IN DEFENSE OF FICTION

I am a reader. I have been my whole life. I don't remember learning to do it, just that I always have. Books are like old friends. They comfort me. I enjoy the way they feel when I hold them. I enjoy the way they sound when I fan their pages. I enjoy the way they smell when I sniff them...Yes, I sniff them.

I am a connoisseur of a wide variety of genres, both fiction and non-fiction. At any given time, I am in the process of reading one or two of each. Most of my reads are Christian works, but I'm not above delving deep into the autobiography of an inspirational secular success story.

Occasionally, I receive negative feedback from folks who see fiction as completely worthless. Reading fiction requires wisdom and discretion on the part of the reader.  I will admit that many fiction writers waste their talent on mindless manuscripts and sensual drivel.  If this is the sort of thing you're mentally and visually ingesting, Congratulations! You are what you read. Junk in, junk out.

Good fiction, however, teaches. Good fiction has been researched. Good fiction moves people to make better life choices.

Much knowledge can be gleaned from fictional works that you wouldn't take the time to research yourself. This knowledge, even though learned "by accident", lies dormant to be referenced in the future.

Oh, and by the way, Jesus often taught in parables, which are fictional stories used to relate a lesson, moral or truth.

"And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, behold, a sower went forth to sow..."