The Supervillain Rehabilitation Project universe is set in modern America. When I started the series, I chose to make the main character, Prism, a follower/believer in my faith, Christianity, and Fade on a path towards it.
The thing is, as the world expanded, I started chasing downside characters whose faith was not my own--or who even lacked faith altogether--but who still had a story.
I'll admit, there is a temptation to just "convert" every character I love (which is most of them) to Christianity but that's not really how the world works. A few characters do get a faith journey (I chose to have Shawn and Juliet Park become Christians--mainly because I knew who I wanted Juliet to marry and I didn't think that character would be served marrying outside his faith), but for the most part, if a character doesn't start out with that foundation, I continue to write them as what they were when they first stumbled into my world.
It's not always easy writing a character outside of my worldview, and I tend to see what I do as "portraying" other worldviews rather than "promoting" them. It's important to me to approach them honestly rather than make them easy caricatures or object lessons or anything other than a "real" person (admitting they are by nature, fictional).
Thankfully, I've often had help. I had readers who consulted with me when I introduced Wildfyre with his LDS faith/background and others who walked me through Joel and Rachel Blum's Judaism. The most common, though, is ending up with characters I would consider "secular." They don't have a particular faith. They often make moral choices I wouldn't condone or espouse viewpoints I don't share.
For instance, I don't believe in sex outside of marriage, but based on the viewpoints of a lot of my characters, they would not have the same "hang-ups." I generally will STILL put barriers between them and "hooking up" so I don't write about them doing so, but I'll acknowledge if they have pasts where this would've been a thing.
The thing is, I don't think Christianity is well-served with fiction that pretends other viewpoints don't exist or only portrays them as a contrast. We're living in this world and that includes interacting with people outside our faith. I have people I very much love who don't follow my worldview, and I never want them to see themselves in my book as punching bags or laughingstock.
Now there are some viewpoints I probably couldn't portray. A truly militant atheist or someone following outright satanic beliefs... I don't think I could handle that darkness... but for people of faiths I do interact with and have seen the humanity in them even if I disagree with their spiritual, theological, or philosophical conclusions, I never want to dehumanize them.
Because of this, I'm definitely NOT writing what I would consider Christian fiction. Ironically, my current project, Rescuing a Supervillain, has some of the strongest faith/Christian themes in it, probably closer to Reunion (which is the only book where I've ever written out a conversion scene). It's a weird little niche I've carved myself because I have way more religion in my works than you usually find in "general market" fiction but other stuff that makes my work a square peg to the round hole of Christian fiction as a market.
But overall, I like where I've landed. I know I have readers of various faiths/non-faiths, and while I think the majority of my followers/readers are Christian, I think they know not to expect me to stay to the expected for that.
Anyway, long ramble but just a general statement of how I handle this for those who are following me.
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