Have you seen the term “faith-friendly” floating around the bookisphere recently? I’ve seen it a few times, and the more I consider it, the more I like it.
As a woman whose primary love language is words, who flourished in English and went on to become a writer, words hold a lot of meaning to me. I love to collect and savor them when I come across something particularly intriguing or unique. When words are inadequate or used ineffectively, it drives me crazy. I place a high value on choosing the right word to convey the fullest meaning, and when I find one that’s especially apt, I adopt it.
I’ve adopted faith-friendly recently, and I’d love to explain why. Now, since the English language is a wonderfully complex beast, my definition may not be the one you’d use. It doesn’t have an official meaning. If you google it, you won’t find much to help you, either. So we’ll consider this to be documentation of early use for posterity’s sake. 😆
Why use “faith-friendly” to describe books?
There are a lot of subgenres and book classifications out there for romance readers. Christian. Inspirational. Clean. Sweet. Closed door. Do we even need another term? In my opinion, not only yes, but a resounding yes!
Christian books are typically written from a Christian world view, but the term is super vague. How much faith will be included? Will it be more rigidly religious in tone or filled with grace? Will the characters be flawlessly perfect and turn to Jesus every time they have a wayward thought, or will they face struggles and need redemption, sometimes from really big sin mistakes? Will one of the MCs have a salvation moment or are they all already saved and living for the Lord? You’ll find a very broad spectrum under this massive umbrella, so clearly it’s inadequate. I’ve listened and read comments online, and the general consensus of feedback I’ve seen is those who predominantly prefer to read Christian books want to read solid, unabashedly Christian content. Many will go so far as to leave lower-starred reviews when a book isn’t “Christian” enough. Ouch. That’s not so helpful for readers and authors who tend to opt for subtlety.
So where do the books land that might be told from a believing worldview but aren’t overtly Christian? Let’s explore those other terms I mentioned.
Many of the same questions may arise when considering “inspirational” as when choosing a “Christian” book. Sometimes, inspirational is code for books from Jesus believing religious groups who don’t fully identify as Christian. Sometimes it simply means inspiring or uplifting with a generally positive tone. Sometimes it is fairly overtly Christian, and the publisher simply double dipped into both categories. Again, no clearly defined standard that can lead to confusion.
There are plenty of books out there in which the characters or romance are sweet. Many will be marked as “sweet and spicy,” just as others use “sweet and clean,” making this yet another ineffective term.
Closed-door can be a mixed bag. The expectations are loose, as some can fall on the spectrum closer to inspirational with characters who pray and even go to church while others will have lust-driven MCs who fixate on the physical but the sex happens off the page, aka fade-to-black or behind closed door. These can be off-putting to a person who wants a chemistry and banter filled romance without all the sexual undertones.
Recently, there’s been push back for using the term “clean” because it implies that sex is “dirty.” And honestly, as a Bible believing woman, I agree. God made sex to be a beautiful, enjoyable, lovely thing within the right context, and the viewpoint of sex being dirty is both antiquated and damaging. The Bible uses the term “unclean” in reference to sin, but unclean doesn’t mean dirty. He outlined steps for becoming clean again in the OT, and in Jesus we are made new. The characters in spicy books are living as lost sinners, and we believers should never hold unbelievers to our own moral standards. The lost will behave sinfully, but it’s not our job to condemn them just because we’re called to live differently. Our job is simply to love, serve, and be the hands and feet of Jesus (not the mouthpiece). So classifying books that don’t have sex scenes as “clean” is, at heart, rather judgmental. (I might be campaigning a bit here to stop using this term entirely…lol!)
Still, as believers, we ought not be immersed in the glorification of the flesh, so how do we find books sans the fixation on sex without becoming modern day Pharisees in our attitudes?
It’s a well-known, well-bemoaned fact for romance readers that the current terms are simply inadequate. Terms like “low spice” help, but even that’s subjective. We need to find a way to describe books where the focus is on character growth and true romance, in which faith may or may not be an obvious part of the story, but the characters don’t behave in ways that would make a believer bristle (except in cases where the behavior is addressed and repentance/redemption is part of their growth arc).
I propose the industry adopt “faith-friendly” as a more effective descriptor for such books. Friendly toward people of faith, though not necessarily overt in Christian themes. A faith leaning worldview, but few to no references to scripture or God himself, though believers will recognize the implied truths for what they are. Faith in action as characters live the Word without needing to quote it.
There’s a place and an audience for both overtly Christian and more subtle stories, just as some believers are called to the mission field or pastoral ministry while others are called to serve in less visible capacities. The books I write tend to fall along the Christian spectrum anywhere between overt salvation moments to barely a mention of God. I ask the Lord for guidance every time I sit to write, and I try to pay attention to his leading, but not every book comes out with a direct Christian message. I don’t want to disappoint readers who expect more or less overt content, but how can I avoid it unless I establish expectations from the onset? I can’t begin to tell you how many of my author friends have bemoaned getting dinged in their reviews for not meeting those expectations the way a reader preferred.
This is why I’m championing we adopt “faith-friendly” into our lexicon of classifiers. When it comes to reading tastes, it’s nice to be able to easily identify the kind of story we’re looking for without offending or hurting nonbelievers—or even fellow believers whose convictions might not be the same as another’s. Readers want expectations met. Authors and publishers want to meet them. For Christians who don’t only read “Christian” books, we need a way to identify and clarify so those expectations stand a chance. There needs to be an alternative to one broad umbrella that covers too much and yet too little.
So, hi! I’m Jaycee. I love Jesus and value authenticity. Books and words are my passion. I write faith-friendly forevers, swoons, & sass. Coincidentally, that’s what I like to read.
Which books have you read recently that you’d consider “faith-friendly” versus “Christian”? Do you tend to read one over the other, or do you like to mix it up?
I look forward to chatting with you in the comments!
Until next time,
I’ve started using the term “just kisses” for my own books as “clean” both makes some readers unhappy but can also be referring to non-romantic elements like language and violence (especially in fantasy, and I write fantasy romance). Closed door and Fade-to-Black in my opinion means that the characters are having sex in the book, just off-page, which mine are not. No-spice for some readers means they don’t even kiss, and Low-spice is entirely subjective. So…Just Kisses. They kiss, that’s all that happens on or off page.
That makes sense!
I only want to read CF and to be honest I don’t mind the faith element as long as its christian based and not GM. I get frustrated with the sweet/clean etc not sure if sweet/clean is the catgory or is it sweet and clean is different.
I look for Christian fiction and like it when the other was general market and then it could be labled what ever level it was. call me old fashioned but all the new lables is confusing and frustrates me especially when there are sweepstakes with CF and sweet and clean in the same and there is no way to know which is which. (I don’t want open door sex scenes but I also don’t want language.) If I couldn’t let my mum read it I don’t want to read it.
That’s reasonable. I can see where you’re coming from. Thanks for sharing!
I have read many cozy mysteries that I would consider faith friendly. I am not a fan of paranormal. I enjoy cozies with a romantic element to the story. There are authors who try to keep their books clean-James Patterson, Hank Phillippi Ryan to name a couple. I believe that it may have something to do with their age. They were not brought up with those elements being spoken. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
Thanks Debbie!
So many excellent points here, Jaycee. Thank you for this post!
Thanks, Carolyn. Clearly, there are some holes in my argument here, but I still say we need another classifier. LOL!
As a commenter above pointed out “faith friendly” can cause other problems many people might say why does that mean Christian faith? Muslims, Jews, etc. also want books that are friendly to their faith! then it would be necessary to include what faith it is friendly with.
Then there is the issue of Christian beliefs, there are people who call themselves Christians but see no problems with premarital sex, others with same-sex couples, and in that case those writers would also want to say that their books are “faith-friendly” because it is their faith and then there will be a lot of people angry in the same way that people get angry now when a book claims to be a “sweet small town” romance and has explicit sex because the author decided its sex scenes are too sweet.
On the other hand, the fact that the term “clean” can make others feel bad is something that I had never thought about from that point of view after all, for a Christian, premarital sex is dirty and it is usually a term used among Christians to find books. It’s not about sex being dirty, it’s about if it’s not between a married couple then it’s not good… although of course there are some people saying that reading sexual scenes between married characters is good.
And there are many people in romanceland who say things like “recommend me a dirty and obscene book please” or “the dirtier the better” so in short the romance genre is huge and just as authors worry about finding their niche, booktuvers or page creators to create detailed blogs in classification and the authors are open about their beliefs on their pages. Readers should also get into the habit of doing more research on what we buy, look for reviews, know who the author is, read the back cover to make sure the book or author may be what we are looking for.
Finally, it would be great if there was a page like AAR or Romance.io just for Christian books (with mentions of those that are “faith friendly” or just “healthy and sweet”) but where all the information is: faith content, denominations (there are lds christian books for example), etc. There is one about closed door romances with 3 levels of intimacy but as you pointed out some of these are fade to black and deal a lot with lust and sex even if it’s not on the page.
You make some very valid, logical arguments! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
I read your post. I think that so many subtopics for book these days. I enjoyed Christian fiction , clean ,inspirational books encouraging my heart. I am interested in faith-friendly books also. I know that people have different views on Christianity and people sometimes be quick judge.
Too true. Thanks for commenting!
It really doesn’t matter to me, its really if I like the book or not, as long as it is written in good taste and religion isn’t bashed, as everyones religious beliefs are our own, some people to take it to extreme, but that is their belief, just like I respect other peoples religion I like mine to be respected also.
Absolutely. No matter what, we must be kind to one another.
It really is hard to wade through book descriptions to find books that don’t openly portray sex or even focus too much on sexual attraction. I like the concept of “faith friendly,” but I see one potential problem with that. I am a Christian, but I do recognize that other faiths exist, so the term “faith friendly” might not refer to the Christian faith exclusively. Thank you for this thoughtful and thought-provoking post.
Excellent point!
I try to stick to only CF, and it doesn’t matter the subgenre. However, as you say, some have way more “faith” than others, and I happen to like both!! I’m not as crazy about sweet/clean, as I then want to re-write and think “oh, if they’d only had faith in God, this could have been soooo much better” and I start inserting my thoughts where the characters lack faith. For me, it totally depends on the book how much “faith” they need to show. There are some books that really need the whole salvation experience in them, and there are some where the characters just live out their lives with that faith shining through. I do like your idea of “faith-friendly” as a description. I just edited a book last weekend that had faith throughout, not preachy, just the way the characters lived their lives and talked about God came naturally.
I’ve definitely done a little rewriting in my head for the same reason, especially when I find the author attributing things to the universe or whatever. I have noticed, though, that when choosing a Christian book, audiences tend to want the faith to be more overt throughout, which can shoot those who are a bit lighter in the foot. And conversely, when books light on faith are marketed in the mainstream market, they get criticized for being too faithy. lol! Clearly, we need someplace for those books to go and be able to meet reader expectations.
I’ve read some that only had them praying at meals, nothing else about faith in there. I’ve read some where the whole salvation “presentation” is done at least once. I much prefer the ones where their faith is lived out, like in real life. However, I’d NEVER bash a book because it had too much faith or even what I term too little. Everyone is different, and just because it may be too much for me or not enough for me, I’m not going to bash the author because my perception isn’t the same as his/hers. I just learn to stay away from certain authors if I don’t agree with them (hence why I try to stay with CF and not sweet/clean), or to read them sparingly. It would be nice if there was more continuity with labels.
I completely agree. Continuity would be fantastic, but it’s so difficult to achieve!
Oh my, I kind of don’t know where to start. I think your post highlights why I don’t like labels for books or even covers often because you can’t necessarily judge a book by its cover (no pun intended) and most of the time I don’t even know where to categorise a book amongst the plethora or labels/genres/subgenres – I don’t even know what closed door romances are.
It would be lovely if there were clear labels and faith friendly sounds like a great place to start.
It is definitely difficult to categorize. Clear labels help, or even figuring out enough appropriate keywords to help readers understand ahead of time what they’re getting into.
Since I only read clean or Christian books, I haven’t really thought about it. I don’t mind reading books where scripture is quoted pertaining to a particular thing that is happening. I also don’t mind reading about people having struggles, but they lean on God for help. I have read books that do not mention God or scripture in any way, and I enjoy them because I’m not trying to dodge or read around what has been written.
I also like to read cozy mysteries, and I can’t remember any of them being faith-based.
Sounds like you read from different pools based on what you naturally gravitate toward, which makes sense! Most of us do that to a degree. The audience I’m talking to today, I suppose, are those who look specifically for certain content in their reading?