not make every reader happy & you may get suggestions that you went to heavy or too light on faith. But it's your story. It will resonate with others if it does to you. <3
hmm interesting question,myself i am of no mainstream religion and for my series the "church" is one of the enemies, but i would think like any message in story is to not pound it over peoples heads or making it so black and white, it needs nuaunce and subtilty
Messages are told. A theme is merely an idea that is explored in your story, without necessarily coming to any concrete conclusions. Leave that up to the reader to decide for themselves instead of ramming it down their throat. Avoid expository statements from characters that are just a mouth piece for your religious thoughts on the subject because readers will immediately pick up on that and get irritated. Instead, all angles of said idea should be introduced and explored via the actions and choices of the characters (and be completely understandable) and via the consequences that ensue as a result. Also if you want it to be truly engaging, avoid obvious statements like 'genocide is bad.' Yeah. Most people you encounter on the street would agree with that and you aren't really adding anything that challenges the reader to think about a problem that may be difficult and uncomfortable to explore.
A lot of the time, stories are nothing more than a 'what if' scenario. What if we become competent enough with genetic engineering for it to be publically viable? It could save lives and potentially eliminate threats such as cancer and extend human longevity. But if it was highly available, would it eventually develop into a for-profit industry that paves the way for a more cosmetic and eugenics-based use that is only available to wealthier people and potentially erase an entire people group such as autistic people? How dramatically would that kind of advancement affect our society and culture as it is now and in what ways would it be better and what ways would it be worse?
Generally, problems are more nuanced and complex than we like to paint them, and it can be a good way to engage readers and have it be something they have to think about even after they stop reading it. Of course, certain genres can get away with simply being a fun ride but it sounds like you have something in mind that you want to say, especially with your biblical metaphors.
Star Trek: The Next Generation does this really well where they present a problem that doesn't seem to have an obvious answer and you can understand why any of these potential methods of dealing with it make sense for each character. You can also display characters that are at complete opposite ends of the issue and observe through the lens of the protagonist how this affects their lives and their surrounding environment and allow the reader to determine who is right in that situation or to conclude that there is validation in both responses and that there simply isn't a good answer.
As a Catholic, I would watch bad films with a lot of big Christian overtones. I know my parents would automatically think a movie is good because it talks about Jesus.
Stuff like God's Not Dead, God's Not Dead 2... or other trash that tries to say something thought provoking and tries to acknowledge flaws to help a religion improve... like Dogma (I still can't believe Kevin Smith was shocked about the blowback the film got from his religion. Like no duh, you can't try to make a movie that's gonna appeal to stoners and christians like wha --).
That said, I will say there are some stories with biblical themes and parallels that're preachy af but are so, so great. Jojo Part 5 for example is one big Jesus metaphor and I LOVE how unapologetic the writer is. It's probably my biggest inspiration when it comes to writing religious stuff. That and that one Doom Patrol episode with the De-Creator. Like a Cockroach that sounds like Barnacle Boy quoting revelations while people get raptured while the episode discusses how religion can help people cope? Specifically the mentally ill? Yes please. More of that.
New Gods is another good one. I love how the characters talk like they're from the old testament and even behave like old testament figures. Just anything from Jack Kirby in general.
I think it's fine if a character is grappling with the gray areas of the religion as long as the writer doesn't go full blown apologetic and be like "EVERY SHADY THING DONE WAS DONE FOR GOD THEREFORE IT IS THE WAY! RAH RAH RAAAAAH!". I will say tho, I am fine if characters are flawed af and have some beliefs that need ironing out. After all, Church isn't for good people, it's for people who need it. Just as long as you say "this problematic thing this character believes in is obviously wrong" instead of being like "He's christian therefore he's immune".
Stuff like that.
Lots of great advice here about how to avoid preachiness, though I notice not many people have talked about disrespect. As an atheist myself, I'm certainly more worried about being disrespectful than preachy when writing religion!
Maybe people think you don't need advice on disrespect since you're Christian yourself, but I can understand why you're still worried about it. Maybe you're a particularly chill Christian and you're aware that your 'disrespect radar' doesn't pick up on a lot of things your fellow Christians might find disrespectful. I certainly have similar worries when writing mental health, for instance. I don't want the character struggling with those issues to come across as an angsty Sympathetic Sue1 who other people are too patient with given their behaviour, so I'm tempted to go in the other direction and have other (sympathetic) characters get sick of dealing with them, but then I worry if that's disrespectful to real people struggling with those same issues, even if I don't find the portrayal disrespectful myself.
I guess the only thing I have to say on this is; there's a difference between being disrespectful and offensive/disagreeable. People more often find things disrespectful when it's clear the writer has a shallow understanding of the matter they're portraying because it's a blatant caricature based on stereotypes. As a Christian, you understand your own religion so it really is pretty unlikely for you to encounter this pitfall. But even if you portray something with understanding and nuance, people might still get mad at you because they disagree with you. I guess there's nothing you can really do about this except not include things you know will offend people? But yeah, it's something I'd like to know myself :'D
This is going to sound glib at first, but you explore the themes with your characters. But, that's not quite all. You have to do it WITHOUT ANY SHORT CUTS.
This is something I see in a lot of "woke" storytelling, but it also exists in any ideologically-heavy storytelling: this idea that because the message is present, you therefore don't have to worry about things like character development, narrative, or nuanced storytelling. Shortcuts are taken on at least one and the end result is a story that is preachy, on-the-nose, simplistic, and usually just plain bad.
(As an example, I once came across an Evangelical adaptation of the story of Noah's Ark. The action of the story started with God telling Noah "People aren't loving each other as they should," and then declaring He's going to flood the world...which Noah just goes along with. Any normal person would have reacted with abject horror and pleading for mercy after hearing that an all-powerful force is about to destroy the world for not reaching a certain threshold on the affection-o-meter,, but since Noah and everybody around him doesn't, nobody comes across as an actual human being. Compare that with the movie Noah, which took the time to make a case for a flood having become necessary, and then showing us the trauma suffered by the characters upon becoming the last living people on Earth. Noah took no short cuts, developed its characters and setting, had them deal with the situation as their characters would, and was damned good.)
So, you have to write the story as you would any story. When you explore the themes with your characters, have them explore these themes as themselves, reacting as they would react based on their wants, desires, and fears. Take no shortcuts - lay the groundwork for every single moment, derail no characters...and then trust your readers to pick up on what you're trying to explore.
And that's all there is to it, as far as I can tell.
Hello, I am a child of God who has started posting my comic earlier this year. I've dealt with this concern since the creation of my comic. I stand in my faith and want it to show in my story. My comic is about Faith and Religious concepts. If any of your comics have a different goal/message, then religion wouldn't be the main focus. So, I guess worry about the main writing fundamentals, and you'll be fine in that.
But to those with religious beliefs: I've found that we should not diminish the message we have through our experience and insights due to this concern. That would show that I've hidden and put my faith in God aside just to have an audience. No one has to read if they don't want to. God has offered free will unto all who live on the Earth.
I'll understand if someone turns away from my work because of it being religious. And I understand the pain that has come from humanity and all the wrongs that have been done in the name of religion. I oppose all of that. That's exactly why I am doing my comic. To tell the truth, and to correct the narrative. Nothing tainted by skewed ideologies and false/corrupt prophets. I am clear with my faith since I believe in God and The Son. No surprises from me to anyone who will click on my comic.
So, if you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, ect. and your comic is about sharing your faith and experience then please sing out to the Earth! But don't let your own worldly thoughts and feelings taint the gospel/message. Do not spread hate, God opposes such. As long as you are respectful and kind to all, you'll be ok. And to everyone in general, just think about the words that you put out into the world. Because power lies in the tongue, it can be a blessing and a curse.
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don't give offence to the Jews or Gentiles or the Church of God. I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don't just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved." 1 Corinthians 10:31-33. 
If you'd like to see my comic that I am referring to, it is here:
