299. Should Christian Authors Post About Politics? Part 2

Last week your solo host, Stephen, shared a hot take: that some authors’ sudden hot takes on political topics add more heat than light. These cringe political posts distract from the author’s job and confuse fans, and some go further into sinful slanders. Now that Zack is back, let’s re-engage this topic as fans and explore hope for biblical unity. Without telling anyone to “stop with politics!” or missing real concerns, how can authors post better about those topics, if they post at all? Episode sponsors The Restitching of Camille DuLaine by Lindsay A. FranklinRealm Makers 2026 Conference & ExpoInterregnum by J. A. WebbAbove the Circle of Earth by E. Stephen Burnett Mission update New at Lorehaven: The Restitching of Camille DuLaine review.Subscribe free to get updates and join the Lorehaven GuildAuthors: sign up for the Authorship as a Creator or Pro Novelist 1. Top recent celebrity political wins and fails Last week, Stephen should have predicted Grammy Awards cringe.He feels sympathy for Billy Eilish and others who just say stuff.Some celebrities can get away with this because they’re Big.Example 1: J.K. Rowling, who lives in a castle and everything.Example 2: George Clooney, legacy, leftist, but moderate in tone.Example 3: Conservative actors who find other (often niche) work.Authors who feel tempted to this openness: are you Big like them?It’s like going out to buy a $10,000 suit before you can afford this.If not, the cringe political post isn’t an upgrade, but a downgrade.Personally, Stephen doesn’t mind politically outspoken celebrities.Those who do this out of seeming grace/surplus tend to win.Those who do this out of seeming vengeance/poverty tend to lose.Big tip here for aspiring authors: you must give more than you take.Otherwise they look kinda desperate for attention, or else insincere. 2. Engaging your responses to episode 298 Our own Guildmaster, Ticia Messing, wants a refuge: I have several indie authors I read or recently subscribed to their newsletters who all took part in a join political statement over the weekend with the same general idea. It was clearly to win political points for their side, and it was clearly a “If you do not agree with me, you are wrong,” and reading it I felt dirty and used. Even the author who tried to be more circumspect in how she talked about it because it was still clear what she was talking about. My problem is I come to their newsletters not to read about politics; it is my refuge from politics. I read them to find out about how their writing is going, a quick glimpse into their life, some book recommendations, and maybe a snippet of their upcoming book. Instead, all of these newsletters had paragraphs about Political Issue. Jason Huff seeks to challenge cringepost motives: What is difficult about social media in general is that most posts about politics aren’t about determining a side or discussing a moral issue but virtue signaling. It doesn’t matter if the viewpoint is left, center, right, or even a pox on all the houses. Most of the time, political posts are subtly saying, “I am a good and moral person for speaking out on X issue.” This is not usually the direct and overt intention, but it’s still there on another level. When I say virtue signaling, I’m not saying that they aren’t actually morally correct in their address, but that there usually isn’t a lot at stake in doing so. Most people live, work, and play with people much like them, and they post things their friend pool is going to agree with. And so, when posting anything political, the question has to be, “What is the reason to be posting this?” It’s usually not to inform, because I’d say anyone aware of news right now has heard about Minneapolis. It’s to give a viewpoint. But unless you live in that area, does it affect your daily life right now? Not so much. The stakes are small. So when I see authors and other creatives I follow giving political opinions, I generally tune out. I’m not there for that. I’m more interested in how you’re living out that belief, whether helping a local legal refugee family or befriending your local police force or however that issue plays out in your everyday life. Peter Schott wants to re-hinge certain friends: Personally, I have a couple of acquaintances who I disagree with politically. On some things, we can just discuss and let it go. In others – the posts are just unhinged. I just mute/snooze the guy for 30 days. There was someone else who just went off the deep end – almost everything posted was hateful, cussing, and such. That earned a permanent block. It was sad to see someone go that far off the beaten path. I did have one friend who started calling his own friends Nazis and such because they disagreed with him on politics – maybe 10 years ago. I called him out on that as a Christian brother and he was able to realize that he’d gotten a little too far down the path and took a break (...