Incorporating Multiple Religions Into Your Writing Diversity

 

Okay, let's talk about diversity this week, but not what you normally think about. Let's talk about religious diversity in your work. (In the interest of honesty, this one also was inspired by a panel I was on during Multiverse.)

Writers often err in one of two ways when it comes to writing protagonists (and antagonists) with a personal faith life -- either only writing their own because that's the only one they know well enough to write (or to be propagandistic) or they avoid religion in their stories altogether because they've been taught that it's something you don't discuss at Thanksgiving. 

I disagree. I think a character's inner POV and faith life can bring a new dimension to them. 

But let's see what our roundtable panel of writers thinks.

How does your own faith background or lack of one influence your writing?

Danielle Procter Piper: I was raised Catholic, so one of my characters has that background also. But I don't use it as an opportunity to "invite" people into that belief system. In fact, that character struggles with what he was taught and what he now knows as an adult. He's very good at encouraging his adopted daughter to find her own path...if she has spiritual inclinations at all.

Mari Hersh-Tudor: I was raised a strict Roman Catholic-mass in Latin and a narrow worldview. The more exposure to Weird Sh!t People Do When Someone Dies ™️ that I get, the more I absorb about how various cultures and religions treat adversity.

Kay Iscah: Definitely. I think a lot of fantasy has gone polytheistic, so I like centering monotheism, though not writing on earth I try to give things a distinct spin for their setting. The monotheism of Seventh Night is based on the idea of Christianity but without sacrifice or organized churches. This isn't necessarily a criticism of those elements, more of an exploration of how things might work or not work without them. I try not to be heavy-handed with those themes. In the interest of writing more universal stories, I tend to focus on ethics, but if you pay attention, it's a world where prayers are answered. Though not always in an obvious way. But I think writing and creating worlds can give us insight into the mind of God and how He operates.

Sean Taylor: I was not only raised in conservative Christian evangelical churches (Southern Baptist for the most part), but I also worked for the denomination at the national level for a few years until we had a bit of a doctrinal disagreement. So, yeah, my faith has been something that has been on my mind -- and therefore in my writing -- a lot. Both through the more devout and the current deconstruction and reconstruction period. It's difficult not to see a travelogue of my journey as your read my work and see the kind of questions that creep into my themes. 

If you do incorporate religious viewpoints into your fiction, how do you walk the line between advocating them and merely having them be a part of a character's, well, character?

Ef Deal: Having been raised Roman Catholic in the '50s and '60s (no, I did not have vicious nuns but I did get kicked out of church by the priest) and now writing a setting of 1842 France, religion is discussed in my second book, first when she overhears the King declaring homosexuality an offense against God, "Scripture is quite clear," and again when her lady's maid confesses her own lesbianism and fears for her soul. I happen to subscribe to the belief that God is love, and frankly, the King had more mistresses than he had children, and the punishment for adultery is quite clear if you want to declare Scripture as your rule instead of God's love.

It was a fun diatribe to write, given the setting of a Paris salon, where men engaged in philosophical discourse that amounted to little.

Kay Iscah: I think I try to advocate more for ethics, education, and spiritual seeking than promoting specific spiritual practices. I promote seeking truth, but I think that generally needs to happen through the story and not feel like something tacked onto it. I can get into the head of someone with a different belief system, and do so a bit in Horse Feathers. Phillip is a skeptic and atheist, but becomes interested in moral philosophy. He mostly fights it out in his head as atheism is not particularly popular in his period, but if I ever get around to writing sequels, it will cause some contention.

Sean Taylor: I don't write much fantasy, so most of the religions I write into my fiction are based on real-world faiths. I have written about fantasy-type gods once, but even then I made up my own and shied away from the established pantheons from world religions so as not to screw up details that might really matter to some readers. 

None of my characters evangelize their beliefs. That's so not my style, not even in my more devout days. And most of my believing folks (whatever the belief or the deity) they tend to be a lot more loosey-goosey about things like doctrine and rules, and tend to side more with the "Big Guy in the sky who wants us to love on each other" kind of thing. There are a few characters though, like my angel superhero, Tobit's Angel, in the Show Me A Hero collection, who is particularly exploring what it means to be an angel and in what religious direction he fits. Is he a Christian angel? A Muslim angel? A Jewish angel? A New-Age angel? All he knows is that he is most definitely an angel. Another superhero character, Fishnet Angel (not an angel), is a former Catholic who becomes possessed by an ancient deity and now must deal with the fact that his/her religion doesn't stand alone anymore. 

Danielle Procter Piper: Because I don't believe in shoving my beliefs down other people's throats (because I strongly dislike it being done to me), I don't depict religious belief as an asset but more of a curious choice. In fact, I tend to tone down major religious holidays. My sci-fi/action/thriller Venus In Heat is a Christmas story in that it takes place over the holiday, and while it's mentioned, none of the lead characters actually celebrate it in any way and they're all perfectly fine with that. 

Mari Hersh-Tudor: My own fiction encompasses a wide range of religions, from theoretical to Actual Gods Interfering™️.

It’s pretty easy not to advocate toward any one religion, I made mine up anyway, and I don’t have any characters (so far) who would do so.

Just as some writers make a conscious effort to break out of their boxes by intentionally learning to write characters of a different gender or sexuality or race, how have you sought to bring in a variety of "faith" backgrounds into your fiction?

Sean Taylor: I love to study other faiths and in particular the absence of such a faith. I think some of it comes naturally by just having a wide variety of folks in my circle of friends and writer buddies, but some of it involves intentional research and study and seeking out people to talk to to get details right, particularly emotional and psychological details. 

Danielle Procter Piper: Because my world is populated with people of various beliefs, so are the worlds of my stories. In my sci-fi I have the former Catholics, pagans, and a Buddhist, and most of the characters' faiths are never even mentioned. In my Medieval fantasy I have characters from all over Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa...and each has their own beliefs, but the main characters simply accept each other as they are without clashes of faith. 

Kay Iscah: This may expand as my catalog of published fiction expands. I do poke at it a bit in Horse Feathers. But I tend to treat it a bit as an aspect of setting. There's an unpublished series I'm working on where I anticipate navigating some different religious views in characters, but again, I want to keep that a light touch. It should feel like an organic part of the setting and aspect of the characters not a lecture for the reader. It should come up because the characters are debating moral philosophy of situations, and not simply because I want to soapbox about something.

And even within the same religion, you have sects and interpretations and room for debates and differences of opinion. It would be an unusual faith where all the practitioners agreed on every aspect.

Now, to twist it on its ear, how much more does a character's non-religious POV get strengthened as an MC when they are surrounded by a variety of real-world characters of varying beliefs -- as opposed the non-religious MC in a world that seems to be void of any religious thought whatsoever?

Mari Hersh-Tudor: It is a great deal of fun, however, to torment narrow-minded characters by throwing them at angry gods that they don’t believe in and writing the fallout.

Kay Iscah: I don't write a lot of "real world" stories. But in a way, this described Phillip in Horse Feathers. He has a fairly scientific mind for a medieval peasant. He comes from a country with a lot of competing faiths and that feeds into his skepticism. He settles in a heavily monotheistic country and avoiding religious instruction is his small act of rebellion against a society where he feels very limited. But for the general question, I think personality and individual experiences play a huge role in how the religious setting affects the MC. You could take two different characters, run them through the same scenarios, and get two wildly different reactions.

The non-religious MC may have his views challenged more if confronted with a variety of faiths whereas the non-religious MC in an atheist or agnostic setting might never be pushed to think about them. Some people would welcome never being challenged while others would start asking certain questions because no one else is asking those questions.

The rub is that the author determines what the "truth" of that world is. Which will determine what "truth" the MC will be able to find with their questions and seeking.

I've heard of Christians who dislike The Truman Show because they think it's intended to be a metaphor for breaking out of our philosophical bubble or belief system. But as a Christian, I find The Truman show very in line with the faith as it's about seeking truth at all costs... and if you pay attention, the female protagonist does pray for Truman's release and safety. So there's an in world establishment of a God or at least belief in God, that is not the producer playing at being God.

Danielle Procter Piper: One of my sci-fi heroes, Alex, has no background in any faith, yet is surrounded by people of many faiths. A telepath, he's often revolted by the fact that most people who play at ceremony and holidays do it for the material benefits...money, gifts, food, and not out of any actual belief in something greater or a need to worship. Or, they function like robots, programmed by tradition, trying to force each other and their families into old molds forged generations ago which are often impractical today and can cause more stress than gratitude and wonder. He finds all of this extraordinarily bizarre and is amazed when he meets anyone who seems genuinely convinced that what they do serves their deity of choice and benefits more than just themselves and their personal agendas. So his extra powers of observation allow him to better understand others and even manipulate them using their own ideas of how things are and what they should be. One needn't be telepathic to figure this stuff out, but it saves time and makes him more formidable for it.

Sean Taylor: To me, a religious viewpoint is one of the things that says a lot about a character. I believe it's as important as a character's race, nationality, gender, sexual identity -- all those things. It adds a dimension to them that can provide stability (when the religious POV matches their actions and words), irony (when their religious POV reveals their hypocrisy), and depth (when their religious POV reveals questioning and struggle based on their conflicts in the story. I picked this up very early from the works of Flannery O'Connor, and I've never let go of it in my own work. 

It's just another way to create a real, solid, three-dimensional world with words, as far as I'm concerned. It's like the argument for diversity in fiction. "We're here. So don't write as though we aren't." So they exist in my fiction too. Religion also exists. It's here. So it is just another element in my world-building.