Christian Stories Need Better Villains

By Joe Torosian

I’ve received great feedback about “Sin Virus,” and I can’t thank you enough. All I can ask (beyond you all purchasing 100 more copies) is to leave an honest review. Of course, I’d like a great review…but I’ll settle for an honest one.

Reviews move books, and it is always about the next book.

*** Before getting sidetracked (health issue) in September of 2020, I had begun doing a stretch of test sports shows. While I wasn’t thrilled, the response was positive. In the near future, I’m likely to go back to a YouTube/Podcast sports show.

This time no one is offering me anything, but I’ve been told it’s in my best interest to do the Youtube/Podcast thing—and they’re right.

I’d love any thoughts you may have on the subject. I can say that I will not be focusing on high school football or local youth sports.

“Sin Virus” is available thru Amazon.

The Thought of The Week:
Everything I write is either explicitly Christian (The Dead Bug Tales, Sin Virus, Joy To The Langes, Breeze) or has a subtle Christian undertow (Tangent Dreams, Temple City & The Company of The Ages).

But when you write Christian stories, there’s always a problem with the villain.

Because everything must be conveyed in a Christian tone and well inside the parameters of the faith, our villains seldom come across as authentic villains.

Christian films also have this same problem.

We can’t show the villains raping, pillaging, cursing, murdering, and committing horrible atrocities. Our bad people practice mild racism, greed or are stubbornly bitter over some injustice done to them.

Think about the time Greg Brady did the worst thing ever–I mean the worst. He got caught smoking in the early 1970s, and he wasn’t smoking a joint. He was smoking a cigarette.

Talk about Apocalypse Now?

When you read a Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge just wants to go about his business and be left alone. If that’s a bad guy, then surround me with a bunch of bad guys just like him.

And how are these villains redeemed? Their redemption comes through a few visiting ghosts on Christmas Eve or a small child giving them a hug or flower.

Hearts melt, lives change, and a new social awareness emerges. All becomes right with the world, and we celebrate the salvation of our Lord.

It’s nice, but please!

The Dark Norm

For many, the road to the Lord is one of spiritual blood and gore. Its vulgarities make us shiver in giving any thought to what we once were. We don’t even recognize what we once were.

But when all of that is weighed, it makes the testimony of our salvation even greater.

Villains are more than just bitter, slightly racist, and greedy. They’re bad, they’re cruel, they’re mean, and they do terrible, terrible things. They don’t consider their language or actions in terms of etiquette and the parameters of the Christian faith.

But in the Christian film, the Christian book, none of that can be authentically portrayed. So when I read a book or watch a Christian movie where the villain gets redeemed–I don’t buy it.

I’m going to get in trouble here, but I didn’t like the “God’s Not Dead” movies. They were structured smack-dab in the center of Christian parameters to appeal to a Christian audience. There was nothing in them that was going to offend anybody. (And you knew what the outcome was going to be 15-minutes into the story.)

For the non-believer, “God’s Not Dead” was like watching Greg Brady get busted for smoking–a cigarette. It didn’t resonate in the early 70s, and it doesn’t resonate now.

I’ve seen the ugly in life, I’ve seen the awful in life, and I’m supposed to identify with a villain (or troubled character) suddenly realizing God’s love because they got a hug?

I’ll double down on my trouble and say, for the most part (And I’m not making a recommendation), I believe “The Exorcist” did a better job of representing and confronting evil than 99% of all the Christian movies ever made.

Dead Bug Tails

Did you ever read the “Left Behind” series? There’s actually an entire story arc where a lead character struggles with the moral dilemma of assassinating the Antichrist.

Are you kidding me?

And those books were bestsellers.

Redemption in the Lord is the most fantastic story we’ll ever share. But that magnificent experience needs the context of what we’ve been redeemed from…Especially if we expect to bring a spiritual tremor to the lives of others.

I know no one wants to read foul language. I get it. No one wants reminders about the depths of depravity our culture has sunk into. But if the intent in film or book is to share a redemption story authentically, how do we avoid demonstrating any of it and then attempt to bring our story to a reasonable/acceptable conclusion?

I’ve had a war story sketched out for years, but I don’t want to write it. Because if I write it, I want all the language, cruelty, and deep visceral emotions shared truthfully within the story.

And the reason for that is because I want the remarkable, powerful, eternity-altering account of redemption to explode with the liberty salvation provides.

You folks are part of the newsletter. Would you want me to write a book like that? Would you consider reading a book like that? I can tell you a book like that might get me drummed out of the Nazarene Minister’s Club.

Note: Cliff Smith, a minor character in both Sin Virus & The Dead Bug Tales, is the main character in that war story. And I’d love to tell his story.

Sometimes it’s like he’s living in my office, hanging around, and saying, “Come on, Joe T., write that book. Tell them about me.”

***

Below I’ve included a link to my Amazon Page. I know it’s a pain…but if you’ve read something of mine and haven’t left a review. Please do so. Reviews are close to invaluable.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=joe+torosian&crid=1J01Z1MLQG9L9&sprefix=Joe+Torosian%2Caps%2C153&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_12

And thank you so much for all your support.

God Bless!

Joe T.