Folks don't like it sometimes when angry bloggers critique the cotton candy lit spun by evangelical publishing houses. Well, add Christianity Today to the list of the pontificators (ironic as that may be). Agnieszka Tennant's review of Captivated by John (of Wild at Heart fame) and Stasi Eldredge calls Captivating "prettification" and simplistic.
Ouch!
I worry, though, that the readers of Captivating have been sold a finicky idea of femininity—one that disregards the wondrous complexity God breathed into them. . . . The gist of Captivating is this: "Every woman longs for three things: to be swept up into a romance, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to be the Beauty of the story." I used to want such things—when I was a girl who didn't understand how her womanizing father messed up her heart and when I fed my imagination with soft heart-porn like Pretty Woman. But doesn't there come a time when we must grow out of the kind of self-regard that was cute when we were girls?P.S. I apologize to cotton candy for comparing it to evangelical writing.
3 comments:
"P.S. I apologize to cotton candy for comparing it to evangelical writing."
Ouch...but...how true, sadly...
I used to want such things—when I was a girl who didn't understand how her womanizing father messed up her heart and when I fed my imagination with soft heart-porn like Pretty Woman. But doesn't there come a time when we must grow out of the kind of self-regard that was cute when we were girls?
Sorry, ma'am, but some people do have an imagination that shapes their desires in a positive way. Like so many other things, romance and adventure are not in and of themselves bad. The key is balance.
The cotton candy analogy is perfect. Though it is about writing, it could just as well be applied to the contemporary Christian music scene. After reading some of the "Christian" writing and listening to contemporary music I have found that much of it is very surface level and shallow (for lack of a better term). There seems to be no theological depth to much of what is being produced. Thanks for bringing the subject up!
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