[ Note: This post appeared in the Lawrence Journal-World. I was asked to write it for the Faith Forum section. ]
As a religious professional, what’s your take on vampires as popular figures in entertainment?
Why wouldn’t vampires be popular—don’t we all have friends who drink blood? Aren’t all popular kids in school murderers? I know, I know—modern writers make vampires more likeable (i.e., young, beautiful, vegetarian), but still, why vampires? If you met actual blood-drinkers, you would be repulsed by them (even “vegetarian” vampires). If you saw a victim of one of the wannabe Draculas who decided he was an actual vampire, you would vomit.
So, why vampires? If we ask the “vampyre subculture,” we find that vampire popularity is a symptom of something bigger—something deeper.
One group from this subculture says actual bloodsuckers are rare (that’s a relief). They say most are simply fascinated with the immortality and super-human abilities vampires have.
If that’s true, then vampire popularity is nothing novel. People have always craved “immortality and super-human abilities”. Our natural tendency, though, is to try to get what we want without going to the only true source of life and goodness: Our Creator (i.e., God).
So, let me recommend a much better obsession than pale, blood-sucking murderers: Jesus Christ. Everyone knows vampires aren’t real. But Jesus is real. He entered history, proved He is God through His “super-human abilities,” shed His blood on the cross and rose again so He could extend an amazing, yet actual offer for “immortality”:
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).
Stop living in a fantasy world—choose the reality revealed in the Bible. Receive immortality by acknowledging your Immortal Creator. If we trust in the super-human, God-man, Jesus Christ, we will experience the reality called “heaven” that will make even a Stephenie Meyer novel seem boring.
