Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Christian Literary Renaissance Will Have to Wait

The comment thread under this post by Russell Moore is frustrating. Some comments are good. Many are not. Many of those commenting identify themselves as writers of the sort of fiction Moore is questioning. Then they proceed to argue against things he doesn't say. One Christian romance author goes off on Moore for saying fiction takes our eyes off Christ. The only problem with that is that Moore never said that.

These commenters may be writers but they're not very good readers.

5 comments:

Todd Pruitt said...

So I went through and read the comment thread. Wow. I'm searching for the right words. Wow.

You are absolutely right. One would think that the only thing they read in Moore's post is the title. Some of these folks are just plain fired up! It makes me wonder - why all the defensiveness?

Shauna said...

One commenter (Pamela Nees) did say that, though, and I think that's who the other commenter was referring to.

Jared said...

Shauna, yes, but Jenny B. Jones clearly is responding to Dr. Moore, as if he said it. I think she likely just skimmed the post, if she read it at all, and saw that in the comments and assumed it was actually something he said. The "fiction takes our eyes off Christ" thing isn't the only thing she chastizes Moore for saying that he doesn't say.

rdsmith3 said...

I could not get through all those comments, but another type that I found disturbing are the ones similar to this:
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Perhaps if the men didn’t turn to porn, the women wouldn’t turn to romance novels to fill the gap in their love lives left by their spouses who have stopped paying attention to them.
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Yes, I have often found that pointing the finger at the sins of others is a good way grow spiritually and the best path for digging out the roots of my own sin.

Jared said...

Yep.

Not to mention that you can turn anywhere in the Christian blogosphere and find material against porn and exhorting men to quit. Moore's angle, not so much.

And under those posts, you never see men saying "Well, if my wife would just put out more, I wouldn't need it."

There is plenty of room for sanctification on both sides of the marriage bed. :-)