Joy A. Mead

Just recently, I saw a social media post by a Christian woman who was slamming five books which, according to her, do not meet a strictly Christian standard. She then went on in the comments to encourage her followers to list other books which aren’t Christian enough—ones that should be thrown away and recommended as “what not to read”. 

As an author and Christian myself, I couldn’t help but cringe at this whole ordeal and all these other women joining in to put down other Christians. 

I thought to myself, “Who put this woman in charge to be the judge? And of all places to criticize certain books for not being in perfect alignment to the gospel, why put down people on social media?” 

The women and men she was judging are real people with real lives. Real life is messy and certainly being in the limelight of being a well-known Christian author or speaker can be incredibly challenging with scrutiny. Their personal lives can wind up being tossed about in their public life, in which others feel they should be allowed an opinion.

But surely, if we are going to aim daily to follow Jesus and behave like him, we should lean more heavily on his grace while equally extending that grace to others? 

I found it ironic that the very thing this woman was doing so publicly was precisely what Jesus told us not to be doing—judging others.  Jesus said to take out the plank from our own eye before trying to remove the speck from our neighbour’s eye. (Luke 6:37-42)

There is quite a variety within the realm of Christian books, so it should not be a surprise that we will agree with certain authors more than others. For those books which we don’t spiritually align with or agree with some of the principles, we should take it up with God the Father. The Holy Spirit living in us helps us to discern if books we are reading will point us closer to God or drift us away. This is for each individual to work out through faith, prayer, and seeking wisdom. 

Simply because one person finds fault with a Christian author’s work, doesn’t mean it is entirely wrong or wouldn’t be helpful for someone else. I think it is unfortunate for certain readers to ban all books by Christian authors if they have a rough season of their personal lives and they fall from the Christian pedestal. Let’s face it, every human on planet earth is guilty of mistakes and is in need of God’s redemptive grace.

Perhaps, we Christians need to reevaluate why and how we read Christian living books. We cannot and should not read them as purely gospel truth because Christian books are only a supplementary resource to encourage us in our faith journey. Christian books are not to replace reading our Bibles and spending time with God. 

A Christian book should be absorbed with an open heart for God to help one extract the information which would be encouraging  and help stimulate an individual to walk deeper with Jesus. After all, each Christian reader is as varied as each Christian author and not every reader will connect with each author. That doesn’t make either the reader or the author wrong. Only God is the judge and each person is only accountable to him.

Life is messy at times. Faith is too. And if Christians authors are going to be bold enough in faith to write about their journeys with God, even when it is flawed, then I think they should be applauded for putting themselves out there and being willing to share in the hopes of their stories helping others to grow deeper with God.  They should not be publicly scrutinized and their books thrown away just because their stories do not connect with every reader. 

And if any Christian reader is bold enough to share their disapproval of a Christian book, I think those around them need to take heed. 

We can ask ourselves, “What has made this reader so uncomfortable? What does the reader hope to gain from judging other Christians? Could this judgment be more about self-righteousness than actually helping other readers? Whose authority gives this reader the right to pass judgment?”

Only God knows our hearts as Christian readers or Christian authors. And we can trust that God is always watching over us as we share our faith stories or read the faith stories of others. No two faith journeys will be alike.

If I read someone’s book and don’t entirely agree with them, I can accept and appreciate that they are still a child of God. I trust that he or she is working out their faith just like I am. 

As a reader, if a Christian book simply isn’t for me, then that is okay. I can set it aside without the need to put the author down. God is always working in every heart, and I can trust that he will direct each of us on what books to read that will help spur us on in our faith journey. 

As an author and writer, I’m also trusting that God will help me to share the words that will help point others back to his heart. 

Readers or writers, may God humbly make us aware of our need for his daily grace and our responsibility to joyfully extend this grace to others.