Twilight

A couple of years ago I bought a book for my oldest daughter, who thankfully has been blessed with a gift of discernment. At the time, Twilight was an almost unknown series. I figured since it was written by a Mormon it should be okay, meaning no sex or major violence. During the past couple days full of hype about the movie, I have changed my mind.

Here is the thing. The author (a self-proclaimed Mormon) has stated that a lot of her basic beliefs are ingrained in the story. "Meyer, a wife and mother of three from Phoenix, who is a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and graduate of Brigham Young University, says she has become accustomed to people asking her, “What’s a nice Mormon girl like you doing writing about vampires?” But as she told one Mormon-themed Web site, “Unconsciously, I put a lot of my basic beliefs into the story.”" http://www.sj-r.com/beliefs/x466663776/-Twilight-author-s-Mormon-faith-a-big-influence-in-books-film

While it may be a "decent" book, I have not yet read it myself, therefore, I can only discuss here the following points that I feel are important:

First, everything else aside, the book is about vampires. Are these not considered to be demonic? We are already raising the status of witches to acceptable, are we also going to raise demons to good creatures? Oh, wait, that was a different charming tv show...

Second, the book is laced with Mormonology. While that may seem harmless, the more you are exposed to the beliefs the more they make sense until soon what seemed so wrong previously starts to seem more like fact. This indoctrination is what scares me about this book. Mormon missionaries are taught that the first step to "bringing the gospel" to a person is to build relationships of trust.

Think about it. This means that with the popularity of this series, Mormon missionaries now have an "in" with anyone who is a Twilight fan. All they have to do now is go up to your child and say something like, "Hey have you read Twilight? Isn't it great? Did you know the author is Mormon? Yeah, she reads this book (holding up the Book of Mormon). Would you like to read it too?"

Okay, yes, this is a poor dramatization, but I'm hoping that if you are reading this you get the point. Here are a couple other links on this subject that I recommend reading:

http://bereanwife.blogspot.com/2008/11/do-you-know-what-your-teens-are-reading.html

http://virtuealert.blogspot.com/2008/11/lets-talk-vampires.html

"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. " Philippians 1:9-11