Rated R for Redemption: Deep Truths, Thoughtful Portrayals

Many Christian narratives shy away from the complexities of real life, resulting in stories that feel disingenuous or trivial. This avoidance not only limits the impact of these stories but also leaves important human experiences unexplored.

In this episode, we’ll focus on two essential rules for tackling hard topics in Christian writing. Join us as we empower Christian writers to craft narratives that confront hard truths while honoring their audience, leading to deeper, more impactful storytelling.


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Transcript

[00:00:00] Zena Dell Lowe: And as writers, we would never want to cause our audience or our reader to lust, for example, simply by reading our book or watching our film. But nor can we leave out certain things if doing so would violate our commitment to tell the truth. So that just means we have to go back to the well of creativity 

[00:00:22] Hello and welcome to the Storytellers Mission with Zena Del Lowe, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story.

[00:00:33] And when it comes to stories, most Christians tend to think that the goal is to be non offensive, especially when it comes to things like sex and language and violence.

[00:00:43] But the problem with this standard is that it only describes a void. It doesn't give us any creative guidance. It also limits. That's the types of stories that we're even allowed to explore. So right out of the starting gate, the possibility of telling a story that contains content specifically geared for adults is forbidden.

[00:01:06] Stories therefore, such as the Shawshank Redemption or Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan or Magnolia, some of these great stories that have been told, They embody spiritual messages and adhere to strict Judeo Christian biblical moral worldview tenets and yet, they would never be told by Christians because this limiting criteria absolutely forbids those types of stories to be explored.

[00:01:36] instead of dealing with the types of raw issues that we humans tend to wrestle with on an almost daily basis and dealing with the real questions about God that that brings up in our spirit and the real pain that we're experiencing because of all of these things.

[00:01:52] All that's left to us is typically the fluff. No wonder we've turned out so much embarrassing content. Things like Fireproof, or God's Not Dead. These are not good movies. Those types of stories or films are truly horrifying examples of subpar Christian art.

[00:02:15] And while some might argue that, hey, Fireproof, for example, explores a deep issue of man's struggle with pornography, It does so in a very contrived, banal, and unrealistic way. This kind of story just can't be the goal for us as Christians. It just can't. It was trite, predictable. It had saccharine dialogue, underdeveloped characters, pedestrian acting.

[00:02:43] It was preaching in its content. It was a predictable story that never really got past the surface level. It certainly didn't deal with the real stuff. stuff underneath all that, and in fact, portrays a false worldview that tells people that might be dealing with that very real issue a superficial solution that probably won't work for them and therefore is causing damage.

[00:03:06] It is just not what we should be doing. It is not what we should be doing. So it can't be the goal for us as Christians.It wasn't a good movie. Even though it lacked sex and it lacked language and it lacked violence, it wasn't a good movie because that's not the stuff that makes a movie good. A movie or a story is great because of what it offers, not because of what it lacks. Entertainment is a positive. Not a void. And it is good insofar as it truly represents the world as God actually created it and human beings as we really are.

[00:03:47] When we explore the true things about how all of this works together. Mmm. Now we're getting to the meat and we're not just drinking milk. So it's time for Christian Storytellers. to take some radical action. We need to discard these limiting parameters that we've adopted and adopt new criteria that would actually give us the freedom to explore the real things that need to be explored in order for us to make a difference and to reach our goals.

[00:04:18] Mankind, our culture on a much deeper level. We want to compete for the hearts and the minds of the people. But we're never going to do that if we keep turning out these trite, banal stories. We need stories that go beyond the lightweight. We need stories that go beyond family friendly. 

[00:04:36] We need stories that go beyond the non offensive variety if we want to have any hope of challenging and dominating narratives in the marketplace of ideas. But this means we have to broaden our horizons. We have to think beyond the stifling restrictions.

[00:04:56] So if a Christian story is not a story that lacks sex, language, and violence, then it begs the question, what ingredients should we be looking for to identify any so called project or story? Christian, which again, I have problem with that terminology, but I'm not going to get rid of that. I'm not going to die on that hill just yet.

[00:05:18] I'm going to say, okay, it's a Christian project or story. If It contains a certain number of criteria, So I have come up with guidelines that I believe we need to be looking for as we select what stories to publish. If we're in Christian publishing or what movies to make, if we're Christian producersor what stories to write.

[00:05:43] if we are Christian writers. All right, 

[00:05:45] So number one, a commitment to truth telling. Now, I've said this before, this is our number one criteria. This is the foundational thing that we must stand on. This is it. Now, I've said the saying before by Barbara Nicolosi, who said, I would rather see an R rated truth than a G rated lie.

[00:06:06] But what I want to talk about is Flannery O'Connor, who said, the truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. Isn't that true? The truth doesn't change. According to our ability to handle it or to stomach it, the problem with showing sex and language and violence in stories is not that we show too much, it's usually that we show too little.

[00:06:31] We need to show the full consequences of the sin or the choices of the character's actions. We also need to be honest about our humanity, our sin nature, our depravity. How can we show redemption if we don't show depravity? Right? What is there to be redeemed from if there's no darkness that the character is wrestling with?

[00:06:53] So we ought not fail to show the true depths of human depravity. But we also have to balance that out with the fact that they're indignity too. But nevertheless, sanitized stories avail nothing. 

[00:07:06] What if God had left out from the Bible the story of King David's sin with Bathsheba? King David, a man described by God as a man after his own heart, and yet because of his sin with Bathsheba, it subsequently led to him murdering, planning, premeditative murder of Uriah the Hittite.

[00:07:27] Wow, pretty bad, right? Pretty bad. This story contains sex, Language, violence, conspiracy, betrayal, I mean, some really dark stuff, and yet God did not shy away from having it included for us to learn from. It was included in the narrative. There were things he wanted us to learn from it. And notice that God tells the whole truth.

[00:07:48] He doesn't sanitize it. He doesn't stop short of telling us that David premeditatively decided to kill the Uriah the Hittite to cover his own sin. He lets us know that, even though it's King David, that everybody else maybe wants to honor, right? God tells us the truth about the man. And yet, God also describes David as a man after his own heart.

[00:08:12] So notice that we learn more from David's sin, and we learn more about God. We learn more about our own humanity. We, we learn more about everything from David's sin than we ever could have learned from David's righteousness. And yet, if we took out the context of the Bible and somebody presented a story like this in the real world, Christians would never, ever touch it.

[00:08:36] Because it naturally would be forbidden and shunned on the basis of the inclusion of sex and language and violence. This would be a Rated R story. And we tend to want to avoid those. So, a vast majority of the stories in the Bible would be Rated R. When you tell the truth, most of the time, it would be rated R.

[00:08:58] Thankfully, God used different criteria when selecting which stories to include or exclude. The first rule of thumb, however, was that It comes back to this principle, always, always tell the whole truth, not a sanitized version of it. We cannot be guilty of that. We must tell the whole truth about the human condition if we want our stories to resonate with others and impact culture, because guess what?

[00:09:21] We know when it's not true. We know when it's false. We don't believe it. It's an issue of credibility. It undermines the believability of a story. When you're trying to present something as true, when we know in our knowers, as a human being, that would never work, that would never work, we would never do that, or we would never feel that way, or whatever the case may be.

[00:09:43] So, we have to start with the truth. That is the foundational issue of all our stories. It is principle number one. It isn't about whether or not we show the bad stuff. We must show the bad stuff. The question then becomes how to show the bad stuff in such a way that it doesn't violate or harm our reader or our audience, which leads me to number two.

[00:10:10] Now I've kind of talked about this before. I've said we need to have a commitment to not harm the audience, but here I want to talk about We need to execute our stories in a way that doesn't harm our reader or our audience.

[00:10:22] I believe we must be more creative because we are morally obligated to protect our audience from and therefore we must find ways to tell the truth. that don't violate our viewers. but also, not only do we have to be more creative, but we also have to be more in tuned theologically and psychologically with the truth. Because we can inadvertently violate a biblical moral worldview if we're not really careful with what we're actually conveying.

[00:10:53] At the very least, this means we should never include gratuitous sex and language or violence. But nor should we show any of these things in a way that diminishes our dignity as human persons. Or glorifies our depravity. so for example, I had a student recently who turned in a scene about a dystopian world where these two brothers have to go out on patrol because there aren't enough, uh, policemen to try to maintain the order 

[00:11:23] And lo and behold, they come across this group, this gang 

[00:11:27] They're holding him up and they're taking his things. So these brothers are like strolling up upon this crime and they're like, Oh, we have to stop this. And they come up and they say, Hey guys, what's going on? Very casually, no big deal. And then. something minor happens and they end up killing all of the bad guys, the gangbangers, and giving the kid back his stuff, and that's the end of the scene.

[00:11:48] And I said to my student, This doesn't work. This violates a biblical moral worldview. 

[00:11:55] So here's the truth in a Christian worldview.

[00:11:58] One of the problems with this particular scene is that these brothers killed the people that were doing the robbing. But that's not justice. Justice only wants what justices do. All those guys were doing was stealing the kid's shoes in his backpack. Now that's bad. That's a crime. And yeah, justice should be done.

[00:12:17] But killing those guys isn't justice. See, it exceeds justice.

[00:12:24] This is why, by the way, the Bible talks about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It's trying to limit our excess. We cannot take a person's life just because they took a piece of bread. It isn't fair. Justice wants what justice is due. These guys surpassed that. Now, it doesn't mean that the characters can't surpass that.

[00:12:46] What it means is, that the writer has to have an awareness that it has surpassed it and they have to show that to the audience so that the audience understands these guys went too far but if there isn't that understanding now we're conveying something false because now we're somehow conveying the idea That that was justice, and it isn't.

[00:13:09] So it's a false and twisted moral worldview. The morality is off. and by the way, these are supposed to be the heroes, which means they should be aware that justice is off.

[00:13:22] There's still a way for them to have killed everybody, but you have to do it in a different way. So what if they come across the scene, Hey guys, what's going on? They're casual, all those things, And then and the gangbangers, What do you want? Get out of here! Well, you know, we can't do that. Why don't you give the kid back his stuff and let him go?

[00:13:41] Everything's cool You just need you to give the stuff back. So now they've presented an opportunity The gangbangers have a choice of returning the guys stuff and there's probably this elevated tension, right?

[00:13:52] Because these guys don't want to shoot these guys good guys don't want to kill people They're not out there to do that, but they want to protect the little guys 

[00:14:00] Now maybe, you know, these guys are strapped for bear, right? So that means they know they look pretty tough. And uh, maybe some of the gangbangers are like, come on, Leonard, let's just go. Let's, let's get out of here. But maybe it's Leonard's pride that flares up.

[00:14:17] I'm not letting these two tell me what to do. This is my territory. You guys get out of here and you'll keep your lives. Oh man, Leonard, I'm afraid we can't do that, but. You know, I'd really recommend you get going and they put their hand on their guns and they're ready to, you know, at least, you know, they're, they're heightening it.

[00:14:34] They're taking the, they're taking it up, but they're still not really like, they're not doing this because they enjoy it. Right? 

[00:14:41] So now Leonard again has a choice. And let's say Leonard starts reaching for his gun and now the guys, the good guys, the heroes are like, Hey, Leonard, come on, man. You don't want to do that. Don't do it.

[00:14:55] Don't do it, man. We'll have to put you down. Come on, you can live to see another day. You just got to get out of here, buddy. Now they're heightening it because they don't want to do it. They don't want to do it. They're giving him every chance in the world to walk away. And Leonard's hesitating. And maybe one of Leonard's guys, his own crew is like, come on, man.

[00:15:14] Let's just get out of here. And Leonard finally says, I'm not, no, these guys are mine. And now he takes out a gun and he points it at the good guys. And of course, now the good guys have to shoot him. They don't want to, but they have to. And then the rest of the crew, then they get out their guns. And so the next thing, you know, the brothers have to take them all down.

[00:15:32] And the next thing, you know, they're surrounded by six dead bodies. Well, now they have to respond appropriately to that. They just took six lives. They walked in on a robbery, but now they've taken six lives. They know it's unjust. They know it's unfair. They didn't want to do it. And what's the appropriate response?

[00:15:52] Well, guess what? Probably the appropriate response is something like, God damn it. No shit or something. I don't know. It's probably an expletive because that is appropriate. Anything less than some sort of huge outburst in the face of that heinous outcome is a lie. We should see them react in a violent way to what's just happened.

[00:16:23] It's not what they wanted. Oh God. Oh God. Oh my God. Oh my God. This is terrible. Look at what's happened here. How did this happen? This isn't what we wanted, right? They are panicking. It's horrible for them because good guys don't take joy in taking lives. They only do it because it matters. So now they have to pick up this kid and say, come on, kid, get out of here.

[00:16:43] Get out of here. And now they have to live with the burden of the justice that they made happen. That is a cost. Even though they were trying to do the right thing, they've just taken lives and there is a cost. A Christian novelist or writer sees what is actually there, which means it is bigger. it can't just be casually dealt with.

[00:17:04] It can't just be lighthearted that they just killed some people. You have to feel the full weight of it. Now, maybe even later in this story, you're going to show an evolution of the progression of this kind of weight on someone's soul, right? So you get to a point in the story where the character or one of the characters, doesn't feel anything anymore.

[00:17:27] He's kind of become a psychopath. He can just kill without any repercussions. But see, the point is, you as the writer have now shown us a world that's not how it should be. So when that character gets to that point, we know it's because of the cost. Of whatever this is, it's too dark for him, it's too heavy for him to carry.

[00:17:46] And what he's done is he's had to kill pieces of himself along the way until he finally, he's less than human now. So now justice has been perverted anyway because this guy doesn't even feel anything at all. And we feel that. We feel that in the story. So you can still have the same type of actions, but the key is you've communicated it in a way that it still exemplifies justice.

[00:18:10] a moral worldview. We have to understand as an audience that that was not justice. And if we do anything less than that, we're in trouble. But that also means that we have to have the characters responding and acting appropriately. The language, the violence, whatever is happening there should match whatever is wrong in that world.

[00:18:33] Because that's what we're trying to show. We're trying to highlight what's wrong. That's the whole point of living in a fallen world, is that we have to understand this isn't the way it ought to be. So we have to truly represent that to our reader, to our audience, to our viewers. 

[00:18:52] See, a lot of times in our freedom, then once I say this, Hey, you know, it's a prison scene.

[00:18:56] And so then I'll see a Christian writer come along who has them cussing up a storm, all these things, cuss, cuss, cuss, cuss, cuss. But now they're being gratuitous. It should only happen when it's absolutely essential for the thing that's being represented. And then you can't leave it out

[00:19:12] because if you leave it out, you're lying and truth is our goal. So we should never be gratuitous, nor should we show any of these things in a way that diminishes our dignity as humans. 

[00:19:24] We should also never glorify the depravity. So this is where you might have two characters that are supposed to be heroic, but then they do something that isn't good, but we actually think it's great that they did it. They betray somebody because that person's a bad guy, but they gave their word that they wouldn't.

[00:19:43] Or something like that, or they gave their word that that person would have safe passage, but then they don't give it. Now, there are exceptions to this, uh, depending on the crimes that are being committed, right? Like if you have a child molester who is in interrogation, and the police says, if you tell us where you've stashed him, because there's a limited time frame before that person dies, the child dies.

[00:20:09] If you tell him where he is. I'll give you five more minutes with him where you can do whatever you want. Now that's a manipulation that is warranted because a child's life is at stake. So the stakes have to be worth the deception or the lie. I mean, certainly you would never actually do that. Like it would be terrible for the hero to then, Oh, well I gave him my word that he could do whatever he wanted for five minutes.

[00:20:33] You know, that would be just disgusting. So these are the types of things we have to understand, right? When is it appropriate? These are the types of things you're trying to think through. This is why you have to be into theology, and you have to understand psychology and humanity. We have to think. We have to think.

[00:20:52] And as writers, we would never want to cause our audience or our reader to lust, for example, simply by reading our book or watching our film. But nor can we leave out certain things if doing so would violate our commitment to tell the truth. So that just means we have to go back to the well of creativity.

[00:21:15] Right? It just means we have to be more creative and we have to think, think, think through how to best illustrate it, when to best illustrate it, what makes the most sense because what is the most truthful way to hand that to the audience without violating them? So it's a question of artistry and stylistic expression.

[00:21:34] How we tell the truth as well as when and for what purposes and that sort of thing.

[00:21:41] Now by the way, this is one reason that we retreat behind the banner of family friendly. Because it's scary and dangerous to potentially be handed subject matter that could be harmful to our audience or viewer. You are right to be afraid.

[00:21:59] When we deal with adult content, we have a much greater potential to harm. Our audience. Yes, it is true, which is why we have to be in relationship and fellowship with other readers. With our values so that they can help us to know if we're succeeding or failing. Are we harming the audience in this?

[00:22:19] Ooh, did I take it too far? Like that's why we are in relationship. So it's scary. and dangerous to be handed potentially harmful subject matter.

[00:22:31] We know we mustn't harm our audience, so to ensure that we don't, we give up telling the kinds of stories that contain potentially hazardous content that could potentially cause harm to our audience. But ignoring this type of content is not noble. It's not noble. It's actually cowardly. The time has come for us to be brave.

[00:22:57] The time has come for us to be bold. We have to be willing to explore the content that matters. We have to be willing to dive deep into the difficult adult oriented issues that really affect us. That really matter to us as human beings. That really. Break us and hurt us deep in our soul. It necessitates that we be good enough at our craft to find ways to navigate that truth in non violating ways.

[00:23:30] This is why you need to keep training. This is why you need to keep adding to your toolkit. So that you have the skills that it takes to potentially navigate these treacherous areas. 

[00:23:41] Zena: it's once again time to hear from our sponsor. So, hello, storytellers.

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[00:24:13] these are the essential plot moments that you need to hit in order to deliver a powerful, compelling, page turning story. So, be sure to check out my free training video on the 7 Deadly Plot Points.

[00:24:27] It's going to transform your writing Just click on the link provided in the notes or head over to thestorytellersmission.

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[00:24:36] Zena Dell Lowe: A film violates the audience when sex, language and violence are used gratuitously and for the wrong reasons and convey the wrong message.

[00:24:46] It also violates the audience when it mistakes morally good things as bad and vice versa. when it glorifies the bad. Now, of course, when a film does either of these two things, it ceases to be an honest exploration of the truth. Rule number one must exist in the context of rule number two and vice versa. Do you see what's happening here? It's a circular mandate that requires both parts be present in order for the Christian filmmaker or writer to succeed.

[00:25:20] So we start by telling the truth and then we find a way to tell that truth so as not to harm the audience. But in our efforts to not harm the audience, we must avoid the temptation to water down the truth, or sanitize the truth, because the number one rule is to tell the truth. Do you see how this works?

[00:25:38] You see how this works? So in this way, these two rules are interdependent of one another. They rely on one another. You cannot have one without the other. And in the end, these two rules are the foundation of all the other rules that are to come. And they are dangerous. Because they don't come with specific, incontrovertible instruction as to how to accomplish each or both requirements.

[00:26:04] They only dictate that both requirements are met in tandem with the other. And while these two dictates are the foundation of every good story, there are other requirements that must also be adhered to in order for a story to fit within the parameters of a biblical moral worldview. We live in a day and age where we can no longer hide, where we can no longer play it safe. If we want a seat at the marketplace of ideas, we have to grow up. And we have to start creating content that actually resonates with the real life struggles that people are going through. We have to, we have to. So I want to challenge you.

[00:26:48] As you think about the kinds of stories you're seeking in order to produce or publish or the kinds of stories you're thinking about telling, does it speak to adults? Really? Does it really speak to adults? Or are you playing it safe? 

[00:27:05] And now is the time to be brave. All right. So if you've enjoyed this episode, which I know

[00:27:12] is a little challenging and maybe a little controversial, would you share it with an artist or storyteller that you know that might need to hear these things?

[00:27:21] and also would you subscribe to the show on YouTube or on the podcast app of your choice? That would be great. And also, hey, why not? Leave us a review. 

[00:27:31]