Five Red Flags to Watch for in YA Christian Romance Fiction

Christian romance fiction feels “safe,” but it’s not always without pitfalls . . . and it’s not always Christian, either.

I remember when Jeanette Oke and “deliverance” stories were about the only options teenage girls had if they wanted to read some Christian romance. The inventory has greatly expanded and almost every secular literary genre now has its Christian counterpart, especially for girls. Does she like historical, cozy mystery, fantasy, paranormal, sci-fi, lighthearted chick-lit (all with a romantic angle)? Chances are, Zondervan, Bethany House, Tyndale, or Thomas Nelson has published a title for it. Since the explosion of faith-based novels in the 1980s, writing quality has improved, and the plotlines are more realistic and relatable.

 

Still, there are certain problems in the overall category that are difficult to grasp, much less overcome. When you think about it, “Christian fiction” is itself something of an oxymoron, splicing absolute truth with an art form that stops being art as soon as it starts stating absolutes.  And if fiction is not allowed to preach (which it isn’t), what “Christian values” can it communicate, especially in an area that the secular world gets so wrong (i.e., love)? With the best of intentions, faith-based fiction can even communicate some un-Christian values.

Before I get to that, let’s think about why we reach for books in the library stacks that are labeled with a fish or a cross (or why we steer our teenagers in that direction):

  • It’s “safe.” Parents and kids who pick up a novel published by Zondervan, Nelson, et al., can be pretty sure they won’t be blindsided with bad language, graphic scenes, or atheistic/immoral worldviews or behavior—or if such appear, they won’t be vindicated.
  • It presents faith in a positive light. Young people are bombarded with negative “Christian” stereotypes such as the huckster evangelist, the back-stabbing church choir leader, the weak mom who just found Jesus, the crazy dad who leads a quasi-Christian cult, and so on. Not all so-called Christians are good guys in Christian novels (at least if the novels are halfway realistic), but there will always be at least one positive role model whose life has been transformed by the gospel.
  • It encourages moral behavior. Characters may stumble and fall, but sexual immorality, hypocrisy, and dishonesty are never rewarded, while the protagonist will in some way find his or her faith affirmed.

So far, so good; there’s nothing wrong with opting for safe and wholesome reading matter so long as “safe” and “wholesome” do not become values in themselves. A Christian’s reading life is supposed to point him or her toward Christ, not (primarily) toward a moral lifestyle, and literature not specifically labeled “Christian” can still reveal Christ to a discerning reader. Let’s look a little deeper into the genre of Christian contemporary YA fiction (which almost always, if not technically “romance,” includes a romantic dimension). In surveying the genre, I find three main divisions:

  • The Conversion Novel—used to be THE standard for Christian fiction, but not as much these days. The protagonist begins far from God, encounters a crisis, meets profound Christian influences, comes to Christ. Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book is an entertaining example.
  • The Issue Novel: The protagonist is a Christian already or soon becomes one, then goes on to deal with a particular teen problem requiring the use of godly principles. In First Date the issue is dating; in Becoming Me it’s love and sex; in Love Will Keep Us Together it’s struggling with the future and the teen’s relationship with the church.
  • The Renewal Novel: A Christian character meets a particular challenge that shakes her faith or leads her to question if she even has faith. The protagonist of Beautiful suffers a disfiguring accident; in Running Lean he (the rare male protagonist!) must learn how to deal with his girlfriend’s anorexia.

All these are valid plotlines and themes. But here—finally!—are the red flags, in the form of questions to ask yourself as you read:

  1. What role does (or can) Jesus play? In my (admittedly limited) survey of contemporary Christian novels for young adults, I find that Jesus is seldom mentioned. “God” is the focus, as of course he should be, but remember that the word “God” is comfortably generic, while Jesus is uncomfortably specific. It’s a problem in fiction generally, for the purpose of fiction is not to answer questions but to pose them. And Jesus is, as we know, the answer. Still, it seems that a lot of Christian YA writers should try a little harder to make creative use of the “name above all names.”
  2. What’s the theology? Christian fiction is often criticized for shallow theology, but what do we mean by that? It might be “quick fixism,” the idea that if one simply turns everything over to God, her life will smooth out. The conversion novels so popular in the 1980s and 90s were rife with this kind of plot development. It’s not so obvious now, but the best way to discern a Christian novel’s theology is to locate the chief character or characters who exhibit faith or act as mentors and note carefully what they say. Then notice how the protagonist puts their counsel to use, and how or if it conflicts with what the Bible says.
  3. Does moralism trump faith in a transcendent God? Too often in Christian preaching the gospel is passed over in order to get to “how should we then live.” It’s the same with novels for teens and adults.  The challenges of a godly life are certainly a fit subject for fiction, but it’s too easy to reduce a Christian theme to “We don’t do x because it leads to y.”  In reality, Christians don’t do x because it harms their relationship with X (Christ).
  4. What about the parents? Even in contemporary novels that present the Christian life more or less honestly, I’ve been troubled by an over-reliance on clueless parents. Some of these books focus on friendship to the detriment of family relationship; in one of the books I read, a character actually says, “Lying to your parents is one thing. Lying to…the best friends you ever had is definitely another.” I understand that parents usually have to take a back seat in youth literature so the youth can take the lead in solving their problems. But that’s no excuse for the preponderance of vacillating, weak moms and dads I see in a lot of teen fiction.
  5. Is the faith portrayed (by the protagonist or other key characters) as therapeutic or transformative? God’s chief goal is not solving our problems; it is transforming us to the image of his Son, which usually leads to more problems! Notice if the protagonist is merely learning a better way to live—or is her character being changed to reflect the fruit of the Spirit? In love stories this is a particular temptation: Is the characters’ love for each other seen as redemptive, or as an echo of Christ’s love for them?

I do see encouraging signs in Christian YA novels: an attempt, especially in realistic fiction, to grapple with difficult issues and make difficult choices. Fiction that glorifies Christ is much harder than it looks, however. We’ll continue to be on the lookout.

 

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Janie Cheaney

Janie is the VERY senior staff writer for Redeemed Reader, as well as a long-time contributor to WORLD Magazine and an author of nine books for children. The rest of the time she's long-distance smooching on her four grandchildren (not an easy task). She lives with her equally senior husband of almost-fifty years in the Ozarks of Missouri.

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11 Comments

  1. Laura on February 14, 2015 at 3:54 pm

    Where are these Christian sci-fi and paranormal YA novels you speak of? I was told by a literary agent that sci-fi is dead on arrival at Christian publishing houses. Fantasy and paranormal are only marginally better thought of. When I’ve searched the YA shelves at the Christian bookstore, I’ve only seen historical and contemporary stories. (Unless you count Ted Dekker…)

    Sorry, that may be thread-jacking, but I just had to say something. I agree with the five questions. I ask myself similar questions when I read regular YA.

    • Janie Cheaney on February 15, 2015 at 6:06 am

      Laura: pure Christian sci-fi is pretty rare, I’ll grant you, especially for fiction aimed at girls. Most of it (e.g. Aquifer, Captives) falls into the dystopian sub-category. Zondervan took paranormal out for a spin with the Halflings series by Heather Burch, and I have seen one or two others I can’t remember now. Both paranormal and dystopian trends are passing, so I don’t expect to see much more of it.

    • Samuel Robbins on December 3, 2021 at 5:14 pm

      There are many Christian sci-fi novels out there. Christian traditional publishers don’t seem to release them very much, but you can find plenty of independently-published ones. Also, Enclave Publishing, a Christian publisher, has a lot of sci-fi novels that are actually good: https://www.enclavepublishing.com/genre/science-fiction/ There is also A LOT of Christian fantasy out there. Fantasy is probably one of the biggest Christian genres behind romance, actually.

  2. elizabeth on February 14, 2015 at 5:47 pm

    EXCELLENT ARTICLE–thank you! SO important to look past the Christian label and ask these questions–especially #1, I have found so few that truly are Gospel-centered. Thank you for this.

  3. Molly Moody on February 14, 2015 at 9:19 pm

    Thank you so much. Well said.

  4. R.J. Anderson on March 4, 2015 at 7:07 pm

    Laura: Though not explicitly a YA publisher, Enclave Publishing (formerly Marcher Lord Press) is working hard to change the dearth of SF&F in the Christian market by publishing books for age 13 and up. Enclave books like Nadine Brandes’s A TIME TO DIE and Gillian Bronte Adams’s ORPHAN’S SONG, for instance, feature teen protagonists and would certainly have been published as YA elsewhere, and my own Faery Rebels series (originally published as general market MG) will soon be reprinted by Enclave as well. So it’s out there… just not as easy to find on the shelves in your local Christian bookstore (yet) as one might like.

  5. Coram Deo ~ 3.5.2015 | Coram Deo ~ on March 5, 2015 at 1:31 pm

    […] All for Love? Five Red Flags to Watch for in YA Christian Romance Fiction The Redeemed Reader writes “All these are valid plotlines and themes. But here are the red flags, in the form of questions to ask yourself as you read these books. […]

  6. Resources – Christian YA Fiction on April 19, 2018 at 1:27 pm

    […] Cheaney, Janie. “Five Red Flags to Watch for in YA Christian Romance Fiction.” Redeemed Reader, 16 Feb. 2018, redeemedreader.com/2018/02/all-for-love-five-red-flags-to-watch-for-in-ya-christian-romance-fiction/. […]

  7. Christian Voices – Unioto Learning Commons on February 12, 2019 at 6:52 am

    […] this blog post has some great criteria for evaluating Christian fiction (specifically romance, but really […]

  8. Kate le Roux on August 5, 2019 at 5:31 am

    Great article. This is so important! My aim for my own YA Christian fiction writing is to dare to include the uncomfortably specific name of Jesus, although I must say it is a challenge to do that without sounding cheesy and preachy. Also, if Christian fiction is going to avoid being primarily about morals, and avoid presenting Christianity as a 12-step program, authors will have to be brave enough to include flawed and broken Christian characters, which is hard to do when we want to attract readers to our faith.

    • Janie Cheaney on August 5, 2019 at 5:35 am

      As a writer of fiction, Kate, I’ve had some of the same questions about how to be specific and honest. There has to be a way, and some great writers (like Flannery O’Connor) Thanks for your thoughts!

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