Zombies and Vampires ~ Yeh or Bleh?

I would not be comfortable either reading or writing about zombies, because I don’t like messing with the natural laws (life and death) God has set in place. To resurrect, however imperfectly, anything that was once living and once dead, is to take the place of God and say that you know better than God who should have died and who shouldn’t. Even if this was done in a very scientific setting, with nothing having to do about magic or demons or powers of darkness I would not like to read of it, and I am much more strict with myself about what I write than what I read. This is my personal conviction.
Vampires… hm. I don’t know why I believe this, but even setting the gross factor aside I don’t think I would approve them either. Maybe some of our revulsion as Christians against the drinking of blood traces back to the prohibitions in the Old Testament against the drinking of blood. I don’t know, but I am certain I would disapprove either of them.

Let me throw in something here. While I would not write of zombies or vampires no matter what side they were on, simply because I find them utterly disgusting, I would probably write a witch if she were very obviously on the evil side. Writing a witch is simply like writing a mage gone wrong or a wizard turned sorcerer. (See general writing discussion topic ‘no such thing as magic’ for my definition of magic. It may help with perspective). In a fantasy, dark magic is simply the power of whatever creatures are the demons of that world, and white magic is simply the power of the deity of that world. As it is in our world.
Actually, I think I might even write a ‘good’ werewolf if I were writing fantasy, because you can bend the laws of nature by inventing different creatures when you have your own fantasy world. To write a werewolf who was literally a demon in human/wolf form would definitely be over the top for what I would write as a ‘good’ creature, but to write a wolf who was created with the ability to take human form seems to me perfectly acceptable, as long as you have clearly differentiated between your fantasy world and the world in which we live, which is governed by laws Christ has set down and are not to be broken. Now why don’t I look at zombies and vampires this way? Because to subvert the very building blocks of life, to tamper with life and death, is one hundred percent taboo no matter what world you invent. There are some laws, moral laws, that should not be tampered with no matter what genre you are writing. We can change the natural laws if we have a different world and we have made it clear that it is a different world, but moral laws should not be twisted.
Remember also that there is a difference between what we put in our stories and what we promote. Just because we have a witch in our story does not mean we are promoting witchcraft. The witch should be a villain. And we ought to make that very clear.

I’d like to point out that as Christian writers n matter what world we write about they should still be governed by the laws Christ has set down. In my opinion.

HC

I think that vampires should only be used as representatives of satanic activity. Therefore, I would certainly disaprove of them being the main theme of a book written by a Christian.

Honestly, I don’t know much about zombies, but I do know that the only people who were raised from the dead were raised by Christ, and I highly doubt that they would have been anything like what I have seen of zombies.

As for the realm of fantasy (because as I understand it, vampires and zombies are set in this world), I don’t have too many problems with messing with the laws of nature- which aren’t laws anymore since they’re in another world. Popping through wardrobes into Narnia doesn’t bother me, probably because I tried to find doors into other worlds long before I knew about the genre of fantasy.

I don’t want to ruin Tolkien for you, Kate, but after reading extensively through old Tolkien works and notes, it seems pretty apparent that he was tying this world into Middle Earth.

All of you guys made very good points. I think I know what you mean, Dani, about Tolkien, and I agree now that I’ve thought it through, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to do it that way. Tolkien didn’t take it as far as Lewis and make it essential to the story, and therefore I would venture to say that he was a little wiser, a little more wary, but I don’t want to settle with ‘what I can get away with’ in my own writing. I absolutely love The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia, and it doesn’t bother me to read about things like that, but I have a very high standard for what I write. It is pointless dithering to put other authors on trial and say ‘well they got away with it, so why isn’t it fine for us?’ We should have the very highest standards, because if we reach the levels of skill I at least hope to obtain in my own work, our stories will be completely believable, and for myself I don’t want to cause anyone to stumble.
Reagan, I cannot think of a single example in the Bible where vampires were condemned, but there are several places in the Old Testament (I have forgotten the references— a bad habit of mine) where the eating and drinking of blood is forbidden. I’m not a huge scholar of vampires and therefore maybe I’m missing a key point of what it is to be a vampire, but as far as I know all they do is drink blood. Tell me if I’m missing something.

Do you have Biblical support to back this up?

Probably not the kind you would like, I have no actual references. But there is the Bible itself. If you’ll recal there is no mention of vampires and zombies. There is, however, verses that talk about not drinking the blood of life (which vampires do.)

Leviticus 17:11 – For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul.

Genesis 9:3-4 -Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

That says it pretty clearly.

If you do not agree with me that is your prerogative. I am not here to change your opinion–that is not my job–I am merely here to state my own.

HC