A few days ago a friend (who will remain nameless) confided they had been given a copy of a book by a Christian author in return for a favorable blog post. Sounds like a deal, right? Only problem is that my friend didn’t find the book all that fascinating, yet felt compelled to post a review without any biting criticisms.
I read more than many of my colleagues and probably most of America. In a given year, I generally top out at around 25 books (almost one every two weeks). With the publishing conglomerates, especially the Christian genre, putting out more and more titles every year it becomes more and more difficult to sift through the insipid crap that is most new writing in search of something genuinely educational, thought-provoking, encouraging, and/or pertinent. With only 25 opportunities to strike gold each year, I need to do better than 50%.
With so many of the titles I pick up pertaining to the church, youth ministry, and the like I have become fairly familiar with many of the authors. In fact, I have become so familiar that at times I find myself reading with such great anticipation borderlining on rooting for the author because of prior works or talks. Put simply, I become a fan(atic) rather than peruser of information. Metaphorically speaking, in Christian publishing we give everyone a trophy because that’s the nice, kind and supposedly considerate thing to do. After all, as a generation that was given trophies and ribbons for participation, what more can we really expect?
Perhaps this might just be a generational thing. If so, the older staunch generations have much on us younger folk in that they are actually willing to call something crap if the believe it to be. There’s an older gentlemen I know who most would describe as quite grouchy and gruff (and I can’t really argue against such a description). He thinks everything’s crap that wasn’t produced before the advent of plastics. While he is often overkill, certainly no one could argue that his opinions are resemblent of a neutered cat like so many Christian media critics.
I can’t remember the last time that I read a review of a book or resource in Christian publication that gave a negative review of something written or produced by a Christian. When was the last time you saw a Christian pastor get hammered in a Christian publication (minus the ultra-conservative bunch) over their crappy writing and advice for other Christians? Even though there are some good critics out there, the majority are too often help captive by affiliations and partnerships with other organizations.
It is this happening that has caused me to limit my circle of influence when it comes to reading recommendations. I have a few friends who are critical readers and not just trying to impress all the bookstore hipsters with their newly embraced lifelong love for the written word. I wish the Christian magazines, websites, and periodicals had more people like my friends who don’t mind saying something “sucks” even if it is written by a Christian.
What bothers me the most about this is that it seems to be such a mainstay in Christian media where everything is great because it’s “Christian”. For example, the movie End of the Spear. Great story! Terrible movie! Yet received endless praise from Christianity Today and it’s contemporaries.
As Christians, we be more concerned with putting out good material that enriches people’s lives rather than patting fellow Christians on the back because it’s nice. Beyond the lack of objectivity, it’s polarizing. Faith has nothing to do with good and bad writing.
