“Viral pandemic takes over year 2020. Everyone is hardest hit, but especially the recreation economy!”

Now that you’ve likely spent months struggling with work, school, and all the rest of it, how goes your enjoyment of books? And how can an outreach like Lorehaven, devoted to finding the best Christian fantasy, fare In These Uncertain Times™?

https://speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/will-christians-colonize-cosmos/

https://speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/twelve-reasons-left-behind-series-actually-awesome-part-1/

We share this letter and offer advice about the balance of sheltering kids and training kids to engage their world for Christ.

My parents were very strict growing up. I couldn’t watch cartoons with magic. My Saturday mornings started with chores first. I had to work as fast as possible so I could watch those morning cartoons. That usually meant I missed the magic themed ones like He-Man or Smurfs. So I grew up watching GI Joe, Transformers and Gumby. Honestly, I’m happy with that because I hate Fantasy, but love SciFi.

Now that I’m a parent, I’m strict on what my kids watch, but it’s more about language, visuals and sexual content. I don’t want inappropriate images to be burned into their brains. I don’t want them to be flooded with bad language that they will end up attempting to use in everyday life. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have this discussion with my mother in the past? The idea that the magic from Smurfs really isn’t as bad as some of the junk they put into cartoons now.

On the idea of popular culture…

My son has had moments of almost anxiety/panic attacks. It relates to the idea of popular culture. He believes in Jesus, in salvation. Every day we have a Bible study and read the Word. Sundays we’ve been hosting a Bible study in our home, since our church is closed.

His worry is eternity. What will it be like? What about the video games he plays/the electronics he uses? What about the Marvel movies he enjoys? And then he starts thinking that he’ll lose all of that, the idea of singing and worshiping forever (and doing nothing else in heaven) and he panics.

How can I help him?

Interesting discussion. Thank you!

Some Christians think good authors must use anything, including fairy tales and sci-fi, as mere Teaching Tools for kids and other readers. Other Christians, maybe in response to that “tool” approach, embrace what they believe is unhindered creative freedom, apart from specific efforts to share truth. To support this, they say that C. S. Lewis just “saw images” and embraced them for their own sake, then the Christian element just got in there naturally. So shouldn’t Christian storytellers just do the same, and not try to promote a message? But what if they’re both wrong? What would this mean for Christian readers, and for authors?