The last five years in the reading and writing world have seen more drama than ever before, including the rise of the clean fiction movement. Thanks to the “connected” (or so they say) world we live in, trends, movements, and debates move at lightning speed. So, when passionate Christian readers and writers took a stand against “spice,” a battle line was drawn through in-person and online communities alike. However, there are difficulties in drawing such battle lines, which is why I propose an alternative. 

The first and most important problem is this: a battle line drawn between Christians means we’ve made our brothers (or sisters) out to be our enemy. Well-meaning concern, God-given convictions, and doctrinal positions should not divide the body of Christ, though they often do. This means we have to trust God to do his job. We have to trust that he can speak to hearts and help them grow. By extension, we have to leave a lot of space for people to be where God has brought them. 

Nothing has taught me this lesson better than working in a community with recovering addicts and believers who have come from very difficult backgrounds. So many of my friends there had come so incredibly far from where they were before Christ. But as far as they had come, some of their habits, language, and lifestyles would be deemed unacceptable to many Christians. The experience gave me new eyes, those of a Father whose stumbling, crippled child was learning to crawl, walk, and eventually run to him no matter how many times they fell down on the way. We can take hands with our fellow humans wherever they are on their faith journey and recognize that we’re on the same side against a common enemy. 

Second, there is this little problem of the large variance between one person’s “clean” and another’s, and one person’s “spice” and another’s. For example, I beta read for a Christian author whose book, while it didn’t have much “on-screen” intimacy between characters, did describe in detail the main character’s desires and physical arousal. In my feedback, I recommended that the author be very clear about the sexual content, both for readers’ sake and for his own, so he wouldn’t get attacked for not being forthcoming about the spice. His response was, “What spice?” When I explained that, even though the scenes were fade to black, parents of young readers and clean fiction readers would appreciate being aware of the discussion around sexual desire. Again, “but I thought I kept it really clean.” 

The content this author had included in his romantic subplot seemed very low-key to me and obviously to him. Yet, I’ve read books with much less shredded by reviewers on Goodreads, Amazon, and social media. This is not the way. But as a parent and mentor of younger readers (especially quite young readers with very high reading levels), I found content in his book (and many others) that some readers and guardians want to avoid (or avoid for now). As a Christian author, I think he was confident that he hadn’t written anything that would “lead people to sin,” which often comes into the conversation. It also leads us to our third, more nuanced issue. 

Good and evil, right and wrong, light and dark, morality and sin; call it what you will. We can pretend it’s all very black and white. In fact, most of us have sections of our brain where we file “black and white” topics. But the problem is your “of course, this is wrong” file contains different things from mine. And while Jesus walked this earth, preaching the Sermon on the Mount and chilling with dudes the church-goers wouldn’t touch, he flipped following the rules inside out and upside down, proving that there is much more nuance to the rules than we like to think. He taught us that it comes down to the heart. 

I want to bare just a little of my own heart to you as an example. Are you familiar with the author George MacDonald? He’s one of my favorites and wrote fantastic fairy tales and historical fiction, mostly romance and the occasional gothic tale. Many people know him as CS Lewis’s inspiration. Would you be surprised to hear that I have had more sin struggle reading George MacDonald’s work, which often reads like sermon jam spread over a piece of fictional toast, than open-door romance? 

You see, I rarely struggle with lust or any kind of dissatisfaction related to my marriage. On the other hand, I struggle with discontentment nearly every day. I grew up in a very broken home with parents who served in and with the military. Every time we moved duty stations, there would be this great feeling of having a fresh start, sometimes even promises that things would be better this time. And the crazy thing was that they would be, for a short time. So I learned to love (and I mean LOVE) the idea of moving. If I have struggles in my friendships, our church, our work, or really just have a bad day ( honestly, even on a good one), I start looking at property in another town, state, or even another country. 

And so, when I read George MacDonald’s romantic portrayal of the highlands of Scotland, for example, I grow discontent. I cease to see the blessing of living in this valley longer than I’ve lived anywhere else, and I begin to feel stuck. I no longer love and serve those around me faithfully and with humility. Instead, I do my daily work with less joy and begin to believe that I’d be happier, even a better wife, mother, teacher, author, and farmer, if my whole family picked up and moved somewhere else. Is this an unhealthy trauma response? Probably; I’m working on it. But is it also my own unique sin struggle? Yes. Are we going to start banning George MacDonald? Of course, not. 

But sexual content is different, you might say. Yes, and should be handled carefully, especially with regard to minors and young readers. For example, I was surprised to find the open-door honeymoon scene in Divine Rivals by Becca Ross. It came highly recommended by readers, Christian and non, young and old, but no one told me. Nor did the book have any kind of content advisory. Since, like many readers, characters become very real to me, it felt like I would be intruding, and I chose to skim over it. But that’s my individual view and preference. Some readers were mortified by the content, and others considered it very mild and tastefully written. All this variance means that, unless we want to draw a clean/spicy line at holding hands and put all the rest of the books in a separate room in the bookstore (which would ultimately result in the remaining books everyone can agree are clean in their own room, as they’d be the minority), there must be a better way. 

Enter communication. 

I know that I have to limit my reading of times and places that draw my heart away from my present and my current place. So, I rotate my fiction reading accordingly. This is easy to do based on the setting and premise of any given book. But if I’m trying to avoid other content, how will I know it’s there unless someone informs me? If I were a recovered addict, for instance, and prefer not to read books or watch movies that might trigger a relapse, it would be amazing to have that content specified. If I elect to avoid sexually explicit content, a brief communique stating the level of intimacy would allow me to make an informed decision, rather than stumbling on the content like something in a back alley. And more importantly, as a parent and friend to younger readers, it allows us to protect children from content they are not ready for. 

If you’d like, you can look up the statistics for early, frequent exposure to sensitive content. For the purpose of this article, we’re going to proceed on the conclusion that it’s not healthy for individuals or society. But when and what children are “ready for” will look different from family to family and child to child. This is why clear communication regarding substances, sexuality, violence, and other sensitive content is vital. Not every middle-grade novel is appropriate for every middle-grade reader. And not every adult novel is inappropriate for middle-grade readers. But how are we to know? 

I have seen this C.S. Lewis quote a lot in recent years: 

“Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can’t bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism, and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first, I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the OGPU and the atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise, you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” 

Not only do we live in a world with violence, as Lewis notes when he references Soviet Russia and nuclear warfare, but we live in one with sex, drugs, and rock and roll, both good and evil. To pretend otherwise would be to play the ostrich. The reality does not excuse the overexposure that humans, young and old, have to the darkest things in the world in this day and age. Rather, it calls for wise tempering of hearts and minds, not to be numb but to remain struck by darkness for what it is and to carry the light with us always. 

I have one last, practical thought. I began by pointing out how the internet and mobile devices have made trends and movements travel quickly. There have been countless negative examples of this, but we can make good use of it. With the right momentum, we could have a standardized content advisory system next week. We could make content communication go viral. There could even be a standard for what content needs to be communicated and the location in/on the book. We can demand this from the Big Five publishers, and we, as independent publishers and self-published authors, can lead the way. 

For example, Brian McBride included a rating similar to moves in his Mammoth series. 

If we keep hurling stones across an invisible line, we risk travelling down the path of book burners and censorship. No one on either side of this debate wants to live in the world of Farenhiet 451, however prophetic the book may feel sometimes. And even the best-intentioned control of content is a baby step to large-scale control of content. This means that everyone must relinquish control, recognize that one cannot regulate people into being good. Instead, with clear communication regarding content, we can give people better opportunities to choose to walk in the light. 

Wondering where to start? Reach out to independent publishers and authors with specific questions regarding content you suspect might be in their book. For example, ask whether the romance plot line gets physical and to what extent. Or ask if there is any drug or alcohol use, and in what light they paint it. You can add a question about whether there’s anything else a concerned parent or reader might want to be aware of. When they answer, respectfully request that they publish that information inside future books and editions. 

You can write letters and e-mails to publishing companies and smaller imprints under the umbrellas of the big five. You may find independent publishers and authors are more responsive, but there’s certainly no harm in trying. 

If a book has been on shelves for a while, Goodreads and Amazon reviews are great places to find out if any content has ruffled other readers’ feathers. Remember to be kind in your reviews, whether positive or negative. This can open doors for better communication, especially in circumstances like the author I beta-read for, where he had no idea that anything in his book would be an issue for some readers.  

And, of course, you can always find clean, epic adventures here at Descendant Publishing. Subscribe here to find out when more epic books are released.