Thursday, May 15, 2008
I am a member of a Christian comics elist and the issue of using horror as a tool to share and spread the gospel through their comics. I felt the need to weigh in. Here's what I wrote.
Welcome to the Monday night raw wrestling match occurring in my head.
Getting in on this late, but I have really mixed feelings about this. On one hand I love the work of Frank Peretti which could move into the realm of horror, however, I struggle with the idea of horror for a couple of reasons. Where do I have to put my mind in order to create horror? Don't I have to take my mind to the depths of depravity to create the story? I don't know who is reading what I write. I couldn't live with myself if someone took a scene I created and copied it to take someone's life. Doesn't the Bible say "whatever is good and pure and true... think on these things." Not condemning those who choose to use horror, if God is truly leading you in that direction, I have nothing bad to say to you, but for myself, I feel that we are created in God's image and loved by God and I can't quite picture God being pleased with us being entertained by people created in His image destroying people created in His image. I'm wrestling here as well because I just saw the iron man movie and loved it complete with many created in His image being blown up.
For myself, I am an extreme visual person and images stick with me for a very long time, I avoid horror for the same reason I avoid anything with nudity in it, the images stick in my mind to long and I don't like where they take me. For me it's a spiritual issue and, knowing my heart, I avoid both. You've got to know your heart and what God is saying to you.
One last thing, someone cited all the horrors in the Bible as justification for using horror. I would just like to caution that person on one thing. There is a difference here that in my opinion cannot be ignored. The stories of the horrors in the Bible are true. They are reporting true facts for the purpose of helping us to understand the will of God and avoid the sin described that led up to the depravity. Horror stories are stories created in your mind for entertainment. It's kind of like comparing the nightly news to nightmare on Elm Street. I'm not sure the comparison is valid
Just my two cents,
God bless,
Dave Weiss
http://runningamok.mypodcast.com
Welcome to the Monday night raw wrestling match occurring in my head.
Getting in on this late, but I have really mixed feelings about this. On one hand I love the work of Frank Peretti which could move into the realm of horror, however, I struggle with the idea of horror for a couple of reasons. Where do I have to put my mind in order to create horror? Don't I have to take my mind to the depths of depravity to create the story? I don't know who is reading what I write. I couldn't live with myself if someone took a scene I created and copied it to take someone's life. Doesn't the Bible say "whatever is good and pure and true... think on these things." Not condemning those who choose to use horror, if God is truly leading you in that direction, I have nothing bad to say to you, but for myself, I feel that we are created in God's image and loved by God and I can't quite picture God being pleased with us being entertained by people created in His image destroying people created in His image. I'm wrestling here as well because I just saw the iron man movie and loved it complete with many created in His image being blown up.
For myself, I am an extreme visual person and images stick with me for a very long time, I avoid horror for the same reason I avoid anything with nudity in it, the images stick in my mind to long and I don't like where they take me. For me it's a spiritual issue and, knowing my heart, I avoid both. You've got to know your heart and what God is saying to you.
One last thing, someone cited all the horrors in the Bible as justification for using horror. I would just like to caution that person on one thing. There is a difference here that in my opinion cannot be ignored. The stories of the horrors in the Bible are true. They are reporting true facts for the purpose of helping us to understand the will of God and avoid the sin described that led up to the depravity. Horror stories are stories created in your mind for entertainment. It's kind of like comparing the nightly news to nightmare on Elm Street. I'm not sure the comparison is valid
Just my two cents,
God bless,
Dave Weiss
http://runningamok.mypodcast.com
Comments:
I have had others bring that idea to my attention (Christian Horror). I've never told anyone 'no' yet...but that's only because I always wait until the final product to make an evaluation. To this day, I have yet to see a complete 'Christian Horror' comic.
I believe that a well written story evokes emotions in an effort to prove a point. Most of them evoke on emotion at the beginning as the hero faces battles (internal and external), and in the end, we feel good when the hero wins. In a Christian story, we may even feel a sense of faith as we 'see' God work.
I think it is possible to use horror to elicit fear, and then show how God saves us from that... as faith is essentially the opposite of fear. But, I think it would be really difficult to do, especially in the context of typical American Horror (which normally includes vampires, zombies, bloody scenes, etc). I guess it is hard to me to really wrap my head around, since I have never been very big into that genre to begin with.
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I believe that a well written story evokes emotions in an effort to prove a point. Most of them evoke on emotion at the beginning as the hero faces battles (internal and external), and in the end, we feel good when the hero wins. In a Christian story, we may even feel a sense of faith as we 'see' God work.
I think it is possible to use horror to elicit fear, and then show how God saves us from that... as faith is essentially the opposite of fear. But, I think it would be really difficult to do, especially in the context of typical American Horror (which normally includes vampires, zombies, bloody scenes, etc). I guess it is hard to me to really wrap my head around, since I have never been very big into that genre to begin with.
