You can’t enter a bookstore or even look at the book offerings in a grocery store these days without encountering dozens of “paranormal” stories involving zombies, demons, fallen angels, and werewolves, although by far the most popular of these is the vampire.
Since Halloween is coming up, you can bet many a young girl is planning to dress up as “Alice,” “Rosalie,” or “Bella” from Twilight, and any young guy hoping to impress a girl would be wise to dress as “Vampire Bill” from True Blood, or “Jacob” or “Edward” from Twilight.
One cannot help but wonder what the attraction is for some of these characters, although the Twilight series is easy enough to explain: It is a fantasy romance involving the perfect lover, Edward, who just happens to be a vampire and very conscious of the fact that he’s a monster, and Bella Swan, an ordinary young girl. Edward has everything, perfect manners, super strength, plenty of money, immortality, and most of all, unconditional love for Bella. Who wouldn’t be smitten?
True Blood, however, must involve every kind of supernatural creature ever dreamed up, and even the heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is no ordinary woman. She possesses a super-power of her own, the ability to read minds.
Besides the two above extremely popular vampire series, there are numerous others that are making inroads in the young adult ranks, series such as The Vampire Diaries and The Vampire Academy series, and numerous others which have yet to become as popular as the Twilight and True Blood series.
The fellows from Spiritual Counterfeits Project (http://www.scp-inc.org/) addressed this issue in the SCP Journal, Volume 33.2-33.3 2009, addressing the theme, “Vampires Rising.”
According to SCP founder Tal Brooke, “Vampires and the supernatural are entering through a vacuum left by the retreating Christian presence, now almost culturally irrelevant. The Postmodern church is filled with those who prefer to blend in as chameleons than face ostracism and it is a church without backbone that cannot possibly resist the coming invasion of darkness.”
Frightening thoughts, these, and one wonders how much longer we have left before the Lord comes to straighten all this out.
Brooke’s colleague, Steve Wohlberg, adds that, “Most fiction is not just fiction, and this is certainly true of Twilight,” as “fiction still communicates ideas, values, and messages.” The lead characters in Twilight all live “absolutely awesome, exciting lives,” as they all have special powers far beyond normal people, so is it any wonder that some people buy into this fantasy so much, they identify themselves as “vampires” and seek to drink blood so they can claim the powers of their heroes?
Wohlberg points out that this fascination with blood often leads to a loss of morality and unspeakable crimes, and that the Bible warns against ingesting blood. For this reason, the powers of darkness foster this fascination, because, as Wohlberg puts it, “Satan hates the blood of Christ,” and seeks to mesmerize our minds with “the wrong blood.”
In short, it’s the old bait-and-switch technique. The “Power in the Blood” of Jesus Christ is traded off for the cool powers exhibited by Edward and his coven of vampire relatives, and another soul is lost to darkness.
Read all about it in SCP’s “Vampires Rising” issue of the award-winning SCP Journal. As the powers of darkness seem to be on the rise all around us, the guys at Spiritual Counterfeits Project seek to give us the truth about these things. I can’t recommend it enough.
Note: NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month.
Read more at http://www.nanowrimo.org/
The goal is to write a novel in a month--November. Participants are encouraged to just go crazy. Write without censure, without editing, just put the words on the page and prove you can do it. Write 50,000 words in one month. The web page has forums and all types of encouragements to produce the word count. Word count is key. Check it out and sign up to participate.
And please don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 2!
Since Halloween is coming up, you can bet many a young girl is planning to dress up as “Alice,” “Rosalie,” or “Bella” from Twilight, and any young guy hoping to impress a girl would be wise to dress as “Vampire Bill” from True Blood, or “Jacob” or “Edward” from Twilight.
One cannot help but wonder what the attraction is for some of these characters, although the Twilight series is easy enough to explain: It is a fantasy romance involving the perfect lover, Edward, who just happens to be a vampire and very conscious of the fact that he’s a monster, and Bella Swan, an ordinary young girl. Edward has everything, perfect manners, super strength, plenty of money, immortality, and most of all, unconditional love for Bella. Who wouldn’t be smitten?
True Blood, however, must involve every kind of supernatural creature ever dreamed up, and even the heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is no ordinary woman. She possesses a super-power of her own, the ability to read minds.
Besides the two above extremely popular vampire series, there are numerous others that are making inroads in the young adult ranks, series such as The Vampire Diaries and The Vampire Academy series, and numerous others which have yet to become as popular as the Twilight and True Blood series.
The fellows from Spiritual Counterfeits Project (http://www.scp-inc.org/) addressed this issue in the SCP Journal, Volume 33.2-33.3 2009, addressing the theme, “Vampires Rising.”
According to SCP founder Tal Brooke, “Vampires and the supernatural are entering through a vacuum left by the retreating Christian presence, now almost culturally irrelevant. The Postmodern church is filled with those who prefer to blend in as chameleons than face ostracism and it is a church without backbone that cannot possibly resist the coming invasion of darkness.”
Frightening thoughts, these, and one wonders how much longer we have left before the Lord comes to straighten all this out.
Brooke’s colleague, Steve Wohlberg, adds that, “Most fiction is not just fiction, and this is certainly true of Twilight,” as “fiction still communicates ideas, values, and messages.” The lead characters in Twilight all live “absolutely awesome, exciting lives,” as they all have special powers far beyond normal people, so is it any wonder that some people buy into this fantasy so much, they identify themselves as “vampires” and seek to drink blood so they can claim the powers of their heroes?
Wohlberg points out that this fascination with blood often leads to a loss of morality and unspeakable crimes, and that the Bible warns against ingesting blood. For this reason, the powers of darkness foster this fascination, because, as Wohlberg puts it, “Satan hates the blood of Christ,” and seeks to mesmerize our minds with “the wrong blood.”
In short, it’s the old bait-and-switch technique. The “Power in the Blood” of Jesus Christ is traded off for the cool powers exhibited by Edward and his coven of vampire relatives, and another soul is lost to darkness.
Read all about it in SCP’s “Vampires Rising” issue of the award-winning SCP Journal. As the powers of darkness seem to be on the rise all around us, the guys at Spiritual Counterfeits Project seek to give us the truth about these things. I can’t recommend it enough.
Note: NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month.
Read more at http://www.nanowrimo.org/
The goal is to write a novel in a month--November. Participants are encouraged to just go crazy. Write without censure, without editing, just put the words on the page and prove you can do it. Write 50,000 words in one month. The web page has forums and all types of encouragements to produce the word count. Word count is key. Check it out and sign up to participate.
And please don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 2!
