Twilight Review

So, I admitted in my post last night that, yes...I have subscribed to the recent fad in novels, The Twilight Series, by Stephenie Meyer. It's taken a while for me to organize my thoughts about them, but I think I'm finally ready to put it out there. Here I go...

I believe that we can look for the glory of God anywhere. He is able to shine His Light into any place at any time. As my husband has recently quoted from a book he is reading for Seminary, "God is the only One who is able to use sin sinlessly."

So even (and especially!) when I read a book like Twilight, I read with discernment. I enjoy the fiction, but I try not to miss any of the hidden messages that point to the glory of Christ or that might lead to the glory of man. As I read through this book, and even afterwards as I dialogued with other Christian friends - single friends, married friends, moms of teenagers - I realized that this could be a very dangerous piece of work.

It's not that I didn't enjoy it; rather, the problem is that I did. The greatest issue is not with the fact that the author is a professing Mormon, or that the book was filled with negative assumptions in regards to marriage; though these things are clearly opposing to my worldview. The problem is that the storyline - a tale of perfect mystical love - is so deeply captivating that it is easy, over the course of the four books, to "train" your heart to desire the kind of emotional satisfaction developed within the pages. When you leave the world of Edward and Bella, you might feel a kind of emptiness and longing that, if you believed was justified, you would begin searching for in your own life. And though God is ready and waiting, the book definitely doesn't lead you to search for Him as the answer to this longing.

I read this passage today, which summed up perfectly the danger that my heart was feeling in regards to this book. Again, I read Twilight, I think the author is truly gifted in her ability to capture her audience - and I might recommend it for someone who clearly understands the truth of the Word of God that only Jesus can satisfy - but it is definitely a thin rope to be walking on for anyone, myself included. Without going back often to the scriptures, without a husband that is leading me day by day to the foot of the cross, without a Jesus that fights every day for my love, I would still face these temptations myself!

Romans 1:22-26 (ESV)

"Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions."