Stop Writing "Christian" Stories - Why Many Faith-Based Stories Feel Shallow

Many writers assume that Christian stories are defined by clean content, religious themes, or explicit references to faith. But a Christian worldview is not a genre.

In this episode of The Storyteller's Mission, Zena Dell Lowe explains why many faith-based stories feel preachy, emotionally shallow, or dramatically ineffective despite their good intentions. More importantly, she reveals how writers can create stories that communicate biblical truth at a deep structural level without relying on overt religious content.

Through examples from Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, and modern storytelling trends, you'll discover the difference between worldview and genre, truth and signaling, and why some secular stories often resonate more deeply than many faith-based films.

Topics Covered:

• Christian worldview vs Christian genre
 • Why faith-based films often struggle
 • Storytelling and moral truth
 • Die Hard and biblical morality
 • Lethal Weapon as moral storytelling
 • Principles vs rules in story
 • The problem with preachy writing
 • Writing stories that resonate
 • Biblical worldview in screenwriting
 • Christian storytelling and culture

CHAPTERS

00:00 A Secular Story Can Tell More Truth
 01:12 What People Mean by "Christian Film"
 02:00 Why Die Hard Matters
 03:00 Principles vs Rules
 05:30 Compassion vs Justice
 06:30 What a Worldview Really Is
 07:10 Genre vs Worldview
 08:20 The Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters Example
 10:30 Why Nuance Matters
 11:10 Secular Stories and Biblical Truth
 11:25 Lethal Weapon vs Modern Storytelling
 12:40 The Postmodern Worldview Shift
 14:00 What Writing a Christian Worldview Actually Means
 15:25 Stop Trying to Write Christian Stories
 15:50 Why the Faith-Based Industry Struggles
 17:35 What This Means for Writers
 19:45 We Need More Truthful Stories

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Transcript

[00:00:00] A story can be completely secular and still affirm biblical truth at a deep structural level, whereas an explicitly Christian one can still [00:00:10] communicate something false and distorted and shallow. And I would argue a lot of our current so-called Christian stories do exactly [00:00:20] that. Here's the core problem and why it matters.

Right now, people are using the term Christian film as a genre label. The Christian [00:00:30] worldview is not a genre. It's a lens through which reality is interpreted. Now, those are not the same thing, and confusing them is exactly [00:00:40] why so much faith-based content feels preachy and shallow, emotionally dishonest, or y- just not very good.

Because the goal quietly [00:00:50] shifts from telling the truth about reality to signaling that this is Christian content, and those are radically different creative missions. [00:01:00] So today, I want to help you understand the differences once and for all. Hello, and welcome to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, a podcast [00:01:10] for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story.

Now, when people say Christian film, what they usually [00:01:20] mean is something that has overt moral messaging or clean content, explicit references to God or Jesus, a target [00:01:30] audience made up of people from the faith-based community. But here's the thing: none of that actually guarantees a Christian [00:01:40] worldview. In fact, ironically, some films that never mention God at all are actually far more biblically aligned with an understanding of, [00:01:50] say, good and evil, sacrifice, redemption, justice, human nature, values that are promoted through a biblical moral worldview.

[00:02:00] For example Do you remember the film Die Hard? Now, on the surface, Christians would probably categorize it as violent, [00:02:10] profane, secular, worldly. But structurally and morally, it actually operates from an incredibly traditional moral framework. [00:02:20] John McClane is not an anti-hero in the modern sense. He's flawed, yes, but the story still believes that evil is real, that courage matters, [00:02:30] that self-sacrifice matters, and cowardice is shameful.

Reconciliation, he's trying to reconcile with his wife. And that ordinary men can [00:02:40] rise under pressure. Even the emotional spine of the movie is restorative. A broken marriage can be healed through sacrificial action and [00:02:50] humility. The film never confuses moral weakness with moral virtue. That's huge.

Modern storytelling often collapses that distinction [00:03:00] altogether. A worldview is about being capable of telling the truth about reality even when competing truths are in [00:03:10] tension. Everybody wants black and white answers. The problem is that the Bible is not primarily black and white. It is [00:03:20] primarily a book about principles.

And yes, there are some black and white commandments, like the Ten Commandments, for example. But for the most part, [00:03:30] it tells us stories, it tells us situations, and then it's our job to discern the principles that are at play and figure out how to [00:03:40] apply those to our own situation to a- arrive at the proper thing to do.

It's principles versus rules. And see, people [00:03:50] want black and white answers because that's a lot easier. We don't have to think. We don't have to labor over it if someone just tells [00:04:00] us what we have to do. We would rather check off a list so we can feel virtuous. There's a difference between rules and [00:04:10] wisdom that we get from experience.

Now, this inability is what got the Pharisees into trouble, right? They [00:04:20] obeyed the law, but not the spirit of the law. And religious people, by the way, aren't the only ones that do this. This is a human problem. In fact, I have a dear friend [00:04:30] of mine who's an atheist. He's more moral than most of my Christian friends because he's a rule follower.

Now, the problem, [00:04:40] of course, is that following the rules does not in fact make you a good person. In fact, as Jordan Peterson says, it often just makes you an [00:04:50] obedient coward. What makes you wise or good is knowing when and why and how to behave regardless of the rules. You have to be able to think [00:05:00] critically and take in the complexity of a situation.

What did that person do? Has that person experienced sufficient consequences for their [00:05:10] actions? Are they repentant? Are they willing to make things right? Are they actively trying to make things right? I mean, these are things we're taking into [00:05:20] account, and this is what has gotten us into trouble culturally because we are no longer able to take into account all of those competing things that are in [00:05:30] play.

The new overarching rule is that compassion has to be exercised. That is what we're living in now, a compassion [00:05:40] ethics Criminals are being set free because they've had difficult circumstances. People are protesting ICE because they're deporting [00:05:50] illegals, and that's not compassionate. We're often prioritizing compassion over justice.

But see, a proper biblical moral worldview goes deeper than this. [00:06:00] Morality isn't about compliance. It's about knowing when to show mercy or justice or when to confront evil, when to [00:06:10] forgive, when to allow grace to heal a situation versus when are we enabling and when does that [00:06:20] become destruction? There is no universal flowchart for that.

You have to discern the deeper principles at play. In other words, a worldview is [00:06:30] about being capable of telling the truth about reality even when competing truths are in tension. That's what we're looking at. A [00:06:40] Christian worldview doesn't flatten the tensions. It wrestles honestly with them. And this is exactly where Christian [00:06:50] storytelling often collapses because many Christian films aren't actually interested in wrestling with reality.

They're interested in signaling [00:07:00] moral safety, and that's different. And once you notice that, you can't unsee it. So here's the distinction. A Christian [00:07:10] film, as we commonly refer to it, is a market category. It's something that's defined by branding, audience targeting, content [00:07:20] restrictions, messaging, like clear messaging.

And it is answering one fundamental question: Who is this story for, and how [00:07:30] will it be received by that market? A Christian worldview, on the other hand, is a philosophical and theological framework [00:07:40] And that's defined by what the story says is true about reality. What is sin? What is good? What is justice?

What does redemption require? What is the [00:07:50] nature of human beings in general? The answers to those questions are about what the story ultimately claims is true. And [00:08:00] again, here's why it matters: because a film can be explicitly Christian and still communicate a distorted or shallow worldview. [00:08:10] Conversely, a film can be completely secular and still align with Biblical truth at a deep structural level.

Let me give you an example. When I was working on the film [00:08:20] Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, the version of the script that I got had a father that was a really horrible person, really. He [00:08:30] worked too much. He didn't pay attention to his daughters. And so really the moral of the story was don't work so hard.

Like, s- spend time with the people you love. But he was supposed to be a [00:08:40] Christian. He kept going to his daughters with Bible verses, but in the meantime he wasn't practicing... I mean, like, this is what he's supposed to be doing. It was a mess. [00:08:50] The moral center of the film was a mess. The worldview was completely distorted.

Then there was another character that was supposed [00:09:00] to be the moral authority who's supposed to help this guy get back on track, but this guy, all he did was [00:09:10] pass judgment. He was harsh and judgmental and lacked compassion. He said things like, "Get your house in order before I'm gonna do business [00:09:20] with you."

I mean, it was so horrible, and yet he was supposed to be the morally righteous one. Now on the surface, maybe that looked righteous. [00:09:30] I don't think it did, but theologically it was completely misaligned. See, a truly moral character within a Christian worldview [00:09:40] would be able to hold both truth and grace at the same time.

He wouldn't simply condemn the father. He would understand the [00:09:50] father's struggle, and he would respond with compassion, not superiority. A more honest version of the story wouldn't be about a negligent [00:10:00] father who needed to be corrected. It would be about a loving father who simply didn't know how to connect with daughters Now that is a real human [00:10:10] problem, and that's where transformation actually means something.

But see, stories like this are much harder to write because it requires nuance [00:10:20] and deeper understanding. They require a worldview that can see both dignity and depravity at the same time [00:10:30] without collapsing into cliche. Now here's the thing. Most of the films from the early days of Hollywood actually reflected a biblical moral [00:10:40] worldview.

That's something that a lot of people don't understand or, or at least don't wanna give credit to. And the reason for that is because back then we still had [00:10:50] a shared understanding of what was right and wrong because we still fundamentally lived in a society that was built on biblical [00:11:00] values. So even without ever talking about God, we had stories that reflected a moral worldview, a biblical moral worldview.

And so what ended up [00:11:10] happening is that even overtly secular stories sometimes end up understanding biblical truth more deeply than many of today's [00:11:20] so-called faith-based films do. Uh, Lethal Weapon. Underneath all the action and vulgarity, it's really a story about despair versus [00:11:30] hope. You know, it's about a guy who's in isolation and finds friendship with an unlikely person.

Not, not just friendship, but family. It's a [00:11:40] healing journey from trauma. Riggs, at the end of that story, chooses life instead of death. He's going to kill himself at the beginning. He wants to, but he just can't [00:11:50] totally end it, but he's essentially suicidal. So the entire emotional arc is about restoring his connection to humanity through his new partner.[00:12:00] 

That is deeply moral storytelling. Now compare that to many modern stories, like for example, the new Running Man remake, where at the [00:12:10] end of Running Man nihilism is sophistication. You know, corruption becomes maturity. Morality is, is [00:12:20] naive. Cynicism is intelligence. Evil is merely a perspective. That's the worldview shift that a film like that makes, which I'm going to go in [00:12:30] another episode, so you'll have to come back and listen to that.

But my point is that our modern-day stories are suffering because we now live in a [00:12:40] postmodern culture where telling the truth about reality is often interpreted as telling my truth or staying emotionally authentic. It becomes [00:12:50] relative. But it used to be that we shared the same moral basis for culture, and so even secular stories had a [00:13:00] biblically moral worldview.

They weren't overt in content. Do you understand what I'm saying? So when I say that they reflect [00:13:10] what is true, what I mean is that they accurately reflect an objective reality as revealed through the Bible in terms of what makes [00:13:20] mankind who they are, human nature, what's true, what's good, what's right, what's worthy.

And ultimately, every story answers those questions, whether it [00:13:30] intends to or not. The only issue is whether it answers them truthfully. So again, a story can be completely secular and still affirm biblical truth at a deep [00:13:40] structural level, whereas an explicitly Christian one can still communicate something false and distorted and shallow.

And I would argue a lot of our [00:13:50] current so-called Christian stories do exactly that. Which begs the question then, what does it actually mean then to write a [00:14:00] Christian worldview? Okay. Well, writing a Christian worldview does not mean inserting religious content. It means, again, portraying [00:14:10] reality as it actually is, telling the truth, recognizing things like good and evil are real, that choices matter, that human beings are broken, but [00:14:20] they're not beyond redemption, that transformation is costly, that truth exists whether we feel it or not, that sacrifice, humility, and love are not weaknesses, but [00:14:30] strengths.

None of these requires a church scene or a sermon or an altar call or even the name of Jesus to be spoken. We just have to show the [00:14:40] characters honestly navigating a sinful world where they are suffering, and you do that without preaching. When the story world feels consistent with how [00:14:50] human beings really experience life, it rings true, and truth is powerful.

Now, this doesn't mean that there's no value in writing clean, family-friendly stories, [00:15:00] especially for children. There is a place for simple edifying tales, but don't confuse them with deep, truthful storytelling. And for [00:15:10] adults, we should be going deeper. Now I've actually written a lot of articles, and also I've talked a lot about the seven essential ingredients of a biblical [00:15:20] moral worldview.

I've talked a lot about this. I highly encourage you to find the podcast episodes where I talk about these things because that's how you create a [00:15:30] biblically moral worldview. And I think we need to get away from trying to create Christian stories. I've been arguing this from the get-go. There's a temptation to say [00:15:40] that we need both kinds of stories, but I don't believe that that's strong enough.

The truer argument is that the category of Christian film that [00:15:50] we currently use today has replaced the pursuit of truth with the pursuit of approval. Why does this happen? Well, it happens [00:16:00] because the system producing these stories doesn't actually reward truth. It rewards signals. You label something Christian, and now [00:16:10] audiences automatically know to expect clean content, safe themes, inoffensive language.

But none of that demands a deeper understanding of theology or [00:16:20] more insight into the human condition, or even a solid story structure. The sad truth is that we've unintentionally trained the market to expect [00:16:30] something from us that doesn't actually reflect the depth of Christianity. We've signaled that what makes a story Christian is its restraint.

No sex, no [00:16:40] language, no violence, rather than its understanding of reality. And over time, that creates a feedback loop. The market rewards what it [00:16:50] recognizes. Creators deliver more of it, and the signal then becomes the identity. Many films produced within the faith-based system, [00:17:00] including those from platforms like Pure Flix, rely heavily on these external markers of faith while neglecting the deeper moral and [00:17:10] theological coherence that would actually make a story true Stories like this create the appearance of Christianity, but they don't [00:17:20] engage the substance of it.

They avoid certain behaviors, but they end up flattening the reality of sin or the complexity of the human condition, [00:17:30] and they sanitize the world, and by sanitizing it, they end up distorting it. Now, hear me. I'm not saying that Christian films are fake and secular films are [00:17:40] true. That's not my argument.

My real argument is something subtler. Explicit religious content does not automatically equal [00:17:50] truthful worldview. Conversely, the absence of religious language does not automatically mean false worldview. That nuance matters. [00:18:00] Now, what does this mean for writers? Well, if you are a Christian, it means that you are free because suddenly you [00:18:10] don't have to write message-driven stories.

You don't have to force an altar call into act three. You don't have to sanitize the [00:18:20] human struggle. Instead, you can tell honest stories. You can let the truth emerge through consequence and reality. You can build [00:18:30] characters who actually wrestle with reality, which ironically is far more aligned with how truth actually operates biblically anyway because the Bible is not [00:18:40] sanitized.

It's full of betrayal, murder, lust, cowardice, failure, grief, confusion, violence, deception, rape. I [00:18:50] mean, moral collapse. It portrays those things truthfully, not exploitively, not sentimentally, not in a way that [00:19:00] glorifies them, not simplistically, but realistically. And I think Christian storytellers need to recover that [00:19:10] depth because right now much of the culture assumes Christians are shallow thinkers precisely because so much Christian media has trained audiences to associate [00:19:20] Christianity with emotional oversimplification.

That's the tragedy. We've accidentally communicated that Christianity is primarily about [00:19:30] behavioral restraint instead of profound truth, and Christianity is not shallow It is the deepest and most [00:19:40] psychologically honest worldview I know of. But if our stories don't reflect that depth, audiences will never see it.

So no, I [00:19:50] don't think the goal should be we need more Christian stories. We need more truthful stories, stories courageous enough to portray [00:20:00] reality honestly. We also need to understand the difference between what is a so-called Christian story [00:20:10] and what is ultimately a Christian worldview. They are not the same thing.

We need to get better at identifying it and [00:20:20] communicating it, and our stories shouldn't be overt if we truly wanna influence culture, but they absolutely should have a Christian [00:20:30] worldview. And by the way, this is what makes them resonate with people anyway. Because if Christianity is true, it is the best answer to all of our story [00:20:40] questions because it's actually dealing in reality.

That is what we're trading in here, truth. I hope that this has been helpful. If it [00:20:50] has, please take a moment to comment, share, and like and subscribe to this episode. That really helps us. And come [00:21:00] back for our next episode. Thank you for listening to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe. May you go forth inspired to change the world for the [00:21:10] better through story.