A constant topic of debate among my Christian novelist friends has to do with market aim — Should they aim for the mainstream market or the Christian market? One reason that many Christian writers choose to publish in the Christian market is because of a perceived hostility toward religious themes in the general market. According to that sentiment, you can’t write about God or explicit Gospel content without running the risk of censure. Well, it turns out that’s not true. At least, not exactly.

A recent article in the NY Times confirms that “religion is the last taboo” in YA fiction. In Is Any Topic Off-Limits When You Write for Teenagers? Maybe Just One, YA author Donna Freitas writes,

Of course, it’s for all the right reasons that talk of religion in the mainstream Y.A. publishing world makes people nervous. We worry someone might be trying to convert or indoctrinate teenagers; we resist preachiness about certain moral perspectives. Religions and religious people have done and still do reprehensible things in our world, to women, to children, to some of the people I care most deeply about.

Calls for censorship of novels for children and young adults typically arise from religiously affiliated quarters; Harry Potter has been banned because of fears of witchcraft, and His Dark Materials has been banned because Philip Pullman is an outspoken atheist.

Talk of religion makes me twitchy for all those reasons, and because I am feminist, liberal, pro-L.G.B.T.Q. Religion can make me enraged, dismayed, disgusted.

And yet, it is a part of me. Maybe one of the best parts.

According to Freitas, “talk of religion in mainstream. Y.A.” is indeed something we should be concerned about. But why? Is it because religion has done unimagineable harm to humans or foistered precepts that have poisoned generations of innocent souls? Sort of. “We worry someone might be trying to convert or indoctrinate teenagers; we resist preachiness about certain moral perspectives.”

“Certain moral perspectives.” This is the phrase of import here.

Let’s assume for a moment that indoctrinating teenagers with “certain moral perspectives” is above the gatekeepers of mainstream YA. I mean, their aim is simply to entertain and tell a good story. It’s only religious folks who have such nefarious aims. So what kind of “indoctrination” of our young adults should we fear from religious authors? What “moral perspectives” might taint their sensibilities? Apparently it’s those “perspectives” that counter Freitas’. “Talk of religion makes me twitchy… because I am feminist, liberal, pro-L.G.B.T.Q. Religion can make me enraged, dismayed, disgusted.”

In other words, the “indoctrination” or “moral perspectives” that make mainstream YAers “twitchy” are those that are not shared by the “feminist, liberal, pro-L.G.B.T.Q” ally.

Interestingly, Freitas’ advice is not that we should ban religious content from YA lit, but that we should only ban certain content to ensure that it conforms to a specific “moral perspective.”

To ignore religion in Y.A. cedes the entire conversation about religion and spirituality, and all that it stands for, to exactly the kind of intolerant voices that Y.A. publishing has fought so hard against. Teenage readers search for themselves in books. The world of Y.A. is an activist one — an ideal sphere in which to interrupt the toxic religion-speak and attitudes that dominate our politics and culture at the moment, and to model the kind of spiritual longing so many young adults harbor, often secretly. Like me, they learn to be ashamed of it.

Central to the author’s argument here is an appropriate caricature of the particular religion she fears. What religion is that? Well, pretty much any religion that is counter to her “feminist, liberal, pro-L.G.B.T.Q.” one. Elsewhere in the article she describes this toxic religion as “conservative, antisex and intolerant.”

Make no mistake, the “religion” that the author is inferring is “off-limits” in YA fiction is traditional evangelicalism. You know, the kind that is “conservative, antisex and intolerant.” But is there any other kind?

I suppose it should hearten Christian authors to know that there are those in the YA community who will cede some religious topics for inclusion in the genre. What should concern us, however, is that that concession demands conformity. We may write about religion in YA lit, but only providing that it hews closely to progressive values. The “God” of YA fiction must be LGBTQ-affirming, inclusive of all religions, and theologically ambiguous. The only “moral perspective” an author is allowed to convey in YA are perspectives that don’t make others “twitchy.”

If only I could get God to comply with those demands.

Bottom line: Religion IS off-limits in YA fiction… unless it caricatures conservative believers as narrow-minded bigots and their morality as toxic, bigoted, hate.

Though I’m not a big fan of the Christian fiction market, it’s articles like Freitas that remind us why so many conservative evangelical writers do not cross over. Not only is there a vocal disdain in the industry against the type of religion many of these authors practice, but there is a contrary “moral perspective” that they are required to embrace.