Religion in Literature

I just finished reading "London Calling" by Edward Bloor. I really enjoyed it, though it's technically Juvenile Fiction. The main characters are all Catholic and there is a strong religious thread throughout the book that I found so interesting. I hated "The DaVinci Code" and never even finished it because I was really offended by the way Catholics were portrayed in it. I'm not Catholic, obviously, but I'm really sensitive to people being made fun of for their religion. I hate it when people think that LDS people are a bunch of freaks just because they believe something different than others.

I was wondering, though, why a book with so much Catholicism in it is "mainstream", but a book with an LDS character would be published strictly in the "LDS" world? There was more religion in "London Calling" than there was in Dean Hughes' "Children of the Promise" series, and no one outside of the LDS community has probably heard of those books. I loved those books! Both "London Calling" and "Children" were about WWII, complicated family issues, personal struggles with faith, and divine intervention. But Deseret Book published "Children" and I doubt very many "outsiders" would consider reading them because they would consider them just LDS books.

You see the same thing in film, of course. LDS characters are always exaggerated caricatures, either too simple minded or too corrupt. They're rarely "real people". Even within the LDS film community, LDS people are portrayed as extremely naive, gullible, and lacking basic thought processes. I've been a member of this church since I was eight years old, 36 years now. I don't see too many people who are that silly, though most people in the world are capable of pretty stupid moments. But to choose those particular moments to represent an entire group of people is pretty unoriginal, I think.