This episode comes with a trigger warning. We are going to talk about social media, politics, culture, and what to do as a Christian author in a world that is growing more hostile to Christian authors.
If you don’t want to hear about that today, I can recommend a great podcast called Compelled, hosted by my friend Paul Hastings. Compelled takes incredible stories of what God is doing in people’s lives, combines them with professional sound effects and music, and turns them into an encouraging and faith-building audio experience.
Travel deep into the jungles of the Philippines with a Christian missionary who was kidnapped by terrorists and held hostage for a year. Hear the testimony of a mother who was falsely accused of murder and sentenced to life in prison but still clung to her faith. And more.
Every story is true, vivid, and told by the person who lived it and saw God work through it.
Listen now to Compelled wherever you find podcasts or by visiting CompelledPodcast.com. Who knows? You might just find the inspiration for your next book from one of these compelling stories.
In a Christian Publishing Show episode in 2019 about how How to Protect Your Author Platform from Big Tech Censorship, one listener reached out to me. She told me she rolled her eyes while listening to me talk in that episode about how Pinterest is targeting Christians–only to have her Pinterest account deleted the next week.
In 2020 I did a crossover episode called How to Survive Cancel Culture As a Writer before the big purge and flight from social media in December 2020 and January 2021. While some evangelicals are getting kicked off of Twitter and Facebook, many more are leaving these social-media accounts in protest.
I started a MeWe group for my other podcast, Novel Marketing; and I have seen growth in that group unlike anything I ever experienced on Facebook. If you don’t know, MeWe is a social-media site much like Facebook that people are joining. It doesn’t sell advertising, doesn’t filter what you see and don’t see, and doesn’t share your data with shady data brokers. All of which Facebook and Twitter do, by the way.
So how should we respond to this quickly changing world? As Christians, what should our relationship be to social media and the culture in general?
Is this the right thing to do? Is leaving for alternative social networks the right way to respond to a changing world?
To help us answer this question, I spoke with Scott Minor, co-owner and executive director of Realm Makers Media, a company devoted to supporting Christian creativity in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. Scott works with many science fiction and fantasy authors, who are at ground zero for many of these cultural clashes.
Should Christian authors leave mainstream social media or stay?
Thomas: There are two schools of thought. One says we should separate and stop trying to be in a place where we’re being silenced and kicked out anyway. The other says we should stay and continue to be in the world, but not of the world.
Scott: We were fortunate here. We were already looking for a way to manage our community more intentionally, so we created our own dedicated social network for Realm Makers, off-grid, so to speak.
I’m glad we did it before it became de rigueur to leave Facebook. Realm Makers, the company and the community, was built on Facebook. So we decided that when Realm Makers spends energy to build our community, we will do it in our own space.
Don’t Build Your Community on Sand
Thomas: That is exactly what I recommended. If you’re a sharecropper living and working on somebody else’s land, they are your master and you are powerless.
Everyone says, “Facebook would never silence me,” but it may have already silenced you and you don’t realize it.
I have been shadowbanned on Facebook. When we moved to a new town, my wife and I both posted a standard, benign Facebook update, saying “We’re no longer living in Austin, we’ve moved to Cedar Park.” My wife got tons of reactions. I got almost none.
Your authors are less vulnerable, at least for connecting with each other, since Realm Makers isn’t a reader-facing community. But if you’re an author building your community on Facebook, you have to realize you’re building it on sand.
You can build fast. It may be a pretty beach house, but it’s not on the rock, and it could wash away.
Be cautious of social media experts touting short-term results from building on sand. In Texas, hurricanes destroy the houses that aren’t built well. Listen to the people who’ve survived a hurricane or two.
I saw this coming because Facebook has been silencing people since 2012 or 2013.
So listen to those other episodes, do what Realm Makers did, and build your community on your own platform, something you pay for. That’s one thing I like about MeWe. Most of it is free, but MeWe makes money by selling MeWe to its users, not by selling its users to advertisers. That is a big difference.
How is the culture war affecting science fiction and fantasy?
Thomas: Facebook and Twitter are becoming for Democrats only, and other social networks are becoming for Republicans only. More and more businesses will not do business with Republicans. I think my Republican senator here in Texas can’t use his Marriott points anymore. The economy is splitting, and that’s also happening in science fiction and fantasy. What does it look like from your perspective?
Scott: Perhaps I have a unique perspective, because I spend so much time in the middle of the fantasy and science fiction genres.
Christian authors have a unique opportunity that is obliterated as soon as their work is considered Christian fiction.
When you write fiction, you write a compelling story, and the best story wins. When the story becomes about your religion, or you paint it with your religion, it seems shallow and closer to propaganda than a compelling story.
Christians who limit themselves to propaganda won’t make headway in the general culture, whether they’re trying to win an award, win somebody’s heart, or capture a reader’s imagination so that they read your next book.
Christian authors of fantasy and science fiction are on the front line. They’re the fighter pilots in the culture war. They can write a story that gets under the radar and drops a truth bomb in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
Brokeback Mountain Versus X-Men 2
Thomas: In the early 2000s, two movies came out with more or less the same message and, in some ways, similar plots: Brokeback Mountain and X-Men 2.
People knew Brokeback Mountain was a preachy movie. Those who already agreed with it watched it, but few outside that community did.
X-Men 2, on the other hand, was a popular mainstream film that made $400 million at the box office.
So you’re saying Christians are trying to make a preachy story like Brokeback Mountain when they should be making X-Men 2, which has mainstream appeal that can persuade people who don’t already agree with you?
Scott: You made my point clearly. You can communicate true things more effectively and winsomely. Whether you’re addressing racism, politics, sexuality, the sanctity of human life, or anything else, if people get caught up in the story and realize the truth because it’s told in a convincing way.
How can Christian authors reach readers when communities are fragmenting?
Thomas: Don’t be didactic in your writing, because didactic writing doesn’t work. The Christian term is “preachy,” and people don’t want to read preachy things from any side.
The question is how to get readers to even find out about our books when the forms of communication are separating.
When X-Men 2 came out, everyone watched movies at the same theaters. Now we get our movies from different streaming services. Many people boycott Netflix because they believe it hosts child pornography and they don’t want to support that. Other people are fine with it and watch Netflix. You can go down the list, and the streaming services people use align with their politics.
It’s the same with books. From my perspective as a marketer, the ways people find books and connect with each other about books are fragmenting. That’s before anyone reads the book.
These communities aren’t interacting with each other, and neither one listens to the people standing in the middle. It’s like, “You’re not one of us. Why should I listen to you?”
Our audience walks into Comic-Con past the Christians picketing Comic-Con. Christian artists in popular culture are being picketed by their own friends and family, unbeknownst to them.
How does a Christian author find their reader when they can’t find them in the Christian industry? They try the secular industry.
So where do you find those Christians, who are myriad, who don’t go to a Christian place for their entertainment? They recoil from preachy things as much as the general culture does.
Some people read Christian fiction because it’s Christian and that feels comfortable. They think, “Okay, I can read this. I’ve checked my boxes.”
That’s what they allow themselves to consume, because they’re avoiding Netflix, Target, and Disney. You can decide to avoid everything in the world you want, but you’re removing yourself from the culture. I don’t think that’s the job of a Christian.
Christians Create in a Way That Reflects God
I was in a conversation with Allen Arnold, who has worked for many years in Christian fiction. He said Christians can’t help but create in a way that reflects God, and that isn’t limiting. It’s expansive.
When Christians create from their imagination, it’s because God is a creator. He brought order to chaos, and that’s what an author does in a story.
When Christians do that, their stories can change hearts and minds without laying out the good news in biblical terms in every book.
Instead, authors are told, “Your book isn’t Christian enough. To be published by a Christian publisher, you need to shoehorn the gospel in there. Can’t you redeem this bad character? They should be saved by the end of the book.”
That becomes a story that Christians and non-Christians who enjoy fantasy and science fiction don’t appreciate.
What happens when you share your message on someone else’s platform?
Thomas: We once went to a Fourth of July parade in a rural Texas town, off the beaten track. The organizers said, “Oh, you’re Christians? We’re Christians too.”
During the dead air between music acts, one man in our group asked, “Can I share the gospel from your stage?” They said, “No problem.”
He got up and started sharing the gospel. As soon as he started talking about hell, the organizers slowly turned down the volume until he was talking into a dead mic.
He was standing on somebody else’s platform, and the owner controlled what he said. They were happy to hear the cheery parts, but not sin and consequences.
I feel like that’s what happens when we try to reach the culture through platforms the culture controls. They’re happy to hear us talk about love and friendliness, but as soon as we talk about sin or hell, the volume is gone.
I’m not saying you have to talk about hell in fantasy. But if we limit ourselves to platforms controlled by others, we end up cutting the parts of the gospel people don’t want to hear.
How can Christian authors get past the gatekeepers?
Scott: Christian authors of fantasy and science fiction have a unique opportunity to tell stories that get through the gatekeepers.
How wonderful would it be if, instead of saying, “I’m not going to that conference because it’s run by Mormons,” or “I’m not submitting to that award because it’s run by atheists,” a Christian author wrote a story with a character who expresses faith, or that reflects a Christian value, and it got in?
That happens when the author is willing to work with an editor who disagrees without picking fights. They live in the world, write fantastic stories there, and are a pleasant aroma in that community without throwing fruit at everyone.
You asked how Christians can sell their books and get out there. I would say do everything everyone else in those industries does.
Successful authors say things like, “At Emerald City Comic Con, I met so-and-so from New York Comic Con.” That’s where relationships get built.
Christian publishers say they want to publish fantasy and science fiction, but they don’t go where these readers are.
Our table runner says, “Christian Authors, Fantastic Fiction.” People look at our books and say, “These are great-looking books. But are the elves Christian? Are the dragons Christian? How is this Christian fiction? Christians don’t write science fiction. They’re science deniers.”
We say, “No, we believe there is a Creator who created the rules and laws you’re observing.”
Christians have removed themselves entirely from this part of popular culture, and it shows. It’s where our kids want to be. How dare we not be there?
Have Christians left popular culture or been pushed out?
Thomas: Is it that we’ve removed ourselves, or that we’ve been removed? You’re paying for a booth at those conventions, but you’re not on the stage.
Scott: It wasn’t always Christian publishing. Christians were in publishing. Baker Book House has been around since the 1800s.
But at some point it became a Christian economy designed to make money, and it does. It made so much money that it became its own little world. When it stopped making as much money, it started getting sold off to secular companies.
So much of Christian publishing now has a landlord. They were bought. I don’t know to what degree that affects what they publish. That remains to be seen.
The Rise and Fall of the Christian Bookstore
Thomas: Maybe the difference is in our understanding of history. My understanding is that Christian books were less and less welcome in regular bookstores.
There was a boom in Christian bookstores in the ’80s and ’90s, and big hits drove people into those stores. Then stores like Walmart, which weren’t typically seen as bookstores but had book sections, started stocking The Purpose Driven Life and Left Behind. People could get the big hits outside the Christian bookstore.
Later, Amazon did the same. Fewer people visited Christian bookstores, so fewer discovered smaller authors.
Christians didn’t leave because they wanted their own bookstores. They weren’t in, or weren’t allowed into, the bigger bookstores. They still wanted to reach the big community of readers who can’t find Christian books at a secular independent bookstore.
I once went with a group of authors to BookPeople, a big, famous independent bookstore in Austin, Texas. It’s a three-story bookstore, and the entire Christian section was half of one shelf.
It’s a progressive bookstore, and their defense was, “Our customers aren’t looking for that kind of book.” They had Francine Rivers and C.S. Lewis, but none of the down-ballot authors, so to speak.
I don’t think anything, even more Christians shopping there, would get them to stock more, because they’re ideologically oriented against Christian authors. If you’re trying to make a living as an author, you won’t do it by begging BookPeople to stock your Christian book.
Scott: I think you’re right in everything you said. I’m speaking more about publishing professionals.
I’m less in tune with the history. I’m the husband of a fantasy author who came into this as Realm Makers grew, and I stopped and thought, “Wait a minute. What happened? What keeps these Christian authors from getting published in the Christian publishing industry? Why can’t they find their readers?”
Why do so many Christian authors go indie?
Thomas: I think you’ve answered your question about where Christian publishing companies came from. If you’re stuck in a ghetto inside a big organization that doesn’t value what you’re doing and won’t give you the resources to make something that works, the only reasonable outcome is to leave so you can create what you want to create.
Scott: That’s why so many Christian fantasy and sci-fi authors involved in Realm Makers are independently published. There are a ton of indie authors, and it’s out of necessity.
Thomas: I don’t think that’s a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with going indie. People love the prestige of a traditional house, but prestige is what you get. You can often make more money as an indie, and you can reach more people, especially if you know how to reach your audience.
How do you build an audience? One reader at a time, on a platform you control. You don’t do it on social media. You do it through something direct that you pay for.
You have to be faithful in little things, and you need money to play. Otherwise you give somebody else control. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
You find one reader who loves your writing, and then you do it again, and again. You know your first 100 or 200 readers by name. You write what they like, and they like it so much they buy copies for their friends.
Not so much that they tell you they like it. So much that they say, “I loved your book so much I bought copies for four people for Christmas.”
Should Christian publishers stop calling themselves Christian?
Scott: My desire is to see Christian creative companies where the people are Christian and excellent, but they decide, “We’re not going to be a Christian publisher. We’re just going to be a publisher. We’re going to be a moviemaker. We’re going to be in the industry.”
They would create fantastic stories for the general public, not Christian stories for Christian people sold in a Christian place, which removes our influence from public discourse.
If I gain any influence at all, I would use it to encourage Christian creators, publishers, and filmmakers to be Christian but to create with the general public as their audience. By doing that, you will find more Christians. They’re there.
When we focus only on the Christian market, we’re stiff-arming most people who are Christian. That number keeps going down, because many don’t feel they ascribe to the same definition of Christianity.
Words are losing their meaning. It’s like, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
I was once asked, “Are you an evangelical Christian?” I immediately thought, “What do you mean by that? That a Christian shouldn’t evangelize? Or is there some special kind of ‘evangelical’ Christian?”
To the degree we’re defining what a Christian is in a way that Christians don’t even want to wear the label, I think that’s much of what we’re seeing.
Does Christianity need to be more attractive?
Thomas: So you’re saying we’ve made Christianity unattractive, and that’s why it’s becoming less popular?
Scott: I’m not saying Christians need to make Christianity more attractive. It needs to be real. It needs to be personal. That doesn’t happen by throwing words out onto social media in abusive ways.
Thomas: But Christianity comes with a moral code, and that moral code is not popular. You can’t ignore the unattractive bits and only talk about the attractive ones. You can create your own religion, but if you adopt a pre-existing religion, you get the whole thing, or it’s not that religion.
Scott: Absolutely. But you don’t stand at the door of the church and throw rocks at people when they answer a question wrong instead of letting them in.
What does throwing rocks on social media look like?
Thomas: Let’s get specific. Are you talking about politics? What kind of labels?
Scott: Whether it’s talking about politics or labeling people and yelling at them. “You’re on Parler, therefore you’re a Nazi.” Or, “You didn’t cancel Netflix, therefore you watch child porn.”
It’s taking something true about somebody, drawing a ridiculous conclusion, and then saying, “Now I don’t need to treat you with respect or human dignity.”
That’s much easier on a keyboard than face to face. It’s a firefight, and you can’t win hearts in a firefight.
Thomas: But most authors I observe on social media aren’t in firefights. They’re talking about their books, and their books aren’t about sensational subjects. They’re not calling people names.
Name-calling comes from a small, noisy group on every side of every issue. Most people are not trolls, but every group has its trolls.
I work with many Christian authors who aren’t political, sensational, or moralistic in public. Yet their books still aren’t popular with secular audiences.
That’s not because they’re wagging their fingers and calling their audience dirty rotten sinners. The audience doesn’t care for books with religious content. Look at their one-star reviews. The book was mostly fantasy or mostly romance with just a little Christian content, and that content is what gets the negative reviews.
Scott: I’m not saying individual authors are doing any of that. It’s the general flavor of political discourse, associating Christianity with conservatism or capitalism or whatever conclusions people draw.
People are looking for any reason. “You go to that church, therefore this is what you believe.” “You’re on Parler, therefore this is what you believe.” They find one true thing about a person and use it to cancel them, or to say, “You are no longer human and deserving of my respect. I’m going to dox you.” It’s happening on both sides.
Should Christian authors hide their faith to reach a secular audience?
Thomas: Accommodating those bullies doesn’t work. Hiding the fact that you’re a Christian doesn’t work. The only path forward for Christians is to be unashamed of the gospel and unashamed of Jesus, because you’re exactly right. They will find any excuse to use against you.
My small group is studying 1 Peter, and Peter talks about persecution and how to handle suffering. His advice in 1 Peter 3 is to live with a clean conscience so that the people who accuse you will be ashamed.
That’s arguably a higher standard than Paul’s “above reproach.” It means living by your Spirit-guided conscience, even in your secret life.
It has nothing to do with accommodating the other side or hiding. You must be a righteous person with a clean conscience. That won’t stop the attacks or the suffering.
Peter says “it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” That makes sense. But it doesn’t mean you won’t suffer or be persecuted. From a practical perspective, trying to be accepted by the secular world by hiding our Christianity won’t work.
Living in the Middle Ground
Scott: I agree. I don’t think Christians should hide their Christianity and resort to subterfuge.
When you’re among people who aren’t Christian, you are simply present and love them for who they are. You don’t have to treat every situation as an opportunity to tell people they’re wrong and you’re right.
There’s a time for everything. In community, you care for the people around you.
That goes beyond publishing. It’s about being a Christian without ammunition in your pockets. Living in that middle area is dangerous, because everybody’s throwing rocks, and when you’re in the middle, you get hit from both sides.
That’s where I see Christian authors of fantasy and science fiction living.
Connect with Scott Minor
If you’re a fan or an author of fantasy or science fiction, you will love the Realm Makers community. Unlike the old Facebook group, the new dedicated community has an entry point for readers. Go to realmmakers.com, click Community, then Enter the Realm Sphere to join the free area and connect with authors.
This guest talked out of both sides of his mouth, saying “hide” and “don’t hide.” He didn’t say anything helpful, nor did he keep on topic, which was social media. I usually find your podcasts very helpful, but not this one.
Hello May. Thank you for your comment. There is plenty of room for a difference in opinion with regard to what the purpose of a Christian artist is when creating art, or a novel, or a movie. I recognize that this podcast is called the “Christian Publishing Show” for a reason but the answer to that question is integral to the topic of how a Christian might respond at this time when social media is fragmenting along social, political, or religious lines. I am suggesting that the act of creating something which doesn’t endeavor to share the good news of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean the creator is hiding their faith. They simply chose to create a thing that they felt inspired to make which didn’t happen to qualify as evangelism. I am passionate about the idea that there is tremendous value in Christians creating excellent content in media even if it doesn’t directly quote the Bible or speak about Jesus. The Christian worldview still shines through.
There are certainly some things that Christians should not compromise. But can a Christian make a positive impact on a team of writers writing a new TV sitcom, a late night talk show, or action hero screenplay if it isn’t for the purpose of evangelism?
I think so.
Hi Thomas, big fan here. I’ve been waiting for you to wade back into these waters! Thank you for the courage you show in doing so. Today I resonated with everything your guest had to say and in some ways felt that you and he kept talking past each other. As someone who writes middle grade fantasy and also works in the public school system, I see the Great Commission lived out daily in my reading audience and in my school, despite the fact that on social media the public school system is derided daily as evil. How can we reach the mission field, which God has so conveniently placed in my neighborhood school, if we abandon it to the non-Christians? Here, in my library, I can respond to the Vietnamese Christian girl who is in tears because her Muslim friend doesn’t know Jesus and is looking for a book about Jesus to read with her. I can stand up to the bully who relentlessly teases a Muslim student that she must be bald under her headscarf. I can watch my novel with Christian themes go in the backpacks of Muslim and Buddhist and other non-Christian students on a weekly basis (pre-pandemic!). If we continue and expand the trend to “silo” ourselves, we limit our opportunities to speak, through our books and our social media platforms, to people who are different than us.
To be frank, I’m more concerned about other Christians throwing the rocks your guest spoke of than I am of non-Christians. The harshest criticism I’ve ever received for my novel didn’t come from a Muslim parent outraged that their child brought home a Christian book. It was from a Christian grandmother at a holiday bazaar who heard that my characters simply meet and treat Muslim characters with respect. It’s becoming more and more difficult to live out Christ’s Great Commission in our siloed world, and I pray for the church daily.
Thank you, Sonja, for your comment. Some of what you observed may have been Thomas pulling me back on topic. 🙂 I appreciated how seamlessly he was able to do that. But there is a disconnect between the Christian Publishing industry in general and Christian authors of speculative fiction and you may have sensed that as well. That is the entire reason Realm Makers was created, to help Christian authors navigate that disconnect and expand their publishing opportunities to include the general market. Christian authors of speculative fiction have a unique opportunity to tell what could very well be a distinctly Christian story with out the stained glass trappings which may spark negative reactions in people who don’t wish to read a story about Christianity.
Thank you for the work you are doing in your public school!
Scott, akin to the French military leaders in 1939, seems prepared to fight the last war while misreading the current conflict. Like CS Lewis, he advocates for more publishers who are Christians rather than Christian publishers. This might have worked in a society that embraced its Judeo-Christian roots, while not being individually Christian. But today’s society is shifting more to the Roman Empire’s stance that many of today’s woes are because of the church and America’s Christian founders.
Godless humanists, Communists, and socialists are less inclined to allow a Christian his or her platform, no matter how good the story is and moving towards the middle while they push left is not the answer. Publishers who chose today to stand in the middle of a dividing society find they can offer neither the big punch, sordid novel non-Christians want, nor the staunchly Christian affirming materials the older, Christian blue-haired Baptists and Lutherans demand. Commercially most are not successful.
Jesus Christ confronted his society in a new and fresh way; stating clearly God’s law and their transgression, while offering the course of redemption through repentance. As his society attempted to “turn down his microphone” he maintained an independent stance, sought out new audiences, and refused to change his message to suit opponents. He cared more about conveying the truth and pleasing his Father than whether he appeared attractive to others in what he was saying or how he was saying it. (More than once his disciples had to ask him if he realized he was being offensive.)
Scott joins many other contemporary Christian leaders today in placing more of the blame for today’s divide on Christians than on the fact the world that has rejected Christ and His church. Complaints are: We haven’t been loving enough…, some Christians might’ve been offensive so we all deserve societies condemnation…, times in the overall community should not be for pointing out their sin but for loving and accepting them…, etc. This is the same liberal Christian thought that has contributed to this mess for the last 30 years. Assume they are basically good and placate them. It’s based around the concept that people would joyously skip to Christ if we could only set the right example to draw them.
Lost is Paul’s warning that no one seeks the Lord, no not one. Or Christ’s admonition that those who come to the Father must first be drawn by Him, or that the world has hated him and will hate us too, unless we shed Christ’s image to the point the world isn’t bothered by us.
I honestly don’t see how anything Scott offered will help the independent Christian author market better or sell more books – lest it be for the author to blame himself and back off of his/her own Christianity to suit the world. I, as a Christian fantasy writer, am not willing to do that. I had hoped for more insight on how to link to Christian fantasy fans, not a lecture on how I have failed the world as a Christian.
I hear you Roulf. It’s important to note that a lot of what you took from the discussion is not what I said. While I don’t know you I can say with a high degree of assurance that you have certainly not failed the world as a Christian. I’ll have to listen to my words again to determine what I said that could be construed in such a way.
I wonder why it has become such a common notion that Christian authors must write Christian things or else they are accused of backing off their Christianity to suit the world. In truth, they are simply expressing the story they were inspired to write. I am not making any statement that Christians shouldn’t be writing Christian stories or that Christian publishers should stop doing so. I am simply saying there is value in Christians being in the world creating stories without the limitations put on them by other Christians that they shouldn’t be doing so. Christians can write outside of the Christian market as well and I seek to encourage them to do so!
For my part, taking books by Christian authors and Christian publishers to fantasy and science fiction cons, book festivals, and homeschool conventions around the country demonstrates that I am willing to step into the world armed with stories that reflect the grace, love, and story of Jesus, not stones. Stories can accomplish what stones never could. Jesus confronted society in many ways but I recall that he refused to condemn one who was about to be stoned. He lead by going out into world, sitting in the homes of sinners, and engaging them in relationship. We can do the same without acting like we are fighting in a war.
By the way, congratulations on the publication of your first Dragon Mist Chronicle. It appears we could be on the same team. Consider entering your book for a Realm Award when submissions open again Jan 1st, 2022. I wish you great success with your series.
Thomas, I loved this podcast and how you pushed Scott on these issues. Scott seems like a nice, well-meaning guy, but I have concerns about his (as well as many other Christian writers) view on what it means to be “in the world.”
I was a part of the Realm Makers FB group and I made a post with a link to an article about Amazon targeting books that criticize transgender ideology (I believe this happened 2-3 months ago).
I expressed my worry that Christian values are being targeted. One of the admins of this fb group (an admin. Someone in charge. Not just a group member) made a comment on my post stating that transgenderism doesn’t contradict Christian values.
I quoted Matthew19:4 “He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female'” and I then said in my comment, “You cannot preach the gospel of Christ and support transgender ideology.” That’s a paraphrase, but I can’t directly quote it because they removed my comment.
They said I violated the rules. I expressed my concerns once again, saying that in a supposedly Christian facebook group, Christian values are being censored, proving my initial point. But they chose to keep the comment removed. To their credit, one admin did remove his response to my comment after they’d removed my comment when I brought that up, but they didn’t unblock the original comment.
I am no longer a part of Realm Makers because of this. I unfortunately had already paid over $80 for their online community, and I didn’t find an option for a refund. I’m sure they would’ve given me one if I’d emailed someone, but I didn’t want to go out of my way to ask for one because I didn’t want to keep stirring the pot or seem like I’m just trying to cause trouble. So, technically I still have an account there, but I’m not an active member in that community any longer, and I left the FB group.
Thomas, I SUPER appreciated your challenges to Scott in this podcast. I think we need to start challenging other believers who may mean well, but are slipping on the truth. And I do think that Scott means well, but once we start compromising scripture to make the culture happy, things get dangerous.
Thank you for bringing this conversation up, Daniel. It’s a great case in point and illustrates how much of the discussion may have seemed off topic but in fact perfectly related to the discussion.
I must address your misrepresentation of what happened in the interaction you described. I’ll stop short of posting screen shots but you demonstrated an inability to have a civil conversation without calling into question the other persons faith, who by the way was not an admin but another author in our community. The reason your comment was deleted by an admin was due to your lack of civility and for no other reason.
You perfectly demonstrate here my reference to Christians “throwing rocks” at each other. And you didn’t pass up the opportunity to do it again here. It really serves no purpose except to tear another person down.
I really do wish you the best.