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Post by mom2boys on Mar 30, 2009 17:01:00 GMT -5
I have an idea for my story and I'm wondering if it crosses the line for Christian fiction, and therefore would be unpublishable--here's the very short version:
One of my main characters, Jonathan, is a young married believer--his wife is also a believer, and they are very much in love. He's a musician who, among other things, gives private lessons and one of his student's is a young girl (younger than 17.) During one of the lessons, things go too far and he ends up sleeping with his student. It happens only once, they both feel terrible about it, and they stop meeting for lessons. However, Satan has been looking for a way to take Jonathan down (due to a prophesy spoken over him when he was dedicated as a baby) and has someone report the "statutory rape" to the police. He ends up in prison for an extended stay, and develops a music ministry that transforms not only that prison but others as well. Years pass, he and his wife are reconciled, happily ever after, etc.
My question is: can readers forgive Jonathan of that sin or not?
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Post by torainfor on Mar 31, 2009 12:09:19 GMT -5
The story line isn't a problem. Other "Christian" novels have had worse. Where it will get sticky is when you write the scene, I think. How graphic you portray it.
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Post by morganlbusse on Mar 31, 2009 12:26:16 GMT -5
Torainfor is right... it depends on how graphic you write the scene. In my opinion, you'll have a long hill to climb to get your reader to forgive the guy along with getting his wife to forgive him too. It can happen, I've heard real life stories where adultery happened but the husband and wife were able to reconcile, but there is a lot of tears, hurt, betrayal and years of working on trust again (and if he's in prison, not sure how much trust can be built with just visits). And statutory rape might make it an even harder sell.
But if this is a story on your heart, go write it!
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Post by mom2boys on Mar 31, 2009 12:56:41 GMT -5
Thanks for your thoughts, ladies. We won't be "in the room with them", as it were--the POV is first person, from the wife's perspective and she isn't there at the time. And you're right, Morwena, it is an uphill climb for them to be reconciled--but God is amazing and we get to watch Him in action through the healing of their marriage. On this topic, is there some sort of list of topics that are totally off-limits, or can anything go depending on how we write it? Thanks for your feedback. Beth  |
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Post by morganlbusse on Mar 31, 2009 13:32:50 GMT -5
Hey mom2boys, I was thinking more on your story and here are some ideas I came up with:
Instead of the young musician and girl sleeping together, what if its the girl who comes on heavily on the guy, but he rebuffs her advances. However, he is in this situation because as a young naive man, he was not thinking about boundaries (such as not practicing alone with someone of the opposite sex) so he has no alibi to show he didn't really do it. Its kind of like a Joseph and Potipher's wife thing.
But the girl comes from an influential family and after he says no, she says they did have sex and therefore he's trapped by her lie (her family believes her instead of him and have the influence and power to put the man away).
You could show the wife not sure if she believes her husband and her working through her trust of him (and that would work great if they're newly married and do not have a firm foundation yet in their marriage).
And if I understand your prophecy right, this could still work as the man is brought down, but God uses it for good.
This way, you can get around the whole statutory rape thing and you have the reader rooting for the underdog who they know is innocent, but are wondering what's going to happen to him (will his wife finally believe him? Will he always be in prison? How's God going to turn this around?).
Just some thoughts!
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Post by veryblessedmom on Mar 31, 2009 14:19:00 GMT -5
Your character would also have to register as a child sex offender for the rest of his life. That would affect his future in ministry too.
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Post by Teskas on Mar 31, 2009 14:22:19 GMT -5
Mom2boys, to answer your original question...I think you may be asking the wrong question. Christian readers do not forgive fictional characters in the novels they read. They may or may not reject a character for the way he is presented.
I have a sense that, for the average reader, Christian or otherwise, the plot you have described has a serious yuk factor to overcome. The hero is emotionally immature and untrustworthy. He's a married man, so he's committing adultery. He's a teacher, so he's betraying a position of trust. He's an adult, so he's committing pedophilia. He's a believer, but doesn't seem to be taking his religion very seriously--his act scandalizes other believers when his sin comes to light, and allows the enemies of Christ to cast derision on His Church.
Any Christian reader would find such a "hero" off-putting. You would have to work very hard to keep the reader interested in your PC.
Having said all that, you have the premise of an interesting story. It will be down to the way you handle it. If you handle the themes tactfully and maturely, as well as develop a believable character, I do not see why your story could not be a candidate for publication.
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Post by torainfor on Mar 31, 2009 16:09:14 GMT -5
Is the statutory rape part absolutely vital to the storyline? How about making her 18? You still deal with the issues of student/teacher and adultery without the total yuk factor.
Am I right in seeing that the wife is the hero, not necessarily the husband? Anyway, I once worked a pastor who was found out frequenting unreputable massage parlors and pulling up "stuff" on his computer at church. He was confronted by the senior pastors and dismissed. His wife was pregnant with their first child, and she was devastated.
Here's the kicker: they not only stayed together, they stayed at the church. The leadership counseled them, he went to work at a para-church org in a non-spiritual authority position. Last I heard, they had two or three more kids. They named their first one Grace.
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Post by Spokane Flyboy on Mar 31, 2009 16:27:03 GMT -5
My personal take is along the lines of Teskas', that you may need to get the reader to identify and gain some attachment to the guy before he falls from grace or else you may find the reader having a hard time seeing him as anything other than a villain. Something that keeps him from being completely identified with the act and you can see that he really isn't a bad person, but made a series of careless decisions that culminated in getting over his head.
Given that private tutoring in music can be a rather intimate situation to begin with, especially for those that sometimes stand behind them and place their hands for them, it's at least a believable situation. What starts as innocently positioning her hands to the correct positions on the piano, leads to gently brushing her hands when he lets go, leads to caressing, and eventually to more brazen thoughts that are eventually carried out. Though, from the wife's point of view, that would never be seen or known.
From the sounds of it, the wife is the protagonist, and Satan the antagonist, while the husband is more of a MacGuffin for which the conflict revolves.
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Post by mom2boys on Apr 1, 2009 10:08:24 GMT -5
Thanks, everyone, for all of your input and ideas--you've given me a lot to think about. The reason I had them sleep together was so he would end up in prison (sorry Jonathan) but I can see he can still end up there even if he's innocent--plus that would make it much easier to see why Mandy would take him back in the end...
You guys are great--muchas gracias!
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Post by Spokane Flyboy on Apr 1, 2009 14:03:14 GMT -5
I would actually encourage you to play the original angle, that he did commit a sin, to create a theme of forgiveness and reconciliation. If he's in prison for something he didn't do, it'll be a theme of truth and justice, which is good but seems to be common. The former theme , I think, has more potential to become a thought-provoking story amidst a culture that sees marriages unraveling over deep wounds. I think a story of a deeply broken marriage, with a woman of exceptional faith and strength who decides to save her marriage when most would flee it, sounds encouraging.
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Post by JenLenaMom on Apr 1, 2009 14:29:50 GMT -5
You can keep both by having him found innocent but establish those prison relationship while he's on trial, they can take years to even come before a jury and unless someone bails him out he'll sit and wait.
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Post by torainfor on Apr 1, 2009 16:38:02 GMT -5
I'm with Flyboy. Depicting a reconciled marriage would be powerful.
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Post by veryblessedmom on Apr 2, 2009 23:28:36 GMT -5
What if the marriage was crumbling within? Not that it makes infidelity OK, but it makes your character's fall more understandable. Like a city that falls to an enemy because it was weak within.
Maybe the man is not making the kind of money his wife would like him to make if he left the teaching position he loves. His wife could nag and belittle him, refuse sex because he's not the man she married, etc. Then he goes to work and this pretty little thing appreciates what he does and has this hero worship crush on him. She is building up his ego while his wife tears it down. Then Satan uses the weakened defenses to bring him down and hopefully destroy another family in the process.
It could be such a mess that only God could put those pieces back together again.
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Post by torainfor on Apr 3, 2009 8:33:30 GMT -5
If you need realism and...um...specifics as to how people react, I highly recommend Shaunti Feldman's For Women Only and For Men Only.
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