Christian as a Genre

I've always found it interesting that Christianity as its own genre can be used across music, film, books, and virtually most forms of artistic or creative expression. While most secular items tend to be labelled by their style, works produced by Christians tend to get labelled by the faith of the one producing it. I remember seeing an article years ago about how the Grammys put Christian artists under the genre of Gospel and Contemporary Christian who would then be further separated out by their musical style, such as Gospel, Bluegrass, Rock, Pop, Country, etc. I can't recall the specifics of the article, but I believe that the author of the article thought it was both a little unfair that artists would be lumped together in a giant pool despite varying styles or backgrounds, and that it was also a label that didn't really tell audiences what they would be getting, other than Christian content.

I wish I could remember a bit more, but as I read it in passing, the only thought that remained with me was that Christianity seemed to be a little unique in garnering its own genre label. This thought has since expanded to books for me, especially as it can be sometimes challenging to find exactly what I'm looking for when I'm browsing.

What I've come to realize is that the "Christian" genre is both helpful and detrimental. It's helpful when I don't want content from other world religions. It's not helpful when I want to avoid forms of pseudo-Christianity that get thrown in there. It's helpful when I want to specifically find authors whose content is faith-filled. It's not helpful when the author happens to be Christian but their works may not reflect that faith. I understand that it's a human label in some ways, and that it's not perfect. On the other hand, I need to lower my expectations and acknowledge that just because something is classified as Christian, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's also excellent Christian material.

I've become more serious about my reading habits since starting up this blog and being on social media, which is a little surprising as I thought this would be more of a fun hobby. While it has been enjoyable, I'm also starting to sense that there is a gravity to what I partake and how it may or may not have eternal value. I'm definitely grateful that "Christian" as a genre exists, but I'm also mindful of how I still need to exercise discernment.

I'm concerned that from the trends I've seen on Christian Bookstagram, there seems to be a movement away from the "Christian" genre in favour of things that are more readily accepted by the world. It's unfortunate that a lot of people have dismissed forms of Christian entertainment as being "cheesy" or "shallow" or worse. While I'm sure there is content out there that might be regarded as such, I don't believe that diluting the faith aspect is the solution. I believe that one can create while remaining faithful. I also want to avoid those who are trying to make their content marketable to Christians without actually adhering to the same faith. I don't know what the future of the "Christian" book genre looks like, but I want to heed the following verses in choosing what content I should read:

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." - 2 Timothy 2:15

"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." - 2 Timothy 4:3-4

"He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it." - Titus 1:9

"But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves." - 2 Peter 2:1

As you can tell, the subject of truth has been weighing on my heart. Incidentally, I can read a secular book without feeling this burden as I know it's not a Christian book. However, when a book calls itself Christian and doesn't live up to it, I'm more troubled by it. That's why I no longer look at Amazon's Christian book categories; anything can receive that label, even if it's not true. Although I don't always want to do more research when I stumble across something that's intriguing, I now realize how essential it is that I put in some work beforehand rather than finding out after the fact that I either read something crummy or I simply wasted my time. I'd much rather prefer to skip 1 and 2 star reads than spend my limited time discovering this.

My prayer going into the new year is that my reading will be edifying and uplifting. The content doesn't always have to be serious, but I want it to be correct. Getting worked up over false teachings is not how I want to spend my days when I would rather cling to the Bible and to seeing biblical truths expressed in a manner that brings people closer to Jesus.