Unless you've been living under a rock, you already know that the Twilightsequel, New Moon, was released in theaters Friday. News organizations nationwide reported sell-out crowds at local theaters. Thousands of fans camped out for hours to stake out their seats for the heavily hyped movie premiere. Experts are reporting thatNew Moon is now the number-one advance ticket seller of all time. In other words, it's a mega-hit! It's more than a blip on the landscape of culture. It's more like a bombshell, and young women are among the series' biggest fans.
Because I care so deeply about pointing young women toward God's truth, I couldn't let this movie premiere go unaddressed. I know it's controversial and I know, because I've blogged about Twilight in the past, that my stand on the series doesn't make me the world's most popular blogger. But I also know what's at stake. These aren't just books. New Moon isn't just another hit movie. We need to talk about it.
Proverbs 4:23 warns, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."
What we allow into our hearts and minds will impact us. As I've researchedNew Moon and heard about it from countless young women in my sphere of influence, it's clear to me that this movie and the rest of the Twilight series are designed to pull at your heart strings.
People magazine released its "Sexiest Men Alive" issue last week. An entire section of the magazine was dedicated to "Vampires to die for." Twilight star Robert Pattinson topped the list. Stars from the hit vampire shows The Vampire Diaries and True Blood were also featured. All three series have this in common—they're centered around male characters who are dark, brooding, and dangerous.
Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder offered this explanation for the phenomenon: "The mythology behind vampires has never really gone away. It was always there. Now you have this market for it because I think they're fun. They're powerful. They're sexy. They're dangerous. They're beautiful. Something draws you to them . . . The girls like the bad boy."
Vampire Diaries co-executive producer Julie Plec offered this spin: "You want to believe there is so much going on behind those eyes. You want to believe that they have epic amounts of knowledge and soul and spirituality and intelligence lurking behind those eyes. And in real men, you don't often get that. So in a vampire, just by definition, you are getting the bad boy with the brain."
Here's where my spiritual antenna starts to perk up. As young women everywhere choose between Team Edward and Team Jacob and as over 5 million viewers tune in weekly to the vampire shows I mentioned above (for comparison, that's equivalent to the population of Scotland), I can't help but wonder if this fascination with the dark, dangerous, bad boys featured in these series is fitting for girls and women who love Jesus.
First Corinthians 13:4–7 says this, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Galatians 5:22–23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
I've always seen these passages as a great barometer for choosing a fella. These are the qualities that I would advise Christian young women to look for in a man—patience, kindness, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. This is what we should be drawn to. We shouldn't link our lives with those who are envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, easily angered, concerned with keeping score. It isn't wise to form emotional attachments with a guy who delights in evil.
I've seen firsthand, in my own life and in the lives of so many young women, the train wreck that occurs when we're drawn to bad boys. I know the pain that can occur in real life when girls link their lives with guys who are dangerous, brooding, dark, and unpredictable.
That's why I can't help but see New Moon and the rest of the vampire craze for what it is—dangerous! It isn't wise to buy in to the fascination with these characters who are "sexy" because they are dark. Remember the warning in Proverbs, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."
As New Moon rises to the applause of our culture, I have to ask, are you guarding your heart above all things?
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the on
e who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
This is God by Phil Vassar Lyrics Hey this is God Could I please have your attention There's a need for intervention Man, I'm disappointed in what I'm seeing Hey, this is God You fight each other in My name Treat life like its a foolish game Well I say you've got the wrong idea Oh, all I'm asking for is love Well I've seen you hurt yourselves enough Oh, I've been waiting on a change in you Hey this is God I've given everything to you Oh but look at what you do to the world that I created This is God What's with this attitude of hate You grow more ignorant with age You had it made, now look at all you've wasted Oh, all I'm asking for is love Well I've seen you hurt yourselves enough Oh, I've been waiting on a change in you, yeah I know your every thought, your heart and soul and every move There are so many consequences to the things you do Oh all I'm asking for is love Haven't you hurt yourselves enough Oh, I've been waiting on a change in you A change in you, oh This is God...
“Her princes are like deer that find no pasture.”
(Lamentations 1:6)
I don’t have to think too hard to identify with those deer, Jesus.
I know what it’s like to hunt for pasture
and find none.
There are times that I feel a deep, gnawing hunger inside –
but no matter where I turn
or what I try
nothing makes my hunger go away.
There are times that I am desperate with thirst
my lips parched
my throat dry
but my thirst remains unquenched.
There are times that I long for a wide open field where I can
run and romp and play
and fall happily exhausted, into the sweet-smelling grass
but I remain hemmed in on every side
until…
I turn to You
and find
fullness to overflowing
living streams of water
and freedom to run farther
than I ever dreamed.
_________
Isaiah 29:8; Psalms 17:14; Isaiah 49:8-10; Matthew 5:6; Revelation 7:16; Psalms 42:1; Psalms 119:131; Isaiah 41:17; John 4:13-14; Psalms 119:32
Teach me. O God, to use all the circumstances of my life to-day that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin. Let me use disappointment as material for patience: Let me use success as material for thankfulness: Let me use suspence as material for perseverance: Let me use danger as material for courage: Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering: Let me use praise as material for humility: Let me use pleasures as material for temperance: Let me use pains as material for endurance.
John Baillie
http://www.baillie.lib.ed.ac.
