IT'S MAGIC

I don't know why, but I was asked by a friend of a friend of a friend by email what my opinion was about the use of magic in Christian literature. He writes stories with Christian messages but he does so through the use of magic as an allegory. It seems like he is looking for permission.

He has my permission - if that matters. Here's what I plan to tell him:

When I was a kid, "backward masking" in pop music was a big topic in church youth groups. The idea was that secular musicians were incorporating subliminal messages - praising Satan or whatever - into their songs. These messages could only be heard clearly by playing their records in reverse.  

Now that I look back on it, I realize that even if that were happening, it was merely a gimmick to generate publicity. But at the time it gave Christians something to talk about and fret over.

It seems to me that Satan has plenty of other tricks and temptations up his sleeve. I doubt he was spending too much time in recording studios intentionally concealing his messages. 

I felt the same when the Harry Potter books came out and some Christians got all incensed over the books' depiction of witchcraft and magic spells. 

When I looked around, I didn't see too many mature Christians jumping on that bandwagon. 

I suppose even today if you’re an author working to share a Christian message through stories involving magic, some people are going to get riled up. 

But the only question is – Should you care?

Are those people your target audience? I doubt it. 

So ignore their protests. 

No matter how you go about it, your stories are definitely not going to please everyone anyway . It’s just not possible.

So write for your audience and ignore the rest.