NEW CONTEST OPENED

Athanatos Christian Ministries is hosting a contest designed to encourage writers to represent their Christian beliefs through the arts, in particular through fiction.

The Athanatos Christian Writing Contest represents the perspective of founder Anthony Horvath that Christians need to make use of the arts and literature to communicate the Gospel. The contest homepage is: www.christianwritingcontest.com.

Readers let down their defenses when reading stories or watching movies and this provides an opportunity for the author to present ideas and themes that readers might otherwise have dismissed. This is true for both Christians and nonChristians, but the secular community is more deliberate in exploiting this reality.

Horvath says, "Our media is dominated by people immersed in the secular humanist mindset. The evidence of this is present in books, movies, TV shows, music, as well as in newspapers and cable television. The resulting culture perpetuates itself and creates a climate of cynicism- to say the least- regarding the claims of Christianity."

Horvath warns Christians not to pull out of the culture, "Instead, we need more Christians effectively living out their Christian world view our culture. Imagine if more Christians were writing movies, books, and the news! This alone might not save a single soul, but it would help create a climate where the Christian message is better received."

The ACM Christian Writing Contest aims to identify writers who can write quality fiction that represents the Christian worldview either explicitly or implicitly. Horvath explains, "CS Lewis, Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, and GK Chesterton are examples of Christian authors whose stories reflected their Christian outlook. The remarkable thing is that secular audiences enjoy their work as much as Christian audiences do. That is exactly what we need more of."

The writing contest begins December 1st, 2008 and is taking submissions through May 15th, 2009. Winning entries will be compiled into an anthology and published. The anthology will be distributed to every single author who entered a story, at no additional cost. "We want every contributor to see what a winning story looks like so they can learn from it and improve their own writing ability," Horvath explains.

There are discounts for multiple submissions available for teachers, educators, youth directors, and pastors.

Details about the contest are available at www.christianwritingcontest.com. Anthony Horvath will answer questions about the contest or field interviews. Contact him at director@athanatosministries.org or 202-280- 7971.