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11.
FaithfulReader.com: Other than the lack of sex, drinking and cursing, how is Christian Chick Lit different from its secular counterpart?
Allie Pleiter: I get asked this a lot. Christian Chick Lit isn't just about what isn't in these books --- it's mostly about what IS in these books. What's in there is joy, the honest struggles of human relationships, and how Christ meets us in our imperfections and efforts. Christ is in the real world --- the 7-day-a-week world, not just Sunday morning world. It's not just their self-worth that women are finding in these books --- it's their worth in Christ that they're finding as well. As a Christian author, I'm really excited about that.
Neta Jackson: I hope that's not the measuring stick of what makes Christian Chick Lit "Christian"! I would hope true Christian themes of compassion and justice and peacemaking and forgiveness and redemption would shine through ANY novel written with a Christian worldview.
Sharon Dunn: I didn't read BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY but I watched the movie. What I noticed was a level of perceptiveness about pointing out the problems of being single in the modern world. Bridget gets hurt, deeply wounded. The single life is not one endless party. There are scenes that show her drinking alone and watching television. I so appreciated the honesty of those scenes. But the solutions offered in secular Chick Lit are absurd and damaging lies. I saw an ad for "Sex and the City" (which is like Chick Lit for non-readers) where one of the characters said she was looking for true love. I don't watch that show, but isn't it all about sleeping around and about how girls can behave just as badly as guys? The lie that is being perpetuated is that you can sleep around and find true love. In other words, if you just roll the dice enough, sooner or later you will get lucky. The truth is that if you move from relationship to relationship, your heart gets damaged in the process and you become unable to trust. My character at one point says that, with that kind of setup, your choices are either to hurt or be hurt.
One of the biggest reasons I wrote my first book, ROMANCE RUSTLERS AND THUNDERBIRD THIEVES, was because I wanted to show that the only way to truly find healing for broken relationships with men is not to dive into yet another relationship with a man but to dive into the sacred romance with Christ. Secular Chick Lit can diagnose a lot of the problems in life, but the solutions they offer are destructive. Christian Chick Lit offers solutions that are real and hopeful.
Tracey Bateman: The same way any Christian fiction such as romance, westerns, sci-fi, etc. is different from its secular counterpart. Simple lack of sex, drinking, and cursing doesn't necessarily make a book "Christian" --- the same way that Jan Karon inserting the occasional curse word in the Mitford books doesn't make that series non-Christian. Christian Chick Lit does what any Christian book does: draws the reader into a closer understanding of who God is or who He wants us to be or whatever the spiritual theme of that particular book happens to be. What makes my Lit different from secular is the fact that I'm a Christian and I'm writing it in an effort to point my readers to God for whatever they have need of. In view of that, my approach in writing will not be the same as someone writing secular Chick Lit, and therefore the story will be inherently different.
Laura Jensen Walker: The heroine's happily-ever-after doesn't have to come in the form of a man. Plus, the "empowerment" and hope she feels comes from God and her relationship with Him. In Christian Chick Lit, the heroine's choices are influenced by her faith and values. Sometimes she fails, of course, but her faith is an integral element of her personality and behavior.
Judy Baer: I think it's about the order of things, the progression of the relationship. In Christian Chick Lit the order of the relationship is acquaintance/friendship/romance/love/marriage and then intimacy. In secular Chick Lit intimacy is often moved closer to the front of that sequence. Also, in Christian Chick Lit, there are doors that just don't open --- the bedroom door, for example. I don't think that's a problem. There's a deliciousness about unfurling the wonder, the doubt, the anticipation and the emotion of falling in love. There's no need to jump to the end result too early. It can be every bit as entertaining.
Kristin Billerbeck: Christian Chick Lit offers true hope. While others may come to a "false" happily ever after, a heroine coming to terms with her faults, Christian Chick Lit is the only avenue to offer true answers.
Penny Culliford: The protagonists in Christian Chick Lit also have a faith-life. I would imagine most would attend a fellowship. That brings challenges and opportunities that are not present in mainstream Chick Lit.
Lori Copeland: Christian characters struggle --- they are not perfect examples of humanity. They have all the frailties and weaknesses of the next guy, but they strive to settle their difficulties by trusting God, not putting their faith in the world and all its magnetism.
Robin Jones Gunn: The faith element woven through the story is what distinguishes the characters and makes the novel a CBA book.
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