Why Twilight is 'Spiritually Fatal'--You Know, Satanic and All That, Blah, Blah, Blah

This reminds me of all the Harry Potter bashing. I had many christian friends who were vehemently opposed to Harry Potter, but stood in line for hours to see Lord of the Rings. They never saw the irony. Go figure.

Where, if anywhere, does Twilight "bash" Christians? Where, if anywhere, does Harry Potter "bash" Christians? I am a religious scholar; nowhere do the Harry Potter books or movies say anything negative about Christ, Christians, or Christianity.

Before anyone professes to be “Christian” criticizes they should be mindful of Matthew 7:3, which suggest we should remove the beam (log) from our own eye before attempting to remove the speck (splinter) from another’s. Too many people criticize books and movies based on what they “think” the material covers rather than formulating an opinion through critical analysis or logical thinking. I find that it is often the same group of people who misquote or misinterpret the word of the Bible.

Educated people understand that you do not cite without references. And we never criticize any topic without critical analysis. The Harry Potter books and movies are about the triumph of good over evil. I have not read ‘Twilight’ or seen the movie, so I cannot speak to it directly.

More often than not, I have discovered that those criticizing anything from a “Christian” perspective rarely, if ever, do the research to support their opinions and theories. They listen to rhetoric and create new rhetoric of their own without any basis in fact.

Show me where these subjects cite Christian or Christianity “bashing” and I will be willing to listen to your perspective. Christ was not so critical, by all Biblical accounts, as his many professed followers. Jesus was open minded and always looked for the best in people. Why shouldn’t we all try do the same?

I have read all of the Twilight books and I have to say that the so-called Christians that criticize the series haven't. The whole point of the relationship between Edward and Bella is that Edward does not want to turn Bella into a vampire because he considers himself souless and does not want to condemn Bella to that kind of life. That, to me, has a very religious context pointing towards the thought that even a vampire questions his own existence in the eyes of God.

Bill Randles is an idiot. Watch the movie and read the books, and you'll see that Edwards #1 concern is not granting Bella her wish and making her eternal, as he feels "damned" or like a "monster" for being so. Also, he refuses to make love to Bella until they are married. How much more Christian can that get?

Besides...the bottom line is: Its a BOOK. If a pastor takes a work of fiction that seriously, that he is picking it apart and writing articles on it, then he needs to look at himself and his own paranoia's for a change. Fiction is made up. Stephenie Meyer in no way considers her writing to be any form of gospel OR blasphemy. Its a book written to entertain, plain and simple. If teenage girls are obsessed with a fictional couple that practices old fashioned values and morals, rather than worshipping the likes of Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, we should consider that a success.

Wake up, and tackle worthwhile issues in your articles, Mr. Randles.

Thank God I'm not a Christian and can read whatever I want!

From the view of a man who been around the world,you have teach h right things to most young mind's before they go off on the deep end of what evil, but the point when you put the right idea's in a child mind, then you should not worry and oh yea the person who say that the Bible is not a fairy tale!

i just wish that christians would graps the concept of fiction and not try to judge a persons creativity.

I am a mother of teenaged girls. I am a devout Christian. I don't have problems with either Harry Potter or Twilight since both are works of fiction. I have read all the Twilight books, mainly out of concern that my daughters are reading appropriate material. I was not disappointed. As stated above, the main vampire character struggles through the entire series with the thought of damning his beloved by changing her. In the end (***SPOILER ALERT***), he only does so at the point of death. The same goes for all the characters that the series focuses on. There is a point in the first book when Edward makes a powerful statement in response to the question about why he only drinks animal blood and not human like most vampires. He says something to the effect of - just because life dealt me this hand, doesn't mean I can't do more with it. He states very clearly that he doesn't WANT to be a monster. That is the message that I try to impart to my children - we as faithful, thinking human beings have the ability to rise above the evils in our world and make it a better place. In the fictional Twilight world, the Cullens have done their part to make it a better place.

To Claudia and wyrdotter... kudos to both of you for being open minded. I can not add anything more to what you have just said.

Only, I wish more people would be like both of you. :)

So I see where teenagers could be putting this fictional book before god but without the right instruction and enough devotion to god we could easily be trapt by anything and everything and do that so that point is invalid. Nothing is wrong with this fictional book it just shows love at a different perspective,it is just a book about a very strong love between two unlikely beings. Just like romeo and juliet. Can I not read that too?

Oh My Gosh! I am a catholic and I LOVE this series. I agree with most of you who have posted a comment, it is SAD that some christian/catholic believers have to find a flaw and take this brilliant creativity of a novel to 'damnation'. It's just vampires! sheesh! Even though the book DOES prove that these vampires are BELIEVERS OF GOD, it upsets me that these people want to outcast it! I find it quite popycock when they say "twilight is 'spiritually fatal'": everybody should have their own freedom into what they want to believe in. I'm a Catholic and I believe that very deeply: God created us on earth and set us out to make our own choice and learn from our mistakes. It's OUR life, no one elses. We have to make the choices and believing is one of them Soz for the long message but yer, u get that sometimes. tata!

I think that the author is correct. I'm under the age of 13 and even I know that this book is a monstrosity! If you think about it, vampires are demond possesed which makes this movie demonic. Did you know that in horror films, the demons that live in hell with satan pray over them.my personal theory is that this is one of those movies where the demonds have prayed over it!Just by reading the book your mind has already been currupted! They're making it ok to watch Vampires "as long as they're fictional characters how can it hurt me". They're making it ok to be in a totaly lustful relationship "you'll just think it's cute that they love eachother so much. It's cute that he watches her when she sleeps!" But one day everyone's going to need to realize that it's not ok to watch this movie or read the book. I bet it's interesting I bet you think that the film director is a great christian because they decided not to put the sexual seen in the movie. Well I think that just makes them a hipocrit for even taking the role of this kind of movie that one of the main character sucks the blood out of God's creations! So after all of this I still have more to say. In fact I'm in the middle of doing my speach on why you shouldn't watch Twilight or read the book froma Christian based perspective. I'm pondering whether I should post it on this. Or put it on the internet. All I have to say for now is if you would like to guard your mind and your christian morals, DO NOT read Twilight or watch the movie.

Well dear, I wont argue with all of your points, however your opinion has no backing.

I am a 15 year old girl. I've read all the Twilight books and Harry Potter books and throughly enjoyed them. Every story has to have evil in it, like Voldemort in Harry Potter and the "normal" vampires in Twilight (or the fact that the Cullens are vampires), to show how the good and virtuous can overcome the evil. Harry potter and Twilight have many morals that are more obvious and really make the books what they have to come to be. It is the love and sacrifice harry potter's parents made that makes us love the book, and how Harry proves that with love and the belief that his parents are watching over him and that goodness is possible in an evil-world, that helps harry conquer Voldemort in the end. Sorry for the spoiler for those who haven't read harry Potter. The same goes with Twilight. Edward goes against the natural instincts that he has been dealt with, and proves that goodness is possible in a sinful life. Edward and his family are really not much different than us. They are natural sinners, just like how we are, and are trying their best to do what is good in life by not taking away the life of humans. They are fighting temptation, how us humans have to each and every day. Edward doesn't want to take away bella's virginity, because he wants to do the right thing, by having christian morals and will wait until marriage. Carlisle's father was a priest. carlisle became a vampire trying to get rid of the vampires. carlisle believes that by being "vegetarian" they are proving that vampires dont have to be the sinful things they are seen to be but can be good. He believes in God, and believes that, by him and his family trying to do the right thing in a life they did not want, there could be a chance that God will forgive them too and will reward them for their good efforts. In both Twilight and Harry Potter, it is the christian morals that stand out for me and many readers as that is what makes the heroines of the stories overcome the evil. these books show that if good can overcome evil in these extreme ways, then we, as humans, can overcome evil more easily than we think we can.

Im a god fearing women and stopped watching horror movies because of certain christians put the fear of god in me and said that by watching those sorts of movies, I will go to hell. Since many years have passed since I started out as a new believer, I have learnt that it is ok to read certain books like twilight and such and it's ok to watch certain movies. at the end of the day I know what to watch and read and as long as Im not worshipping anything, making altars, sacrificing animals, makings gods to anything, has nothing sexual or anything thats ungodly. I have watched Twilight and saw nothing wrong with it.Im sick and tired of these pathetic bible bashing,religious fanatics who just condemn certain things without doing any research.
At the end of the day it's the individuals choice with what they watch and read as long as they know their limits..

HAPz!!! Evidently you HAVENT dont enough research. Let me start off by saying, sorry that "certain christians put the fear of god in me and said that by watching those sorts of movies, I will go to hell" However, maybe it was HOW they said it, but in actuality, if you did your research, then you would know that the WORD of God, who you SHOULD fear, says to ABSTAIN FROM ALL THINGS THAT ARE IN THE LIKENESS OF EVIL. Stephanie Meyers books are bad seed! You made a choice (your will) to have read them, of course now that there is NO-ONE person harping on you to NOT read or watch such things. But none the less, you are READING/WATCHING things that are in the very form of evil, which as a Chritian Woman, or a God Fearing woman, you should NOT be entertaining such thing. *Stephanie M. will reap ALL that she has sown! I rebuke her and her demonic writings in the Mighty Name of Jesus! I pray that the Lord will pluck out all that she has planted in your head and others. God never intended for us to see those things of satan, but as part of his stewards, we have free will and the responsibilities to be AWARE, not a PARTAKER in those things. Stop partaking in this horrible deceitful way of S.M.

honestly im a christian and i bash twilight not because of religion but simply because it sucked as a vampire book

Honestly, I can agree with him. Anything having to do with Vampirism, the occult etc. are Satanic.

How can any "christian" say that its not a problem for anybody, but especially the target audience of teenage girls to watch this movie. It very cleverly and subtly attracts viewers to a vampire/demon possessed man- making him out to be caring, loving, protective person- even have beautiful diamonds inside him when in the sun. It makes him out to be the "good guy" for fighting evil, even though he is evil himself. Every girl I know has walked out of that movie attracted to a vampire/evil demon. If vulnerable people who have watched this movie ever encounter a real spirit/demon they will be more open and less scared of it. Not to mention the line from bella "death is easy, life is harder". What kind of message is that sending to wrist cutting teenagers? Very clever to not have any swearing/sex/violence to attract a younger audience and make people less wary of the movie too. Well done Satan.

Who wrote those comments. You people agree. sheesh, Good job satan holy s****t who wrote that! blah you people are crazy I love twilight Im noyt cutting my wrist thank you!

i dont know who the child is she who used YOUR NAME but, she does not get it. This book and movie are NOT REAL it is fiction and only fiction, It is sad that at the young age of 13 she is alreadh cynical and un-infomred about the world. Vampires, Werewolfes, witches and wizards are not real. If you were a true Christian than you would not judge any of this, the book, the movie, and the author. Christains are not suppose to be so judgemental and that is the reason I am not as Christian like as God wants me to be. If that is your brand of Christianity than I don't want any part of that kind of religion.

Then again this is just my opinion.