That might be true, but then how can we use it? In what ways can Christian writers wield the pen to win back the West and make it Christian again? How can we wield the pen like a sword?
With England on the brink of civil war, Iran threatening to attack Israel, and the United States polarized like perhaps never before, some people think that the only way to rejuvenate the West is to return to the Christian faith. I believe the West, and especially the United States, is worth saving for its values of individual freedom based on the Christian faith, its achievements and leadership in a variety of fields due in a large part to its values of freedom of speech and the capitalistic economic system, and its ability to provide social advancement for those who are willing to work hard, work smart, and make the most of their opportunities and themselves.
Missionaries and more evangelists might be needed to make the West Christian again. They can and should use popular culture to their maximum advantage because it engages people through mediums that they already use and enjoy. To look for ideas on how this can be done, I turned to the font of wisdom in our modern age: ChatGPT.
I asked:
“What are good ways that Christians can use popular culture to promote the Christian faith?”
This post is based on what the machine brain said. I wrote it down and also added my own ideas. Please feel free to like, share, comment and make more suggestions. This is a brainstorming session on how Christians can claim the social media sphere.
If we are going to fight against enemies from without and within, as well as against this creeping sense of doom and despair that has taken hold of the West and is threatening to destroy our lives, a good first step is to write about it, talk about it, and make films about it. At the center of all three those activities is the ability to write well. That is something that takes time to learn. Not only do you have to master the basics of English grammar, but you must also learn how to structure sentences, expand your vocabulary, master rhetoric, learn how to come up with and use fresh metaphors, and write with style, but you also need to write every day, for a long time to get really, really good at it. Luckily I like it.
In the meantime, we can start to produce Sherman tanks. What do I mean by that?
During the Second World War the Germans initially focused on building more tanks than their enemies, even thought the quality was not as good. However, later on they became almost obsessive about building the biggest and best tanks. Instead of quantity, they focused on quality, and their tanks like the Panther and the King Tiger, a monstrosity that weighed more than seventy tons, making it too heavy to maneuver in some terrain, were some of the best in the world, technically superior to anything the Allies had. They also built the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus which means the ‘mouse’ in English, the largest tank ever weighing in at an astonishing hundred and eighty-eight tons. Instead of trying to match them for quality or size, the Allies produced T-34 and Sherman tanks that were not quite as good, but good enough and cheap enough to be produced in such superior numbers that they eventually overcame the superior German technology and won the war.
So my idea is that we should not wait until we can write at the highest level before we publish something, but instead start to turn out “Shermans,” learn while we are doing, and in the process we will get better and also start to get our message out, which is essential in this “war of ideas.” In the process we will sharpen our thinking, improve our skills, and eventually produce Panthers. Hopefully by that stage the war will be won.
My point is that writing is a central skill and if you want to write well, you must also read a lot. It will benefit you to do a course in speechwriting since it will give you good ideas on how you can writer better Blogs, Vlogs, and Youtube contents, keeping it interesting. Professor Richard Walter who taught screenwriting at the University of California in Los Angeles always says that they only have one rule:
“Don’t be boring.”
That is good advice.
When you write a speech, it is a good to divide it into three parts: An introduction, the body, and the conclusion.
The introduction has to grab the reader or the listener’s attention. A good way to do this is to use humor, use a quotation (something from the Bible, Shakespeare, or from Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations should do), tell a relevant anecdote, ask a rhetorical question, give a surprising statistic, refer to something that your audience will know, and try to establish common ground: “we all want our kids to grow up safe,” or whatever is relevant.
If you want to write well, if behooves you to explore the wide and wacky field of creative writing. It does not only include the classical three fields of poetry, novels, and short stories, but also creative non-fiction writing, song-writing, writing plays, screenplays, writing for games, and even coming up with interactive experiences like a haunted house at a theme park, which I find fascinating.
It takes time to study these fields, but it is well worth the effort. Saint Paul wrote with power, Saint Augustine taught rhetoric before he became a Christian and he used those skills to write Christian masterpieces like Confessions and The City of God that are in print to this very day, and poets like Dante, Milton, and T.S. Eliot wrote beautiful, edifying, and evocative poetry that enchants us and that everybody, including non-Christians should read just for the pure artistry.
There is a long tradition of literature that Christians can draw inspiration from.
The Bible is the seminal work of the Western literary canon and not only is it chock-a-block with beautiful stories that writers can adapt, but much of it is also written in a poetic style that they would do well to imitate. Although he was probably not a Christian, Cormac McCarthy wrote much of his Western masterpiece Blood Meridian in the style of the St. James Bible, giving it a distinctive feel.
The Book of Kells is a beautifully illuminated Latin translation of the four Gospels and one of the most beautiful books ever created. It is filled with beautiful illustrations, making it a treasure trove of art.
It was created by a group of monks who lived on a lonely island off the west coast of Scotland. When a group of marauding Vikings attacked them in the year 806, the monks fled and took the book with them to Ireland where they opened another monastery at Kells near Dublin.
These monks adopted Celtic artistry to depict the Christian message. In a similar way, Christians in different cultures can tap into the artistic tradition of their own society to make the word of God more accessible to their contemporaries.
Before The Book of Kells there was The Book of Durrow and The Lindisfarne Gospels, but none of them come close to the masterpiece.
Today you can view it at Trinity College in Dublin, the oldest university in Ireland.
A lot of great poetry was written by Christians or have a Christian theme. For example Dante’s Divine Comedy, arguably the greatest poem in the Western canon, the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, The Temple by George Herbert, Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake, the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot and The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, to name just a few.
Emily Dickinson wrote over one thousand seven hundred poems in which she asked questions about God and eternity. Sometimes they are full of faith, while other times they reflect her doubt, showing how she wrestled with God and deep issues that should concern us all.
Her upstairs bedroom looked out over a cemetery, keeping death near her mind. Despite these dark thoughts, she expressed her love for God through her love for the world He created. Her poems are part of the Western canon and well-worth the read.
Here’s just a taste:
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –
Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –
I, just wear my Wings –
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton — sings.
God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I’m going, all along.
Among novels there are the works of Jane Austen, The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene that come to mind.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3daf3fca-04b9-4849-a1a6-300f06316f45_446x370.jpeg)
In The Power and the Glory, Greene tells the story of a priest who is hunted by the authorities during a time of religious persecution in Mexico, something that might well happen in the West soon. He is morally weak and struggles with alcoholism, but he valiantly tries to fulfill his duties as a priest as best as he can under the circumstances. Through this terrific tale we learn that God can use us even when we are not perfect, even if we are horrible, miserable, failed sinners, sinners like ourselves.
The short stories of G. K. Chesterton in The Innocence of Father Brown, and The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor are terrific, while The Pilgrim’s Progress, written by John Bunyan, is a great allegory that will transform your heart along the way.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe7d5d020-23c7-47ab-bb52-f6abb1f69393_700x683.jpeg)
Flannery O’Connor’s dark Southern Gothic tales will resonate with Christians and those who despise the faith alike. Her haunting short story A Good Man is hard to Find is one of the best ever written. There are plenty of others just as worthy of your time. If that is not exciting enough for you, give your imagination flight with some fantasy fiction.
Christian writers were among the pioneers in this field. Read the Fairy Tales of George MacDonald, The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, which inspired G.R.R. Martin who has become famous for not finishing A Song of Ice and Fire. They are seminal works of Western Fantasy.
Tolkien’s tale about Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Wizard, and the “one ring to rule them all” has been acclaimed as the most popular books of the twentieth century. Tolkien did not only tell a terrific tale about a road journey, he created an entire alternative universe and a myth for modern times.
Christian writers can draw inspiration from these great writers and produce their own worthy works. Since we are in a “culture war,” a war for hearts and minds, we can also take a leaf from the playbook of the American political campaign managers who won elections for George Bush and Barack Obama. They have much to teach us.
According to Karl Rove, the brilliant, bespectacled, brain behind George W. Bush’s victories in the 1994 and 1998 Texas gubernatorial campaigns and Bush’s successful 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, there are four types of political advertisements that they used:
The first one is just to introduce your candidate.
Writers can do something similar by writing biographies or autobiographies of prominent Christians that shows how they encountered God and how faith transformed their lives. These personal testimonies of faith can inspire others to follow in their footsteps. A great example of this is the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who opposed the Nazis and died for his faith during the Second World War, written by Eric Metaxas.
The second type explains your policies, what you stand for.
Write novels and stories that include Christian themes, values, and messages of hope, forgiveness, and love. Christians can write novels, short stories, and poems that retell or re-imagine biblical stories in different times and places. This can help readers to draw parallels between the timeless truths of Christianity and the situations they might find themselves in today or in the future. The onus should be on telling a good story.
Writers can create allegorical tales like The Pilgrim’s Progress and the Chronicles of Narnia where characters, events, and settings symbolize spiritual truths and Christian principles. To do this you will need to have a thorough understanding of Christian teachings.
Write non-fiction books and blogs that provide spiritual insights, that reflect on Scripture, and provide practical ways that Christians can apply Biblical teachings. This can include daily devotionals, essays, or even poetry that inspires readers in their faith.
Create children’s books that introduce young readers to the Bible stories as well as other stories that teach virtues and moral lessons in ways that are appropriate for their age. These books can lay a foundation of faith and develop their characters from an early age.
From Aesop’s fables, to Winnie the Pooh, the Wind in the Willows, and Treasure Island, to comic books like Francis: Brother of the Universe that tells the life story of Saint Francis of Assisi, there are plenty of good children stories which can serve as an example and inspiration. Even Shakespeare got his ideas from history, classical myths, and the Bible, so don’t be afraid to borrow, steal, and adapt.
One thing that I liked about David Axelrod‘s campaign for Barack Obama is that they used ordinary people, often people that are known in the community and that others can relate to, to talk about the problems that they experience in their lives, and then they show how their political candidate intends to fix it and improve the lives of these people in a tangible way.
In a similar way, Christians can talk to ordinary people in the street about the problems that they face and then have a pastor, a priest, or a preacher explain how Christ can solve their problems.
The third type is comparative advertisements, comparing your policies to those of the opposition party, your candidate with the opposition candidate, you with the enemy.
Those who are so inclined can write literary criticism that appraise classic and contemporary literature from a Christian perspective and analyze how the worldviews of the authors and the stories and their themes correspond to or differ from Christian principles, giving readers and scholars insights that might encourage them to read or avoid certain books.
After all, good books and stories stay with us for the rest of our lives, shaping us in some way and influencing our moral development, which means that we should be very picky about what we read, just like we should be picky about who we spend our time with.
Writers can and should engage in philosophical and theological debates and controversies by writing essays, academic articles, or non-fiction books that compare the Christian way with that of the world, and that explore questions of faith, morality, and the existence of God at a deep level. This can provide the frameworks that thinkers need to better understand Christianity and provide Christian apologists with the intellectual ammunition they need to fight against those who criticize and oppose the faith. The magisterial Summa Theologia of Saint Thomas Aquinas is a fine example of this and can serve as a good starting point for all you budding brainiacs out there.
A good example is the book Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come, written by John Daniel Davidson (Shout out to my fellow Alumni of Hillsdale College).
You can buy a copy of it here: https://www.amazon.com/Pagan-America-Decline-Christianity-Dark/dp/1684514444
The fourth type of videos are used to attack the enemy, their policies and their candidate, them.
Writers and researchers can write about issues in current affairs from a Christian viewpoint, be it in books, essays, or blog posts that explore topics like the war in the Middle East, the creeping Communism that is threatening to consume the West, abortion, or whatever burns in your heart. Go for the jugular. We need to start to attack the enemy. The time for being “nice” is over.
Even though many people do not read much these days, there is perhaps no better way to explore issues of faith on a deep level than literature. We should use it, and use it well. Christian writers can take the same approach as the political policy wonks and create content that tells about Jesus and the Saints, explain the Christian faith, what it stands for, and then compare it to the other faiths or the lack of it, and finally attack those who are threatening our way of life.
Let’s see if the pen is mightier than the sword. Let’s keep the West free. Let’s make the West Christian again.
“Deus vult!”
If you like what you just read, please follow me on Medium and share this with your friends. If you did not, I thank you for reading this far and I hope you will like my next post.
Thank you.
Bibliography
Glaspey, T. (2015). 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.
Hanson, V.D. (2017). The Second World Wars. New York: Basic Books
Smith, S.S. (2008). The Everything Public Speaking Book. Vero Beach: Adams Media.