Since I published Christian Horror, I’ve heard from a good number of believers who enjoy the horror genre, but think it’s either incongruous with their beliefs or are simply concerne
d with its perception among their evangelical friends. For example, I received this nice message from a Facebook friend:
Hey Mike! I know you don’t know me, but thanks for accepting me as a friend a few months ago. I don’t remember now how I came across you – it was one of your blog posts, I believe. Anyways, I’m a C&MA pastor who (horrors) loves reading Stephen King. I wanted to thank you for writing your Christian Horror book. I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it – you made me think about some things I had never considered before. I’ve always felt kind of guilty over enjoying horror, but I’ve also wondered at how much horror there actually is in real life and in Scripture. Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks for a well-thought-out and well-written book. I’ve enjoyed reading your blog posts, and now I’m looking forward to reading your fiction! So thanks and keep on keeping on. Blessings!
Another reviewer/author wrote this:
I have always loved scary books and movies. When I finally got the courage to publish some of my writing, I felt the need to do so “in the closet” and with a pen name because, naturally, my stories tend to involve supernatural elements and aren’t evangelical. I grew up in a church and around people who viewed authors like Stephen King as instruments of the devil (really!). I never believed it and appreciated the theme of good versus evil that runs through many horror stories.
The church and crowd I associate with as an adult aren’t as legalistic as that, but there’s still that fear of what people will think. So when I stumbled upon this book and saw what it was about, I had to read it. I’m glad I did!
Really, it makes me wonder how much stigma evangelicals and religious folks impose upon fellow believers who happen to enjoy the horror genre. I too would look aslant at a Christian who enjoys watching gore for the sake of gore. However, that’s exactly part of the horror stereotype. There’s plenty of horror that is not gory. And there’s also good arguments to be made even when it does contain non-gratuitous gore, that it could be justified. In either case, it’s apparent that evangelicals need good arguments for the creation of and enjoyment of speculative art in general, the horror genre in particular.
I knew a young woman who wrote vampires-and-magic supernatural stories, and she told people in her church she did so. They ended up confronting her in an “official” way, stating they wanted to “help” her in her come back to God or some such. They pulled out lots of Scripture references and asked them to come to meetings, and after they were told she would do what she wanted, they continued harassing her and her husband by phone, even at his place of employment.
It was really bizarre to watch, even from afar, but at this point, she’s walked away from God, the Church (with a capital C), and still writes the fiction she wants to write. She was turned so sour (not all because of these incidents, but they played into the outcome), and before I lost touch with her, she seemed to be in full dismissal of everything Christian.
She fell in with a sympathetic friend after a different situation damaged her marriage, and is now fully entrenched in a homosexual relationship with the person who supported her instead of ostracizing her.
Not all of that came as a result of what her church did – as I said, there were many factors involved – but when things in her daily life took a hard turn, she didn’t have the support and love of a church family to run to. She didn’t have any reason to turn to the Church for guidance, for support, for comfort.
It’s more than just personal preference. Sometimes, there’s much more at stake than we might see.
I’ve gotten pressure against me for writing and reading just fantasy and sci-fi, much less for admitting I enjoy (and write some) dark fantasy. I even like things like Pan’s Labyrinth and Elfin Lied—both gory and with other “objectionable” elements, but both fantastic views into sin nature (in my opinion). This “view into others’ mindsets” and “commentary about reality” is much of why I enjoy speculative fiction so much.
Sure, secular spec fic doesn’t have the hope of Christ, but I already have that. One of the reasons I read is to understand worldviews other than mine, to broaden my comprehension of others and Scripture. When you stick to experiencing just what fits what you currently believe, you create an “echo chamber” effect and don’t grow as a believer. Or if you do grow, it’s stunted because it’s all based on one specific way of viewing things. (Isn’t that what went wrong with the Pharisees?)
For example, it was a sci-fi/fantasy book with immortal elves that brought home how everything breaks eventually and it isn’t a big deal. I knew that, from Scripture, but I didn’t fully process that for myself…because my professing Christian mother makes a big deal out of things when things get damaged. (She seriously held over my head for years that I’d damaged $1 baking tray [on accident…and she refused to all my offers to replace it].)
Many Christians in the circles I’ve been in are reluctant and cautious to admit when they even read fiction—and with good reason. Many, often those in authority, deem it a waste of time if not outright sneer at it. (And if you bring up Christ’s parables or any other examples, the Bible is treated as an exception that has no bearing on modern writing.)
But seriously, people who protest horror and such things things because of Philippians 4:8 aren’t paying attention to the rest of the Bible (like, oh, Judges and Song of Solomon), which is evidence that the way they want to define some of those words has to be wrong, because by their own definitions, that Biblical content is wrong and something we’re not to think of. Such people also miss the value of analogies and allegories…or can’t see how speculative fiction qualifies.
You can read a book about some worldview and learn what others or practitioners claim the worldview is, or you can read a novel illustrating the root of that worldview. My underlying premise in life and my writing is “Everyone’s crazy somehow; some people just hide it better than others.”
My parents have used my fondness for speculative fiction to insist that I’m disconnected from reality and don’t understand people. They’ve used my writing it to call me a “storyteller” in general and insist I “make things up” and move it to me “remembering things that never happened” after I finally progressed to Matthew 18:16 instead of sticking to v. 15. (I’m now on v. 17 and far away and not reaching out to them. Suffice to say there’s a reason psychological abuse and manipulation are commonly featured in my work.)
Fiction has long been valuable of me for that other reason, too, because it provides examples of human behavior other than whatever we’ve been raised in. If you’re raised in a healthy dynamic, fiction can give you a peek into comprehending those in an unhealthy one. If you’re raised in an unhealthy dynamic… Toxic folks flock together, so sometimes fiction is the only place you might see an example of healthy interaction.
Pan’s Labyrinth is a beautiful movie, but personally, I feel that Elfin Lied, while a powerful picture of the sin nature, fell short of what they could’ve done with the concept (also I found the splatter horror and other extraneous elements to be a bit tiresome). I feel the same with something like Death Note. Great concept with some seriously unfulfilled potential (Elfin Lied fared better). But maybe that’s the end result when stories are told from a culture other than our own, a culture free of the Judeo-Christian underpinning that we’re used to. They may recognise there’s a ‘parasite’ eating away at them, but they don’t know its identity, nor how to inoculate themselves against such a deadly disease.
Indeed.
I also find it useful to consider what presuppositions could cause unfulfilled potential in things, whether it was left unfulfilled by choice or due to ignorance. That’s an admittedly technical/analytical way of looking at things, though. 🙂
Hi Mike (And Co-Commentors)
I’m not into horror – my imagination takes one horror book or movie I watch and when I sleep amplifies it to the nTh power. I swear I could write a better sequel to SAW. So I always thought horror was evil to consume. But then I met my friend who came out of a vampire family (it’s a real thing) and entered Jesus’ family. She’s a Christian but hasn’t changed much 😀 In the best sense. She always LOVED horror and laughs at it. Her profession is movie make-up in the horror genre.
Before I met my friend, I always saw horror from the philosophy of “what we put into our minds affects our tendency to sin” and we need to “Die to self” when it comes to our influences and what we allow ourselves to enjoy. I’d never seen anyone wired to enjoy horror movies and books and not be under some demon’s seductive manipulation.
I think Christians are afraid of being/becoming (yeah that’s a debate to have) twisted and sinful – which is why we don’t read or watch “Real” descriptive themes of sinful stuff in books or films. You’re not gonna change that Mike, unless we dialogue about sinful nature and sovereignty and how our problems affect the trajectory of God’s plan in our lives – or dont.
Oh yeah, I’m not a conservative. So we will have fun on this blog. But please don’t call me a progressive. These days, that’s a really annoying label.
Horror has always been about the fight between darkness and light. Horror is raw, untamed, emotionally draining, and strips away the facade of pretense to reveal the true face of evil. The best of these stories incorporate spiritual themes with characters committed to fighting the monsters in front of them filled with fear of death, loss of loved ones, and the unknown. Many leave the door open for sequels, which could be argued is a vibrant illustration of recurring sin. What could be a more Christian based theme in a story?
It was a fascination with the supernatural and a search for spiritual truth that led me to the Living God. After surrendering my life to Jesus Christ I saw these supernatural beings for what they really were: tools of the first enemy of God. Much of the church today is satisfied to hide behind a thin veil of esoteric, just out-of-reach concepts of the spiritual darkness fighting against them. I say it is well past time for Christian fans and writers to stand up when confronted with ignorant questions about their affinity for the horror genre. The journey of horror is to face the terror behind the self-imposed spiritual blinders, and to vanquish that evil with the light of the Only one who can save us. As the saying goes, “The Light Shines Brighter in the Darkness”.
Kudos to you! I did a show on this a while back and would love to revisit the topic with you whenever your schedule permits. Rock on!