Back in April I wrote a blog mentioning political correctness in romance, and our readers popped up with a number of intriguing questions asking how we deal with the sticky issue of religion in historicals. I’ve run a quick search and Typepad isn’t turning up any wenchly blog answering these questions (although the search function is much trickier than my poor mind), so I thought I’d consider some of these idiosyncrasies now while I’m pondering how to deal with my Mystic Isle’s religious beliefs.
Maureen asks: I know religion has always played a part in people's lives. I'm wondering if that's a tricky thing to address in order to make the book appealing to everyone.
Jane asks: how do successful writers balance their beliefs/conscience with the real or perceived demands of the market?
Personally, I invent my own religion. <G> But as I’m discovering, even that is tricky. I have a strong personal faith and part of that faith believes in obeying the Ten Commandments. So even cursing becomes a problem for me. Attempting to avoid the vernacular so I don’t take the name of the Lord in vain becomes difficult in historicals as well as contemporaries since people throughout time invariably invoke the name of the deity in times of trouble, and seldom in prayer. I thought I could avoid that in my new series by giving my Mystic Isle characters several deities and referring to them in general as “the gods.” As I progress further into the series, though, real religious issues are popping up, and I’m desperately backpedaling, attempting to determine if I need to be talking about the Gods and They, capital letters, to offer respect even if they’re made up gods, or if religious readers would be offended by my offering respect to pretend gods. 
If I can waffle over just capitalization, can you imagine what I go through when my Catholic and Protestant protagonists run up against my Mystic people? Just dealing with wedding ceremonies has my eyes crossing. Worse yet, the French government pretty much abolished the church during the period about which I’m writing, and many so-called “enlightened” people became agonistic. So in my second book, I have my agnostic heroine thrown up against my high priest from the island. Who wants to argue their beliefs for me?
So to answer Jane and Maureen, considering political correctness would make me even crazier than I 
am. I simply write my characters as they need to be. I always love a good argument, and even I can argue with myself about religion, so proselytizing my faith isn’t going to happen either. My books are stories I have to tell about a time and place in history, and characters I want to explore. If those characters have feelings about religion, that’s fine, because religion expresses a great deal about a culture and time period. I won’t pull punches because of the market, but on the other hand, unless religion is part of the book’s conflict, it won’t take a major place in my story. In romance, that generally means religion will have a role along with history, costumes, and customs. I have no more difficulty writing about it than I do about garments like farthingales and knee breeches.
I know there are people who have objected to the Harry Potter books because they have some idea that “magic” is sinful. Since I don’t believe in magic any stronger than the magic of a baby’s cry or a
dramatic sunset, I don’t understand their rationale and don’t concern myself with it. The characters in my Magic and Mystic books go to church, believe in their religion, and just happen to have “gifts” beyond the normal. That they’re God-given gifts is completely reasonable to them, and to me.
Now, if you want to start a discussion about the gender of God, we may be in trouble…
I think I owe Maureen and Jane a book. If you'd drop me a line over at my website at patriciarice.com or drop Sherrie, our whipmistress a note, and give me your address, I'll sail off MYSTIC GUARDIAN or another book of your choosing if I have it available.
And for anyone interested in the writing life, I'm still slogging away over at patriciarice.blogspot.com . Come ask questions, drop a line, or forever listen to my brainless monologue.
And for today's test questions: Does reference to "magic" offend your religious beliefs? Do you think authors ought to avoid "hot topics" like religion and politics in romance? Or do you enjoy reading between the lines, attempting to discover if an author has any specific "message"?