I have made Shards (Starfire Angels: Revelations) unavailable for now. I will be rewriting it and checking my other series as I have time, to remove any sexual content. A few years ago, I edited the Dark Angel Chronicles books to remove some of the swear words. I'm debating taking the swearing down to nothing (particularly the first book), but writing is a balancing act with reality and the reality is that kids do use some foul language in our public schools. Luckily, I've already kept sex scenes out of Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles and Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. Legend of the White Dragon also has no sex scenes... that I can remember (it's been many years since I worked on that). Nor do the Demon Age books have sex scenes. And the violence in my books is never glorified, although because they are SFF, they do have fighting scenes.
What follows is a long religious explanation of my reasons. Stop here if you're opposed to truth or not yet ready for it.
It is sin to induce others to sin, which includes lust. Love is is not lust (sexual arousal/titillation), which is a sin, namely for someone who isn't one's spouse, including a reader reading about other spouses engaged in graphic sex scenes or even groping/kissing written to titillate readers. I don't care how much readers want that--it's our job as Christian writers not to cause others to sin. Every single incident will be counted against us on our judgment day. I have no problem personally with sex off the page or brief mentions of kisses or touches that don't go into enticing lust in readers. That would be expected at times, but it doesn't have to arouse the reader's lust.
I hate to say this, but writers of any genre who claim to be Christian need to rethink what they're doing if they're including anything that might cause readers to sin, including sexual arousal in the readers, such as comes from describing graphic sex scenes, groping, passionate kissing, etc. If it gets you aroused writing it (lust in the writer is already one sin), leave it out for the readers.
It's said that at our judgment, Satan is the prosecutor, getting the chance to name off every tiniest sin offense against us that is not confessed to a priest. The more a person sins without repentance, the closer to damnation is their soul.
The same goes for music, games, movies, etc. Entertainment is rife with glorifying sin, especially in our modern world.
And it's not just lust. It's any sin. It could be movies, books, games, etc. that glorify violence or even statements online that induce others to violence, engaging in or glorifying heretical, blasphemous, or even new age/occultic practices (which comes from demons, many of whom have been identified by exorcists with names known from mythological spirits or gods/goddesses), or which demean another person or the value of life. These are all sinful, multiplied by the number of others (readers/audience) who are influenced to such behavior. And it could go further than that. That doesn't mean we need to avoid the topics, but we must be careful not to induce curiosity and temptation to sin in our readers. Rather, the task is to show the truth of how it harms one's soul.
Nor should we be engaging with such risky stories in any form of entertainment. It stains our souls by influencing our thoughts toward sin. I'm beginning to understand why our ancestors were so, what we would consider, "rigid" about their faith. We see the result of loosening the laws of God in the spiritual warfare of our current society and the rise in crime and violence, child sacrifice (in so many forms, even if they were never at risk of being aborted), and attacks on Christianity, the Catholic church in particular (both from within and from outside).
The road to perdition is wide while narrow is the righteous path, because it's easy to sin or to not even realize we're sinning. It's very difficult to be a saint in the eyes of God.
Why I bring all this up:
I've been on a path to making huge improvements in my own life and want to help others do the same. I can't describe the tranquility and joy I've found in rediscovering my Catholic faith. The rosary every day has done wonders for me, but it is an effort. (Satan will use every weapon in his arsenal to stop us from invoking the Blessed Mother, whom he detests because she is a creature who should be below him (humans are generally lesser than angels, and demons are fallen angels) but is more perfect than him and has God's favor. He will even convince one that the rosary is blasphemy when, in reality, the blasphemy is in denying the miracle of the Immaculate Conception and perpetual virginity of Mary and the chastity of Joseph). See my Faith Resources tab for more about Marian devotion.
Now, I've started the Servite Rosary (seven sorrows (dolors) of Mary), which I find even more meaningful in combination with the regular rosary, and I've begun making time for Eucharistic adoration. (A fact about that--the consecrated hosts are sought by Satan worshippers for dark masses in which they desecrate them, because they are the true body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus, as the many Eucharistic miracles prove. See my Faith Resources tab for links to explanations.) Just an hour of sitting with Jesus's real presence in the Eucharist is an experience difficult to explain. It is magnificent and humbling. You leave feeling so peaceful and moved by the Holy Spirit that your heart swells greater than anything you can imagine with a love so pure that you feel a touch of heaven. I'm so glad I started these devotions and that I didn't listen to the voice that said it was too much work. These have given me a bigger boost to eliminating the smallest of sinful thoughts and learning to truly love others as God desires by controlling the worldly desires and resisting temptations and even praying for my "enemies", whom I have learned to see as much victims of Satan's lies as I once was so that I now pity them and pray for their repentance and conversion. I'll never be perfect, but I have the available resources to help me in the church. I'm also learning to accept my sufferings of any difficulties as penance for others who won't repent. We don't want to suffer, but the fake prosperity gospel many want to embrace is the road to hell. In this life, our suffering means more to Christ than the simplest of pleasures. Suffering aligns us more with Him and humbles us. Humility is our greatest weapon against Satan, who is pride incarnate.
The problem is that most people don't realize the minutiae adding up against them in the eyes of God in seeking pleasures and doing whatever they want that pleases them (Satan's motto). Discipline, humility, and charity are the basis of real love. I've learned to see it, and I see why Jesus weeps for us. Every small sin is another strike by a cat of nine tails (roman whip used on Christ in the scourging) or a nail or thorn. Our sins are His to bear, punishing Him every time, but it shouldn't be that way. We should resist the temptations of sin, especially in inducing sinful thoughts or behaviors in others. The Blessed Virgin Mary will help us learn to love him properly when we seek her, especially through the rosary, which is a meditation of "the Bible on beads."
Changing one's writing may mean fewer readers, but what is your soul's destination worth to you? Would you rather sell it for worldly goods ($$$, worldly pleasures) or preserve it for eternal life?
After years of avoiding it, I now also look forward to confession and the relief it brings to me in that absolution of my sins, which comes from Christ through his anointed priests (in what exorcists describe as a minor exorcism), which comes from the succession of the authority Christ gave his apostles who founded what became known as the Catholic church. Catholic priests are the only persons with the authority to exorcise demons; and sin allows demons into our lives. Although I will never be perfect, I have resolved to do my best to eliminate even near occasions of sin in my life, which is why anything inducing sin in others will not be included in my books, as I've mentioned. I didn't understand that for the longest time, but I'm awake to the truth now. What is seen cannot be unseen. God's law is immutable, it does not bend to the whims of his creatures.
When I found the image included here, I felt a need to share this as a warning. Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but I must obey what God is asking of me.
God bless.
