Religion in Writing

Fitting timing, ja?

Anyway.

Religion in writing. And not mythology or just symbolism or some cliched words just thrown in for the sake of saying the religion is in there, or never outright saying it but implying: actually putting religion, belief, whatever you want to call it....  Actually having a person practicing a faith, practicing a belief - doing more than just lip service.

Two problems with this.

First? Most of my stories are set in a universe where earth (and thus Christianity as it is) does not exist. Where Jesus was never born, humanity never fell, and Calvary never happened. Of course, the peoples are still fallen and sinful - otherwise what would be the point of the story? - but there's....no afterlife. No salvation.

I had toyed with the idea of doing something like Lewis or Tolkien - putting the salvation story into the universe anyway. But THAT felt entirely too much like sacrilegious and just wrong. So for my fantasy world I used the stories to illustrate the morals rather than people living out the faith.

Which was sort of sad because I lost some very good characters in the process but....  I couldn't find a way around aliens and immortals clashing with Christianity.

Second? ....I. am. writing. criminals. Murderers. How am I supposed to mesh THAT with Christianity??

Also. Between the fact that I'm searching for the exact truths behind my own faith, and because the faith my characters would practice is NOT what I've grown up with – this makes it a little difficult to write it into it....

But in the Mafia Universe, I don't have an excuse anymore to not include religion. The world is a little skewed for our earth – but the core events are the same. History is largely the same. Faith is the same. Truth is the same.

So humanity fell in the Garden, Jesus was born, and Calvary happened, and salvation was given.

How do I include this? How...do I work this in? But keep my characters the same? Because in not giving them religion, I am condemning them to hell and it doesn't matter that they're fictional characters I...don't want to do that.

But at the same time.....

And, of course, the stories ARE set on earth. I deal with everything else that I know of or believe in - I should not leave out Christianity just because it's inconvenient to write and fit in. I deal with much worse subjects - the least I could do is include what I believe about God.

Terrible my own witness upon the subject might be.