New!
Author resources • Lorehaven Guild
Podcast sponsors • Subscribe for free
Crew manifest Faith statement FAQs
All author resources Lorehaven Guild Subscribe for free

How to Disciple Your Kids With Dangerous Books
Ticia Messing in Articles, Mar 30, 2023

155. How Might Sentimentalism Threaten Christian Fiction?
Fantastical Truth Podcast, Mar 28, 2023

Please Return to the Lands of Luxury
Reviews, Mar 24, 2023

Library

Find fantastical Christian novels

fantasy · sci-fi · and beyond
middle grade · young adult · grown-ups
All novels Search Add a novel
Enhanced, Candace Kade
Bear Knight, James R. Hannibal
The Wayward, Tabitha Caplinger
Fortified, V. Romas Burton
Canaan Sleeps, Daniel Camomile
Silver Bounty, Victoria McCombs
A Sword for the Immerland King, F. W. Faller
Calor, J. J. Fisher
Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
The Genesis 6 Project, Michael Ferguson
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
Aberration, Cathy McCrumb
The Truth Beyond the Lies, Kathleen Bird
Frost, Winter's Lonely Guardian, E. E. Rawls
Podcast

Get the Fantastical Truth podcast

Podcast sponsors | Subscribe links
Archives Feedback

155. How Might Sentimentalism Threaten Christian Fiction?
Fantastical Truth, Mar 28, 2023

154. What If You Had to Fake Being Genetically Modified? | Enhanced with Candace Kade
Fantastical Truth, Mar 21, 2023

153. When Can Deconstructionism Threaten Christian Fiction? | with Michael Young aka ‘Wokal Distance’
Fantastical Truth, Mar 14, 2023

152. How Can Christian Fantasy Fans Heal from Church Trauma? | with Marian Jacobs and L. G. McCary
Fantastical Truth, Mar 7, 2023

151. How Can Fantastical Satire Sharpen Our Theology? | The Pilgrim’s Progress Reloaded with David Umstattd
Fantastical Truth, Feb 28, 2023

150. Is the U.S. Government Covering Up Spy Balloons or Alien Spaceships? | with James R. Hannibal
Fantastical Truth, Feb 21, 2023

Quests

Join our monthly digital book quests.

Lorehaven Guild Faith statement FAQs

War in Heaven
Book Quests, March 2023

Rose Petals and Snowflakes
Book Quests, February 2023

Prince Caspian
Book Quests, January 2023

Dream of Kings
Book Quests, December 2022

Reviews

Find fantastical Christian reviews

All reviews Request review

Please Return to the Lands of Luxury
“Jon Tilton explores complex topics like memory loss, personal and societal responsibility in this light sci-fi story.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 24, 2023

Exile
“This gentle fantasy from Loren G. Warnemuende shows little magic or strange creatures, focusing on complex emotions and relationships.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 17, 2023

Illusion
“Frank Peretti’s last novel creates a romantic world with sci-fi flourishes where likeable heroes, villain twists, and familiar places sell a dramatic performance.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 10, 2023

War in Heaven
“Charles Williams’s classic supernatural thriller pairs a deeply spiritual worldview with perceptive examinations of human nature.”
—Lorehaven on Mar 3, 2023

Gifts

Find new gifts for Christian fans

Archives

The original SpecFaith: est. 2006

Speculative Faith | archives

Lorehaven issues (2018–2020)

Order back issues online!
New
Library
Podcast
Quests
Reviews
Gifts
Archives
Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
Subscribe free to Lorehaven
/ News

Christian Fanfiction Writers Fight Porn, Exalt ‘Salt and Light’ With New Tag on AO3

Creators promote “good, true, and beautiful” stories on fanfiction site.
E. Stephen Burnett on Jan 16, 2023 · 11 comments

JAN. 16, 2023—Users of popular fanfiction platform Archive of Our Own, or AO3, have found a new way to season and shine their witness into an often ugly world.12

They’re using the new AO3 tag “salt and light,” or #saltandlight on other platforms, to help Christian fans and sympathizers find stories that reflect biblical virtues. This label will be “a cross-fandom tag, like an early-Church fish drawn in the sand,” said one organizer, writer hollers-and-holmes on the social media site Tumblr.

“@brievel just hit me with an idea about Christian presence in fandom,” hollers-and-holmes wrote on Jan. 11. “We had a conversation about how frustrating it can be to try and find material that is interested in the Good, the True and the Beautiful.”3

Both users began brainstorming the label and inviting other creators to help.

Now their movement is gaining support. As of today, the AO3 tag includes over 800 fanfiction tales and other stories, and seventeen stories curated by organizers.

What are AO3 and fanfiction?

AO3’s digital platform offers writers complete anonymity and creative freedom. Fans can create fanfiction set in existing fantasy universes, or their own worlds. Many fans enjoy writing crossovers, such as King Edmund (from The Chronicles of Narnia books) meeting Elizabeth Swann (from the Pirates of the Caribbean films).

Extensive tags help readers find their favorite genres and tropes. For example, the “E” tag stands for “explicit,” including pornographic character relationships.

How do the organizers define ‘salt and light’?

On the official collection page, organizers wrote:

Christians are bidden to be the salt of the earth, to not hide our light beneath bushels. Our worldview shines through our sub-creations – art, fanfiction, original stories, videos, comics, podcasts, anything we can imagine and make, on any host, server, or site – whether it is explicitly Christian or not.4

This view harmonizes with our general take at Lorehaven. We hold that a Christian story is not made Christian only by including spiritual-sounding content. Rather, we describe a Christian story mainly by referencing the author’s biblical faith in Jesus.

For more about how Christian fans can define “Christian stories,” see our podcast episode 2, What Do We Mean By Saying ‘It’s A Christian Story’?

Or see episode 88, Can We Positively Engage Culture in a Negative World? | with Bethel McGrew, aka Esther O’Reilly

What do you think of the “salt and light” fan movement?

Do you read or make fanfiction that would match the tag’s purpose?

How does this label differ from older labels like “clean” or “family-friendly”?

  1. Photo by Jane Gonzalez on Unsplash. I’m thankful to my wife Lacy Burnett for relaying this story and providing research assistance. ↩
  2. This story has been edited to remove some quotes under review. ↩
  3. hollers-and-holmes, “I think salt and light is a go,” Tumblr, Jan. 11, 2023. ↩
  4. ArchiveofOurOwn.org, “The Salt and Light Collection (profile),” undated post, as of Jan. 15, 2023. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett
E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi and fantasy novels as well as nonfiction, exploring fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com and cohost of the Fantastical Truth podcast. As the oldest of six, he enjoys connecting with his homeschool roots by speaking at conferences for Christian families and creators. Stephen is coauthor of The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ from New Growth Press (2020, with Ted Turnau and Dr. Jared Moore). Stephen and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area, where they help with foster parenting and serve as members of Southern Hills Baptist Church.
Website · Facebook · Instagram · Twitter
  1. dtill359 (AO3 & FFN) says:
    January 16, 2023 at 1:31 pm

    As a Christian and a fanfiction writer, I’m so glad other Christians are doing this. Yes, it’s going to incur some wrath from other groups, but Salt & Light isn’t trying to force others to agree with them. They’re just making a place where those who already do can congregate and share stories.

    I’m adding this tag to my works right now.

    Reply
  2. Kessie says:
    January 16, 2023 at 6:27 pm

    Dude, I am so joining this. I’m always wishing I had an easier way to find Christian fic writers, and for them to find me.

    Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      January 16, 2023 at 6:58 pm

      Kessie!

      “Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”

      Reply
  3. El says:
    January 17, 2023 at 4:15 am

    Hi, I’m a Christian fanfic writer and I personally know some of the people involved in this. One of the people you quoted said they were quoted without their consent. This violates one of the ethical rules of journalism in which you ask permission to quote people and use just a pseudonym if they decline. Using people’s usernames and linking to them can open them up to online harassment and put them in harm’s way.

    If you could reach out to them for permission and remove the links/use pseudonyms until they’ve replied please? I don’t believe it’s the heart of God to put people in harm’s way. I know this wasn’t intentional, but I hope that you will take the appropriate steps now that you do.

    Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      January 17, 2023 at 6:23 pm

      Hi, thanks for stopping by. We’ll reach out directly to the folks involved. Our intention is to share about a good development, not contribute to any of these ills you mentioned.

      We don’t know the real names of anyone involved, nor would we seek these out, certainly not without permission. Here we’ve only quoted the Tumblr user account names (which are already pseudonyms) and quotes from websites. This is all publicly available information. If anyone does not want to be quoted, even under the existing pseudonyms, we’ll remove that quote. I would also encourage anyone to make profiles private (if this is an option on Tumblr!), because right now it’s all publicly available.

      Reply
  4. Lady Arin says:
    January 17, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    I heard about this on Tumblr and already started tagging my works with it. That said, to call my feelings on it optimism, even heavily tempered, sounds too strong. Its public presence on the Internet moves it pretty far away from the alluded-to historical fish symbol as a private code.

    That said, i don’t think it’s useless. I think its primary value is less as a collection of works to browse, and more as an indicator when you’re browsing a new or old fandom for something to read. Undoubtedly there will continue to be people looking to “own the homophobes” by posting garbage in the tag, but they’re unlikely to want to put much effort into it, so it will hopefully remain a sign that you can read a story without getting hit with (insert content here).

    And since you asked, i’d say it differs from “clean” and “family-friendly” in the same way that a wolf differs from a lap dog: there’s some connection there, and i can see how you might be a bit confused about the differences, but one is much more likely to bite your hand off if you aren’t careful.

    Reply
  5. Evelyn M. Lewis says:
    January 18, 2023 at 3:13 pm

    As the author of one of the several fics in the tag flagged for “graphic violence”, I just wanted to say that although the fics perhaps adhere to some definition of “clean”, they’re most certainly not all “family friendly”. The idea is to write something Christians can read without sin… not something that’s necessarily suitable for all audiences. So, if browsing the tag, be sure to keep a look at the warning labels.

    Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      January 19, 2023 at 12:08 pm

      Arguably, Scripture itself includes graphic violence. You can’t even understand the gospel without graphic violence—that is, the death of bulls and rams and other creatures, the shedding of blood for remission of sins, and Christ’s final sacrifice.

      “Salt and light” can certainly include some violence. To honor Jesus, in fact, it must.

      Reply
  6. SaltyTheValient says:
    January 25, 2023 at 9:54 pm

    I write under this tag on Tumblr (and now ao3) and I desperately hope that it doesn’t get flooded. The point is for Christians to have a space to write, and now a bunch of crazys are booty-hurt over it being ‘exclusionary’. I’ve seen threats to flood the tag with explicit content and I seriously hope that doesn’t happen! Hollers and Brieviel make a good thing here.

    Reply
  7. Holmes says:
    January 27, 2023 at 8:02 pm

    Hi there! Holmes here (one of the aforementioned Instigators)—your wife very kindly brought your article to my attention, and we were delighted to read your fair handling of the situation here. It’s been fun to see the tag so well-received by creators and readers alike who find themselves craving Christian fellowship in this specific area. Over 1,300 tagged fics on AO3 this morning.

    It’s also provided some good opportunities to sharpen up our Scriptural rhetoric in answering people’s concerns and objections. Your affirmations that direction in this article were very encouraging, thank you.

    -H

    Reply
  8. EJH says:
    March 4, 2023 at 2:56 am

    I don’t know, most of my fanfictions don’t mention Christianity directly. For example, many of the stories are about Danny Phantom who is a teen who fights ghosts. Even though my stories are family-friendly, I am not sure that a story about ghosts, however cartoonish the source material is, qualifies. I have put direct references to Christianity in my Spider-Man stories, but Marvel canon has done this in the past as well. Even so, I’d hesitate to call those Christian stories as it is more of that the story has inherited my Christian viewpoint, rather than it being written as a witnessing tool. But then, I’m also a Christian who doesn’t put a Christian bumper sticker on my car because I don’t speed and this makes people mad. So I worry if I used this tag Christianity might be blamed for my “average” writing skills.

    Reply

Share your fantastical feedback. Cancel reply

Lorehaven magazine, spring 2020

Wear the wonder:
Get exclusive shirts and beyond

Listen to Lorehaven’s podcast

Authors and publishers:
Reach new fans with Lorehaven

Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
Website · Facebook · Instagram · Twitter