Mamas Don't Let Your Daughters Grow Up to Date Vampires

By Linda Harvey

This week all the talk is sure to be about Twilight, and I don’t mean the kind that comes to America after several years of an Obama administration. It’s a new movie based on the best-selling book by Stephenie Meyer and deals with a common girl dilemma: what to do when your boyfriend’s a vampire.

Yes, I know, you’ve already talked with your teen about this, but keep reading. After selling a multi-gazillion copies, there was no doubt Twilight would come to the screen with the predictably wide-eyed ingénue (Kristen Stewart) with her carnivorous metrosexual beau (Robert Pattinson). Bella and Edward fall in love in high school biology, amid the dissections and blood. He’s not really seventeen, but a hundred and something years old.

Even after learning through the grapevine Edward is a vampire, Bella still risks being alone with him, despite his confessed “hunger” for her - really. He spends most of their dates barely hanging onto self-control and avoiding her neck. He and his vampire pseudo-family tend to attract other vampires and one becomes a stalker of Bella. Edward saves her from both an earlier auto accident and from this predatory vampire. Damsel-in-distress Bella is totally captivated by Edward after these rescues, and tries to talk him into having his way with her after the prom.

And we are not talking virginity loss here. She wants to “become like him,” even if it means her death. As the first book in this series concludes, Edward acts like any noble vampire should and resists the temptation to kill his girlfriend. Our kids need so much more than a condom these days, apparently.

Now, I have seen the movie trailer but not yet the movie. I can only speak for the book and it contains no sex, just a few passionate kisses. There are many commentators who think the Meyer series (four books now, Twilight being the first) sets a great example of abstinence for teens. However, let’s not be too hasty with praise.

Despite the absence of intercourse, the glue of this book is barely restrained passion and actually, blood-lust. It’s the Romeo/Juliet star-crossed lover thing, with an occult twist. It’s craving on his part, idolatry on hers. And he’s not human. Isn’t there some passage about demons and human women in the book of Genesis? And the results did not please God.

Edward is Bella’s ideal - “interesting and brilliant and mysterious and perfect and beautiful...” (p.79) and his perfection is a major theme of the story.

But he’s a supernatural being and even though in pop culture, we are familiar with the vampire archetype, there’s a biblical identity that Christians should see right off. If vampires ever did or do exist, the translation of “vampire” for Christians is “demon.”

Now, once you start looking at Edward this way, the story takes on a whole new aura and not a cute one. He wants her blood - her life. He is charming and protective one moment and her greatest threat the next - and he tells her all this. And she loves it and welcomes it. The tension between them is enormous. He is with her always, since he can manifest anywhere without entry through doors, and he needs no sleep. So as she drifts off to sleep, he remains in her bedroom as her “guardian-demon.” Her dad of course has no idea about this presence. And she loves him so much she would sacrifice her young life for him, becoming a non-human herself.

Is this what we want occupying our daughters’ hearts and minds, even in a fantasy world? Romantic obsession with a demonic presence?

The blood thing really should bother us for other reasons. We have an epidemic of cutting as a well-known adolescent pathology. More common among girls, the troubled youth makes small blood-letting incisions on her arms. Why do well-fed and clothed middle American kids engage in something so bizarre and self-destructive? It seems to be a form of punishment, but for what? Kids are too young to be so guilt-ridden.

I believe there are spiritual issues involved. These kinds of strange maladies look a lot like demonic activity. Well, here we are with books that focus quite centrally on the heroine’s blood. Edward saves her life at the end of Twilight, but has to suck venom out of her blood to do so - and nearly cannot control himself from “going all the way.”

I know what everyone is going to say - “It’s only a story! It’s only fantasy!” But have you ever seen teen girls once they become fixated even on a fictional character? It does have an effect on them. I used to want to “be” Scarlett O’Hara at age twelve, which I gave up once I became convinced I would one day marry Paul McCartney. And so on. Today it’s Harry Potter when they’re twelve and vampires when they're fifteen. Great.

These interests do shape prototypes of the kind of romance they want. Especially in this age of girlie men, many young women long for a guy with some life to him. Of course, this is over the top--a guy who lusts after your blood. But what about the appeal of a guy who can’t control himself in other ways - and date-rapes your daughter? Part of her has been trained to believe this is what “real love” is - the guy who is so taken with you, he has trouble not destroying you.

We are setting up our girls to be, at the very least, disappointed with the reality of an ordinary but nice non-vampire guy, even if he isn’t a wimp. At worst, she may tolerate abuse as the normal part of a really “passionate” relationship.

Fantasy has a spiritual aspect to it, which even Christians dismiss in this media age. Yet does Scripture provide for a separation of garbage into a neat “entertainment” category in our minds and hearts? No, we are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Spending lots of time fascinated with romance involving demons is not the obedience of Christ.

Christ gave His blood for us. He did not ask for ours in return. No fantasy should twist such a desire into “love.” This sounds a lot more like the calling card of a demonic enemy.

We continue to hand our kids over to the mental environments of death. Unless we change course, they will see spiritual twilight indeed.

Staying Pure in a Fornication Nation

J. Lee Grady Newsletters - Fire In My Bones

You don't have to compromise with our sex-saturated culture. By God's grace you can stay in the sexual safety zone.

There were some raised eyebrows last week on the campus of Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fla., when I hosted a special meeting—the day before Valentine's Day—on the subject of fornication. That's not a word you normally associate with a lecture topic, but hey, I had to get attention. And since the hormones on most college campuses are as dense as Florida humidity, I figured the kids would be all ears when I attacked the subject.

I was right. At times you could hear a pin drop in the auditorium, especially when I talked about how most American young people aren't even sure how to define sexual activity anymore. (Today's college seniors were nine years old when President Clinton tried to redefine sex during the Lewinsky scandal.) At other times the students burst into nervous laughter, especially when I told how I gave my son-in-law a lecture about sexual boundaries in front of 700 of his classmates when he was dating my oldest daughter.

"Losing one's virginity used to be a serious issue, but today fornication is just a standard sitcom plot device."

I thought it might be helpful to share these key points with a wider audience, since many of the readers of this column are single. And even if you are married, it would be good to take a quick refresher course in self-control—since we live in a nation that is losing all moral restraint. Here's what I told the group at Southeastern:

1. Don't redefine your morality. I've seen Christian young people roll their eyes when I say the word "fornication" because it sounds so much like King James English—sort of like "sodomy," another word we avoid in our PC culture. But we need to be careful how we bend the meaning of words. Terms that are in the Bible should not vanish from our modern vocabulary just because they offend some of the hosts of The View.

When "fornication" is used in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 ("For this is the will of God ... that ye should abstain from fornication" KJV), the Greek word is porneia. It's the root word for pornography, but it means a lot more than sexually explicit material. It includes sex between unmarried people, homosexuality, bestiality, prostitution, incest and adultery.

According to the apostle Paul, sex as God intended is limited to marriage between one man and one woman. Period. The Episcopal Church has no right to broaden the definition. Neither do Bill Clinton, Newsweek, Oprah or HBO. Don't let moral relativism infect your brain.

2. Don't sell your birthright. Losing one's virginity used to be a serious issue, but today fornication is just a standard sitcom plot device. It's considered normal. People are considered weird if they didn't have sex by age 14; and if anybody dares to teach abstinence in a public school he is labeled a Neanderthal.

In TV shows like Desperate Housewives, Nip/Tuck or Grey's Anatomy, life revolves around who's in bed with whom. There's even a TV series on Showtime called Californication that follows the life of a sex addict. What TV producers don't usually explore are the consequences of immorality. Audiences probably wouldn't laugh if the couples hooking up on these shows had to deal with genital warts, gonorrhea, AIDS, abortions, post-abortion trauma or clinical depression—all real fallout from illicit sexual behavior.

If you are a single person today—whether you have lost your virginity or not—it's time to reclaim your purity and save sex for marriage. We've forgotten the story of Esau, who forfeited his birthright through one stupid act. He traded his inheritance for a bowl of stew. You really can throw your life away through one act of fornication.

3. Get ruthless with your weaknesses. Jesus sounded stricter than a Catholic school principal when He talked to His disciples about self-discipline. He told them: "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell" (Matt. 5:29, NASB).

Jesus was not advocating self-mutilation. He was using sarcasm to emphasize how serious sin is—and He urged His followers to take radical steps to avoid the snares of temptation. In our sex-soaked society, it is more imperative than ever that we draw boundaries.

Got a problem with pornography? If you can't discipline yourself to avoid offending Web sites, get rid of your computer. Do you end up engaging in heavy petting or intercourse with your girlfriend or boyfriend after a few minutes of kissing? Draw lines and stick to them. And if you can't stick to the rules, ask for intervention. If you don't you are headed for spiritual shipwreck.

4. Live a transparent life. The Bible never advocates that we battle sin alone. We need each other. James 5:16 says: "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed." In some cases you will never get victory over temptation until you share your struggle with another Christian and seek counsel and prayer.

So many believers today are living with secrets. Many women (and men too) were molested as children by a relative or friend—yet they have never shared their pain. Many young guys are trapped in a dark world of pornography and masturbation but are too ashamed to admit it. Many Christians struggle with same-sex attraction yet they fear that if they confess their thoughts they will be rejected.

You will never discover the abundant life Christ promised until you clean out your spiritual closets and deal with all your dirty laundry. Total forgiveness and cleansing is available, but confession and repentance must come first.

5. Develop the fear of God. Paul had sober words for the Thessalonians who ignored his admonitions about sexual sin. He told them: "He who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you" (1 Thess. 4:8). It couldn't be clearer: If you disregard sexual boundaries, you are on thin ice.

What we desperately need in the church today is a conscience awakening. Too many Christians have warped judgment—and they don't even feel godly remorse when they break God's law. If you have any form of sexual sin in your life, flee it immediately and make a 180-degree turn. He will grant you the grace to live a life of purity.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.