Why not just ignore them?
Several reasons, but let's back up a little bit and look at WHO I'm talking about.
I've been writing science fiction since I was 13. I started reading it when I was 12. After a couple of kids' books, I graduated to The Big Folks, reading writers like Robert A Heinlein, Andre Norton (who was "a WOMAN in a man's genre" and I didn't find out until I was an adult), Asimov, Clarke, Nourse, MZ Bradley (who wrote as a woman)...
There were lots of others. The stories were absolutely written to take me off Earth! But they also exposed me to the philosophy of the men and women who had no interest in Christianity -- and sometimes other religions as well. Norton had telepathic cats, Heinlein thought organized religion was a waste of time and we should create a true "religion of Humanity", One science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard invented a religion entirely from scratch -- which has a huge following today: [Wikipedia: "Scientology claims over 8 million members worldwide, but independent estimates range from tens of thousands to potentially a few hundred thousand, with some studies suggesting around 25,000 in the US.]
My own faith upbringing was...lax at best, though nominally Christian. I was baptized Lutheran and remain Lutheran in much of my theology. That being said, at a young age, I started watching STAR TREK and have now watched it in every one of its versions -- and except for the Bajorans on Deep Space Nine, there's never been a serious effort to illustrate the religious side of aliens -- or Humanity for that matter. The religion in that universe is intentionally and clearly that of Gene Roddenberry, who invented the STAR TREK universe: "Gene Roddenberry was a humanist and an atheist. He rejected organized religion and believed in the power of human reason and cooperation to solve problems. He was also influenced by various philosophies, including humanism, rationalism, and socialism.
So, from a young age, I grew into the science fiction world. Iwatched movies, and continued to write SF (I prefer for people NOT to use "SciFi", "skiffy", or even -- from "Sing", "sky-fi"). I have absorbed literally tens of thousands of religiously neutral actively anti-Christian philosophies and beliefs. In my personal library, I have about 2500 books. Much of it is science fiction, and 10% of that is fantasy; a HUGE chunk is SCIENCE, as I spent 41 years teaching science from Astronomy to Zoology. I still read science magazines, articles, and talk to atheistic science people.
I'll move to the "now": Minnesota Science Fiction/Fantasy/Speculative Convention, aka as MiniCon. It's happened here in Minnesota for the past 58 years (along with two OTHER SF conventions, MarsCon (26 years) and Diversicon (33 years)). While it DID start off being on Easter Weekend, it missed a couple of Easters due to scheduling issues. But they picked Easter weekend for a particular purpose. A few years ago, at my second MiniCon, I overheard a couple of people talking about how they loved having it over Easter because, "it really limits how many of those Christians come to this!". That was the year I FIRST appeared on a panel with the incredibly famous science fiction writer, Harlan Ellison. He wrote what may be one of the best-known episodes of the Original STAR TREK series (and one of my favorites) -- "The City on the Edge of Forever", in which the life or death of one woman determined whether or not Hitler WON World War II or lost it. (Not quite THAT simple, but that's the basic outline).
Back to MiniCon last Easter. Many of the evangelical Christians I know would have been VERY uncomfortable at MiniCon. If you want the gruesome details, talk to me one-on-one. I even found myself a bit creeped out a couple times, but then, I knew what I was getting into, so I was girded in personal prayer, and I'd contacted my prayer network -- including some men in this group -- to hold me up and protect me from spiritual danger. (Thank y'all, you know who you are!)
What does THAT mean? Does it mean that there are NO evangelical Christians writing S/F/and SpecFic (Horror is sometimes included, though they have a separate convention). There are plenty:
- CS Lewis wrote THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, and while some of you may say, "Well that's OBVIOUSLY Christian!" if you DON'T have a Christian upbringing, it isn't obvious.
- JRR Tolkien wrote LORD OF THE RINGS
- Kathy Tyers has written several novels with a Christian world view published by a regular publisher.
- Gene Wolfe of whom Neil Gaiman said, "He's the finest living male American writer of SF and F...possibly the finest living American writer."
- John C Wright writes galaxy-spanning war novels and a very conservative blog.
- Connie Willis writes marvelous science fiction HUMOR that plays with serious ideas.
I feel called to be a missionary to these people -- not to ALL of them! I'm sure there are Christians in the field, believers like me. I look forward to meeting them and maybe even reaching out to the lost in this specific community.
That's who I am called to reach. That's who I finally feel that I am EQUIPPED to reach! And you, and my old friends, and my family are the ones who will hold me up in their prayers.
I don’t know how most of you view “prophecy”, especially when it’s spoken over an individual. I certainly know what I think of prophecy most of the time…I won’t elaborate, ‘cause that’s not what this Slice of PIE is about. Let it suffice to say that I’m unsure of how real contemporary prophecies are.
That’s why I hesitate to broach this subject, but feel a strong inclination to do it anyway.
So, ^deep breath^ and I’ll begin with a quote from a blog by an online friend of mine, Mike Duran: “As much as I remain conflicted, there are three ways I’ve come to believe a person can determine whether or not they’re called to write: 1) Do you have the raw talent to write? 2) ‘…only…those who say, “I’m not going to do anything else.” Do you have that kind of drive? 3) Do you have evidence from peers and professionals that you are ‘called’ to write?”
Determining that “call” on my life has taken a sizeable chunk of my “wondering about it” mental energy. I wonder if I’m just wasting my time. I wonder if I’ve been wasting the family’s money. I wonder if I’m inflating my ego beyond the “maniac” level. I wonder why God doesn’t bless me with more sales or an agent or a contract or a book or a series. I wonder, I wonder, I wonder…
So I went back to a series of prophecies that have been spoken over me during the past few years. I’m going to type them out verbatim then look at them individually, then look at them collectively.
First clear prophecy about my writing: a guest speaker at our youth retreat, well-known for her prophetic words (whatever that means), came to me on the night of February 15, 2004 and spoke two words: “longings fulfilled”.
The second time was on February 12, 2005, I spoke with the same woman (because OBVIOUSLY nothing had come of her two words!) and she had these words for me, “You are a wonderful teacher and God has you where you are because He wants you there now. You fear is that you have missed or will miss the opportunity to become a full-time writer. My ministry didn’t start until I was 54. Your writing will start later, but it will start in God’s time.”
The third incident/word was on March 11, 2005. Liz said to me that she felt right then and had always believed that we would earn our living by my writing someday.
The fourth and last prophecy came about on May 10, 2006. After sharing with the congregation that I had taken the word of Christ to the mission field of speculative fiction fans at 2006 MiniCon. That leading came about as a result of prayer and fasting during our church’s Lenten discipline of prayer, sermons and groups performing public service projects. Afterwards, Todd Wallace called the congregation forward to pray over me. Sixty people stepped up, prayed over my success, believed that my witness would be as Jabez, “‘…Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil that it not be to my sorrow!’ God granted him that which he requested.” 1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Todd prayed and asked that my witness would not only be blessed, but “ASTOUNDING”. It’s unclear if Todd knew exactly how that word is significant to me – but ASTOUNDING was the name of my favorite science fiction magazine, ANALOG.
So what does that mean here in 2025? I don’t know for sure, but according to my records, my average sales percentage from when I began to keep records in 1990 through 2005, was 3.35%. Since the prayers, my average sales percentage from 2006-2010, was 11.974%.
References: https://christianscholars.com/towards-a-robust-and-scholarly-christian-engagement-with-science-fiction/
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