John Shore writes in his blog that his Christian publisher requested he take out a paragraph from his latest book that explained that although he used male gender pronouns to describe God, he didn’t really believe God could be “gonadally defined.”

“Trust me on this,” he said. “The average Christian reader can’t tolerate this sort of thought.”

I acquiesced, and cut the passage. What did I know about the average Christian reader? -

Do You, “Average Christian Reader,” Need God to Be a “He”?

Odds are, his publisher was right, at least for a very large segment of the Christian book-buying public. The very fanatical (the ones who would be buying Christian books over secular titles EVERY time), will care a lot. The vast majority of the remaining market won’t care that you use masculine (though some might feel uncomfortable with seeing feminine), and two Unitarians in California would complain that you should have used a gender neutral or feminine pronoun to describe God. And they bought the book from thrift shops anyway.

Overall, you’re much safer sticking with the masculine. It’ll get you in less trouble, and probably sell more books.

Stuff like this is important to keep in mind for any author hoping to nudge in to the large Christian book market. Even if you think that such thinking is simply small-minded fundamentalism, if that’s where the readers are, you might just want to acquiesce and go with the macho flow.

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