Have you found your Edward yet? If that sentence makes any sense to you most likely you are the parent of a student or are a student who has read the Twilight series of novels by Stephenie Meyer. After all the descriptions of Edward I’ve been hearing, the previews I’ve been seeing for the movie adaptation of the first book in the series and the interestingly symbolic book cover of two hands holding an apple, I decided it was time to for me to read Twilight, and what an enlightening experience it was. I thought I’d pass my observations along so that you can make an informed decision about the books, or at least have some knowledge of the issues in the books to discuss with your student.

First off, understand that I am in no way a proponent of banning books, and Twilight is no exception. Nothing makes me angrier than Christians who overreact to books without ever reading them. For instance, many Christians flip out about the Harry Potter series, which I am a huge fan of. I think that fantasy and other fiction can often teach us a lot about life. The ultimate point of the Harry Potter series is that good conquers evil, character, integrity and honesty matter and healthy friendships are important. That being said, my qualm with Twilight isn’t the medium (i.e. fantasy fiction, vampires, etc.) but the ultimate message of the books.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the books, a little background is in order. Bella is an average teenage girl living with her mom in Phoenix, Arizona. When her mom remarries she decides to do her mom a favor and move to her Dad’s house in Forks, a small coastal town in rural Washington State. In Forks she meets Edward, an attractive boy who just happens to be a vampire. He’s a good vampire, however, calling himself a “vegetarian” meaning he chooses not to drink human blood. The two fall in love (in a matter of weeks), go on some interesting dates and ultimately they decide they have to be together forever after Edward rescues her from some non-vegetarian vampires.

First the positives, and there are a few here. First, the vampires Bella finds in Forks are doing their best to fight their evil nature. They are trying to be “good” vampires. Meyer doesn’t glorify evil or darkness or the vampire lifestyle. The vampire story line is not something I’m really concerned about with this series. Meyer has also written a novel that is fairly engaging and I can see why teenage girls would especially be drawn to it. Meyer also refuses to have Bella and Edward have premarital sex. She is a Mormon and doesn’t want to portray that in her novels. But I wouldn’t get to excited about the lack of sex in the novels, and thus begins the problems I have with the books.

I’ve never seen more sexually charged books in which sex doesn’t actually occur. Practically half of the book is Bella talking about how hot Edward is (which explains why all these teenage girls think a character from a novel is so “hot”). Call me a guy, but this kind of sentence makes me want to throw up:

“Edward . . . lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare. His glistening pale lavender lids were shut, though of course he didn’t sleep. A perfect statue, carved in some unknown stone, smooth like marble, glittering like crystal.”

This is the kind of descriptive observation that Bella makes about Edward literally every instance in the book that she sees him or thinks about him. This focus on external, surface beauty was troubling, but it isn’t the end. Perhaps the most troubling scene is the one in which Edward sneaks past Bella’s father to spend the night with Bella in her bed, and oh how Bella wishes she’d remembered to bring her Victoria’s Secret pajamas with her from Phoenix.

Edward and Bella have an unhealthy relationship from the beginning, and I’m more scared that our students will want to be in that type of relationship more than I am about vampires. They are both selfish, going after what they want and focused on external beauty. Edward basically stalks Bella watching her each night in her sleep and Bella notes that her life is Edward now, lying to her parents and forgetting them and her friends all for Edward.

As Christian girls start dating they should be looking for Christian guys who will respect them, put them and their honor first, seek to set an example spiritually and will honor and respect both of their parents. Emily and I want the girls in this ministry to have high standards and never to compromise. I can’t say that Twilight provides the best example to follow.

If your kids have read this series or you’re going to let them read it, just make sure you talk to them about the content. Any time you see a movie or read a book or listen to a song that your student is into is a great time to contrast the message of the culture with the message of the bible. It’s rare that our culture will produce something consistent with scripture, but we can always find pieces of positive and pieces of negative, apply them to God’s word and train our students to start making healthy decision based on biblical truth.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to e-mail or call me!  

Further Reading!