Violence in Christian Fiction

On Monday I posted some exclusive background to the character of Thomas Black, or rather Alpha 1, a mercenary with an appetite for violence. Alpha 1 has become one of my favorite side-character villains, but the themes surrounding him were a challenge to write. Murder, violence, semi-genocide – none of those are attributes that are typically welcome in Christian fiction.

It’s no surprise that violent themes are usually frowned upon in novels that also carry Christian themes. Many people read Christian-themed novels for the innocence the genre is known to encapsulate. Prairie romances, Christian-themed mysteries, and supernatural thrillers fill Christian bookstores with plenty of material that can appease  readers looking for novel entertainment lacking ‘worldly’ stuff – like sex, violence, or coarse language.

But there’s another crowd out there that have a desire for Christian fiction that pushes the boundaries of convention and treads along lesser-traveled paths leading to great literary adventure.

In my Black Earth series, which falls under the category of edgy Christian speculative (scifi, fantasy,horror) fiction, the theme of violence made its way into the storyline early on with the introduction of Alpha 1. A malevolent mercenary who takes pleasure in obliterating an entire church camp in a hail of gunfire, Alpha 1 resembles the very character who is usually not welcome in a Christian novel.

I am aware that used irresponsibly, violence or any other edgy content can destroy a novel – Christian or non-Christian – however, one has to be especially careful bringing across themes of murder, bloodshed, and hate in a Christian novel. Alpha 1’s presence in the novel isn’t one to be taken lightly or one to be taken as a token of violence that I just threw into my story to prove that violence can work in Christian fiction. His arrival in the storyline ushers in a precedence set for the rest of the series: anything can happen. This is much different than just inserting him for shock factor.

I believe there are many books out there that have been written to formula. In these novels, good almost always wins, evil almost always loses, the redeeming qualities of each character are brought to light, and sometimes evildoers come to their senses and become heroes or anti-heroes. Sometimes these formulas come with the territory of genre. Sometimes these formulas are used lazily to keep the novel’s story in a box that has had a history of ‘working’. I have witnessed this ESPECIALLY in Christian fiction.

The whole theme of my Black Earth series is that Earth will be destroyed. The storyline follows the events leading up to Earth’s destruction and manages a glimpse into a multitude of different characters and what his/her impact is on the world before it is toppled by evil forces. In my writing, heroes fall, enemies succeed, and God does not necessarily come down to save the day – at least not in ways we would expect. A good portion of the series goes against formula and convention.

When Alpha 1 came on the scene, he was different than other characters I had created because he came into my novel with absolutely no limits. There are a few other characters in the book (we’ll get to at another time) who seem to have no limits as well, but Alpha 1 came into the picture in a cloud of smoke and a storm of gunfire that struck down an entire camp full of Christians. He is controversial, he is menacing, he pushes the boundaries of morals and human nature. And yet, he is a good example of the true evil that resides within our own world.

Everyone has at one time or another seen a newsfeed, read an article, known someone, or themselves been in a situation where evil dominates the canvas of life – at least for a moment in time. 9/11. Columbine. The recent movie theater massacre in Aurora. Gruesome images from these events filled out television screens and burned their images into our minds, reminding us of what humans are capable of if left unchecked. Alpha 1 is that true evil stepping out of our own world and into the pages of my stories. He exemplifies what is wrong with some of those among us. The sadistic, the utterly psychotic. And yet part of him is sane. Part of him is fully functioning and able to think and act like the rest of us. Human.

The scene in End of the Innocence when an entire campground is obliterated is a dark one. The details aren’t too horribly gruesome, but the very act itself carries with it the violence of the moment. Christians gunned down. Innocent children gunned down. It is horrendous. And yet it paints a picture just dark enough to allow the light emanating from other characters to shine through. Without darkness, one light is indistinguishable from many others. But against the backdrop of darkness, that one light is bright and easy to see, and it gives us hope.

There are many more acts of violence and evil throughout the novel series, but I wanted to shed discussion on this specific one because it was one of the more challenging scenes for me to write, and Alpha 1 is one of the most evil characters I have ever created – aside from Mr. Silver, but he’ll be in another post.

This Friday, Alpha 1’s profile will be added to the Compendium. Next Monday we’ll take a look at Daisy Pierce, and next Wednesday we’ll dive into the theme of true faith.

Black Earth Character Spotlight - Alpha 1 (Thomas Black)

Last week I gave you a glimpse into the character of Cynthia Ruin – The Pink Rabbit – and we took a look at how sexual content, if used properly, can benefit Christian fiction.

This week we’ll take a look into the character of Alpha 1, a sadistic mercenary who embodies the concept of violence, and we’ll take a look at the theme of violence and its possible place in Christian fiction.

Alpha 1 – or rather Thomas Black (his birth name) – is one of the most violent characters ever to grace the pages of my fiction. I remember cringing during the very act of writing some of his scenes, especially in the beginning of End of the Innocence, the first book in the Black Earth series.

Thomas’s story begins on the streets of Chicago, when he was ten and was forced to watch his mother die in the torturing hands of a serial killer. When Thomas was thirteen, he walked in on his father committing suicide. After receiving counseling for his childhood atrocities, Thomas was then sent to live with his uncle in New York city, with whom he received home schooling.

Thomas soon discovered that his uncle was the leader of a clandestine mercenary group known as the Alpha Team. He learned the Alpha Team had been around for hundreds of years, working in the shadows and accomplishing tasks that the government, other mercenary groups, and even military leaders of other countries couldn’t accomplish.

Over the course of his adolescence, Thomas was then trained as a member of the Alpha Team. And at the age of 22, with is uncle dying, he took over as head of the group and received the title of Alpha 1. Fueled by hatred for humanity, Alpha 1 led hundreds of successful missions which ultimately changed the course of the United States and even the world. Most of these missions entailed simple thievery or sabotage, but during the majority of them Alpha 1 took the opportunity to kill, and he killed without emotion or regret. Innocent bystanders, witnesses, high-ranking officials and the peon assistants to those high-ranking officials. As the years went by, Alpha 1 rose in arrogance and malevolence to command the greatest mercenary group mankind never knew about.

In Black Earth: End of the Innocence, Alpha 1 makes his first appearance by wiping out an entire church camp in a swarm of gunfire. A violent scene which didn’t exactly agree with some of my readers, but one that I felt needed to be written for many different reasons: to show the evil that truly exists in this world, to reveal some of the cruel and bizarre personality of Alpha 1, and to create a crisis which eventually serves to showcase other characters.

Alpha 1 is the epitome of evil, and yet there is mystery surrounding his behavior. He kills, yet when he is finished killing, he takes time to dig a pit, burn the bodies, and stack the victim’s clothing neatly near the pit, as if he has respect for those he has destroyed. Some would easily assume that money is what fuels Alpha 1’s killing habits, but he seems to have a sense of purpose as well. To accomplish the tasks he and his Alpha Team have been given becomes priority each and every time.

Thomas Black‘s behavior could very easily be traced back to the events he witnessed as a child with the death of his parents, but also seems to have roots in the necessity of control. He watched his mother be tortured and killed by a serial killer and his father take the ‘easy’ way out through suicide. Thomas is filled with a bitter root in regards to the frailty of humanity and seeks to become stronger than that frailty, even going so far as to kill other Alpha Team members who are no longer able to contribute adequately to the goals of the rest of the team.

Thomas is another broken character in a long line of broken characters who run the gambit in my Black Earth series. One who needs salvation, one who needs severe adjustment to his outlook on life and the value of life. Through the series, you see glimpses of Alpha 1’s hatred toward God – both with his attitude toward the Bible and the narrator’s indication that the Devil is who sent Thomas Black to perform the heinous actions at the church camp.

Where will the Black Earth series take Thomas Black – Alpha 1? Only time will tell.

This Wednesday we’ll take a look at the theme of violence in the Black Earth series and how violence can serve a purpose in any fiction, especially Christian fiction. On Friday, Alpha 1’s character profile will be added to the Compendium on the official website, and next week we’ll take a look at Daisy Pierce and the theme of true faith in Christian fiction.

Black Earth: Snowfall in Europe

So, a couple years ago, I decided to do something nice for some of my fans for the holidays. I created an exclusive collection of short stories taking place in my Black Earth series, all that take place before the first volume in the series, End of the Innocence. I printed this collection out, numbered each individually, and mailed them out to my fans as a Christmas gift.

I've been meaning to resurrect one or two of those stories and post them, so here's one as a treat for your Wednesday. I'll be adding these to my website at some point in the near future and may even create an ebook collection you can read on your Kindle or Nook or whatnot, but we'll see.

This particular story is about Alpha 1. I included humor in these Christmas shorts, so they may not seem as 'dark' as the novels in the series.

Here is Black Earth: Snowfall in Europe:

Alpha 1 stood, staring out the window at the snow falling outside. The hotel room was five stories up and gave him the advantage of being able to see the snow-capped mountains in the distance. Europe was beautiful this time of year, and it gave him the opportunity to relax. He didn’t mind killing people; it was just hard to do it 365 days of the year. He needed time to rest. To relax. To clear his mind.

He took another bite of the Michelina’s mac and cheese and swallowed it down with some hot cider. He watched out the window as a big white van pulled into the parking lot and dumped out a group of people. It looked like one huge family. They were all carrying gifts, and one or two of them were wearing Santa hats.

Ridiculous, Alpha 1 thought to himself. The holidays, in his opinion, had become too commercialized and too religious. Why couldn’t everyone just celebrate winter for what it was—winter? Instead everyone had to attach a stupid religious meaning to it. The birth of Christ? What kind of nonsense was that? God coming down here to this wretched place as a baby? Dumb.

Alpha 1 took the last bite of his dinner and tossed the empty container and plastic fork into the garbage can. He stood up from the table and stretched, realizing he wanted to take a walk out in the cold before turning in for the night. He slipped on his heavy jacket and opened the door.

There, on the floor in the doorway, was a small package wrapped in black and red wrapping paper with a large red bow on the top. He slid his right hand to the gun under his left armpit and glanced around the immediate area. There was nobody within sight who looked suspicious—just a couple of kids fighting with each other down the hallway a bit, a young couple holding hands as they made their way to their room, and an old man carrying a large present toward the elevator.

Alpha 1 removed his hand from his gun and picked up the small package, withdrawing into his hotel room with a slam of the door. He set the package on the desk that overlooked the window and stared at it for a moment. There was no tag on it. Just wrapping and a bow. He tried to figure out what it could be by its shape and size…maybe a book, or a movie. Maybe even a game. Who the blazes would leave him a gift? Maybe Santa, he thought cynically.

He picked up the package and started to unwrap it, hoping it wasn’t a bomb. He knew many, many people who would love to see his dead corpse be blown through the window. The thought  kept him on his toes, but also kept his adrenaline running twenty-four-seven. Made it hard to relax.

He finished unwrapping it and realized it was a book…a manga, to be exact. It was Pokemon!

Alpha 1 let himself smile. This was a limited edition Pokemon manga, one that he hadn’t been able to find in the normal comic book store. But who? He opened the front cover to see if anyone had signed it. There was nothing there but a little heart colored in pink pen. What?

He opened the door again and peered into the hallway. Nobody. The kids, the old man and the young couple were all gone. He shut the door behind him and started toward the elevator. The least he could do was go for a nice chilly walk and then head back to the room to start reading. Who on Earth would know he liked Pokemon? Some of the guys in his Alpha team did, but they wouldn’t dare give him a present, especially on what many believed was Christmas Eve.

He took the elevator to the bottom floor and walked outside. The snow was still coming down, and it felt good against his warm skin. As he made his way across the side of the hotel, he came across a man dressed in a Santa suit ringing a bell, asking for money.

“Sir, could you spare some change?”

“I’m already bringing change to the world, old man. Get a life.”

The man stopped ringing the bell and stared at Alpha 1 for a moment. “Well, that’s not very nice.”

Alpha 1 stopped and turned to the Santa. “Do I look like a nice guy to you?”

The Santa took his time answering.

“The answer is no! I’m not a nice guy. I don’t care for your Santas or your stupid Christian holiday. You ask me for money again, and I’ll make sure you don’t wake up to see the snow fall tomorrow morning.” With that, Alpha 1 turned and continued past the hotel and onto the street the building sat along.

“Alpha 1, didn’t know harassing Santa Claus was in your profile.”

He recognized the voice immediately, although he didn’t remember seeing her on his way out here. Alpha 1 turned behind him, and there stood Victoria Angeles smiling at him. Better known to him as Alpha 28.

“What are you doing here?”

She shrugged. When she did, Alpha 1 noticed the beautiful green sweater she was wearing. It matched her bright teal-colored eyes. “You and I have a mission together tomorrow. I found out that you were staying in the same hotel as me, so I thought I would say hi.”

He couldn’t stop smiling. It made him sick. “Are you the one who gave me the gift?”

She nodded. “I knew you were having trouble finding that copy, and so I pulled some strings and found it for you.”

He wanted to say thank you, but it was so incredibly against his nature that he could only nod.

She laughed. “I’ll take that as a thank you, Alpha 1.” She took a few moments to stare at the ground and then looked up at him, a nervous smile on her face. “So...the mission tomorrow is going to take us into Italy. After we kill the group of Scorop activists, you wanna grab a bite to eat? Maybe we can catch a movie while we’re at it.”

He chuckled. “Only if you promise to leave me at least half of them to kill. I wanna try out my new gun.”

“You know I don’t like to make a mess. As long as you clean it all up when we’re done.”

He smiled. “Will do.”

She nodded. “Okay, then. It’s a date. I’ll see you in the morning.” With that, she walked back toward the hotel.

Alpha 1 was nodding, but then he stopped and, with an angry expression, glanced up at her as she entered the hotel.

“Wait! A date?”

Copyright © 2009 David N. Alderman