Lesson in comeback of Christian literature

The Harry Potter genre of literature that has been topping the bestseller lists all over the world for a number of years now has been ousted from its seemingly unassailable number one position by books, believe it or not, about Christianity.

This little snippet of news from a leading British publishing house suggested that this sudden and increased interest in Christianity has not all been attributed to the record sales of Dan Brown’s controversial Da Vinci Code.

Unfortunately, the press release I received did not offer any sort of detail as to who had suddenly taken an interest in matters Christian, or why.

But, it does seem to make sense.

First of all, there is no question that the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with provocative drum beating by the White House in the direction of Iran, Syria and North Korea, has not only raised an enormous amount of televised discussion on and interest in Islam in Western countries, but it is probably safe to assume that there is equally a considerable amount of interest in the middle and Far East on the subject of Christianity.

Not only prompted by American war-mongering but also as a result of the quite remarkable mind-set changes that have taken place in the United States since the tragedy of 9/11.

There is now no question that President George W Bush gained his second term of office on the back of a Christian vote, in spite of the tenor of his presidential campaign being quite blatantly one of instilling that age-old, tried and trusted political ploy of “fear and consumption”.

The world has watched with interest since 9/11 how US society has retreated into a laager of conservatism which will surely spread across the globe, on the basis of the adage that when America sneezes the world catches a cold.

A positive side effect of this social trauma in the US is that a groundswell of moral regeneration has swept the nation. I don’t have any statistics at hand, but I would imagine that church attendances have increased.

An example of this moral regeneration took place last year when singer Janet Jackson fleetingly and “inadvertently” bared one of her breasts at a nationally televised sports event. The entire country was outraged beyond imagination.

Now all of this is certainly good news for everyone who has been fighting what has been considered a losing battle against nudity and sex on television and in cinemas, because if ever the mass market has sent a strong and unequivocal message to the entertainment industry, this was it.

It is inconceivable that movie and television producers failed to take note of that reaction.

But, getting back to Harry Potter and his ilk having been forced out of pole position on the best seller lists by Christianity, we cannot rely on books alone to show to our detractors that our faith is founded on peace and forgiveness–in spite of the Crusades (and George W Bush doing battle under a Christian cloak).

Christians must not to fall into the trap to which a lot of Hollywood movies, TV documentaries and news services are leading us: to totally demonise Islam.

Just as Christianity is trying to demonstrate that it is not entirely made up of war-mongering fanatics, so Islam is also trying to get the world to understand that Osama bin Laden is an exception, not the rule.

Pope John Paul has led the way in forging closer understandings among religions. Catholics particularly need to follow his lead in not falling prey to anti-Islamic propaganda.

It is, I suspect, our Christian duty to try and understand as much about Islam as we can. Quite simply because I for one, will not rest easily until Islamic literature shares pride of place at number one spot on the bestseller lists with Christianity.