Touched by a Vampire (14 page)

Christians also have ways of thinking about goodness, violence, and the effort we make to be moral. These themes are central to our understandings of what is wrong with our lives and what God does to save us.

While vampires thirst for human blood, Edward and his family choose to deal with their thirst by hunting large animals. Edward explains to Bella, “I’d compare it to living on tofu and soy milk; we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke.”
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The blood of beasts and bears can keep them going, but it doesn’t satisfy their most basic cravings or strengthen them in the same way human blood would.

The drama of the Cullens’ choice to live without destroying human life comes from the understanding Meyer gives us of just how deeply they desire human blood. If the desire weren’t so strong, so firmly rooted in who they are, their self-control wouldn’t be so impressive. Moment to moment, day to day, they must be masters of their own dark urges.

Longing for human blood is basic to being a vampire. It’s very much part of vampire nature, who vampires are at the depths of their being. Their physical characteristics are even designed to lure in their human prey. They’re supernaturally strong, unbeatable hunters, and no human being stands a chance against them. On top of this, they’re incredibly attractive, drawing people to them like bees are drawn to flowers. Edward rants against what he is when he tells Bella, “I’m the
world’s best predator, aren’t I? Everything about me invites you in—my voice, my face, even my smell. As if I need any of that!”
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As she gets to know Edward, Bella recognizes that murdering humans simply
is
vampire nature. She asks him, “Why do you do it? I still don’t understand how you can work so hard to resist what you…are. Please don’t misunderstand, of course I’m glad that you do. I just don’t see why you would bother in the first place.”
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Most vampires don’t bother. Many of the tensest moments in the stories come when vampires follow their natures by taking human life. Bella sees the Volturi bring in a large group of people to murder, and she shudders at the way they indulge their bloodthirsty natures without any hint of hesitation or remorse.

The goodness of the Cullens and the moral fabric of the universe Meyer has constructed are based on a rejection of violence. At the same time, violence remains an important part of the stories, and most of the characters engage in battle and in the killing of enemies.

Edward’s brother Jasper has a particularly violent past. As a new vampire, he was used by a power-hungry vampire
to try to gain advantage in vampire wars. He was responsible for a massive amount of killing. In explaining his past, Jasper reflects on the effects that participation in violence has on the moral life and on human relationships. Jasper believes that the “years of slaughter and carnage” turned him into “a monster of the grisliest kind.”
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Living in violence ate away at who he was, damaging his basic character. He also believes that violence damages relationships with others, making it difficult to form lasting bonds. “When you live for the fight, for the blood,” he says, “the relationships you form are tenuous and easily broken.”
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The Cullens’ friend Eleazar, also a vegetarian vampire, confirms Jasper’s insight about the way that living without violence fosters close relationships. Eleazar explains that “abstaining from human blood makes us more civilized—lets us form true bonds of love.”
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Many aspects of the Twilight Saga, then, work as a critique of violence. The characters value human life and the ability to live in peace. They see that violence changes individuals and communities by destroying compassion, trust, and the ability to form close ties with others. The Cullens are
willing to fight against their most basic impulses in order to live without violence.

But other aspects of the stories make violence appear in a more positive light. Violence is seen as a natural response to any threat, and the male characters are described as prone to fighting and revenge. All the books include threatened battle or fighting, though in
Breaking Dawn
the actual battle is avoided even though the characters have trained carefully for it.

In many ways, the vampires in the story are more aware of the moral difficulties of violence than Bella is. Though the werewolves and vampires in her life don’t reject violence when they’re threatened by enemies, they certainly don’t take it lightly. At one point, Edward turns to Bella in disbelief and says, “I just beheaded and dismembered a sentient creature not twenty yards from you. That doesn’t bother you?”
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In fact, it doesn’t bother Bella.

As Christians, we follow a Lord who is the Prince of Peace. He counseled His followers to reject violence, and He Himself submitted to death when many people would have preferred Him to lead a violent rebellion against the government. Christians don’t all agree about how to live lives that are faithful to Jesus in this regard. Some believe that Christians can engage in violence in order to protect the weak. Others are convinced that
the most faithful witness to Jesus’s love comes when we refuse all violence, even if it means that we, like Him, pay with our lives. While Christians don’t agree about exactly how to respond to violence in this world, we do agree that violence should not be taken lightly. Perhaps the role of violence in the Twilight Saga can provide some food for thought as we think about the ways violence damages our world and the ways we can be witnesses against that violence, witnesses to God’s love.

Carlisle’s story explains why he and his family make the tremendous effort needed to reject who they are and fight against their own natures, against their very selves. We learn that in Carlisle’s human life, he was the son of a fanatical preacher, a man who hunted darkness and evil in all forms and devoted himself to destroying vampires. Carlisle joined his father’s hunt and suffered a vampire bite. When he realized he was becoming one of the monsters his father was so intent on destroying, he had a crisis. He couldn’t reconcile himself to living as an evil being. In pain and self-loathing, he struggled against the urge to take human life that was now a part of who he had become.

He became determined that he would reject life as the murderous creature he’d once hunted, that he could overcome his new nature and longings and refuse to destroy human life.
Carlisle describes this as a choice he made, an act of will. “Like everything in life,” Carlisle explains to Bella, “I just had to decide what to do with what I was given.”
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In this case, though, what he had been given was a nature that longed for human blood, and his decision to reject that nature was in no way an easy one.

Carlisle’s basic moral character is shaped by his past as a human being who defended others against evil. His compassion for others marks both his human and vampire lives. He rejects his father’s zealotry and closed-mindedness, but he holds on to at least some aspects of the faith of his upbringing. He tells Bella, “I didn’t agree with my father’s particular brand of faith. But never, in the nearly four hundred years now since I was born, have I ever seen anything to make me doubt whether God exists in some form or the other. Not even the reflection in the mirror.”
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Carlisle explains, “I’m sure all this sounds a little bizarre, coming from a vampire. But I’m hoping that there is still a point to this life, even for us. It’s a long shot, I’ll admit. By all accounts, we’re damned regardless. But I hope, maybe foolishly, that we’ll get some measure of credit for trying.”
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Carlisle’s faith and hope in God are vague though. He believes in God “in some form or the other,” but he doesn’t have
the specifics about God as revealed in Scripture that would give his hope some direction. He hopes for goodness and purpose in life, but he doesn’t have a distinct place to put that hope.

In the world of the Twilight Saga, good stands up against evil, and people struggle heroically to combat their own worst desires. The universe Meyer has created is, without a doubt, a moral universe, but the rules of goodness in that universe have crucial differences from the way Christians understand goodness and morality to work. Let’s think about the ways we try to be good and the kind of creatures we are, and I’ll clarify the differences between the picture of goodness we get from the Twilight Saga and the good news about goodness that God offers to us.

The vampire desire for human blood is deep and strong, but it is also something that can be defeated. Though the Cullens crave blood, they are able, through effort and practice, to keep the impulse at bay. As Carlisle explains things, “Just because we’ve been…dealt a certain hand…it doesn’t mean that we can’t choose to rise above—to conquer the boundaries of a destiny that none of us wanted. To try to retain whatever essential humanity we can.”
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At first, this looks inspiring. It appears
to be an image of moral courage we can all aim for, but there’s a serious flaw in this way of thinking. That flaw reveals that this image of moral courage is not inspiring. It’s actually a recipe for despair.

The flaw, the great untruth, in the moral world of the Twilight Saga is the belief that human beings
are able
to rise above the darkness of our natures. This untruth is dangerous because if we believe it, we will be trapped in a hopeless place where we’re always trying to dig ourselves out of the deep holes we’re trapped in when there is simply no way for us to rescue ourselves. We can’t work up our courage and make ourselves be good. We can’t overcome our own evil.

There’s good news though—the best of news—behind this terrifying image. God can and does rescue us. God can change our sinful natures into something new and good. God offers us transformation—not transformation we
achieve
through our own desperate efforts, but transformation we
receive
as a gift.

In the Twilight Saga, human beings are free to choose good or evil. When Carlisle hopes for goodness, he’s hoping to hold on to his essential humanity. Even when that human nature is distorted by a vampire’s bite and the human becomes a monster, Carlisle discovers that enough goodness remains, enough ability to fight against evil lingers, that a vampire can reject the thirst for human blood. In the Saga, then, the moral life is a
choice to be made. Goodness is an option for all, human or vampire, who will make the required effort. Choosing goodness isn’t easy, but it’s certainly possible.

The Cullens hope God will see their effort and reward them. Edward isn’t at all optimistic about the question of whether he can still have a relationship with God, but Carlisle finds great comfort in Edward’s goodness. He sees that goodness as evidence that God will look on Edward favorably. Carlisle tells Bella, “I look at my…son. His strength, his goodness, the brightness that shines out of him—and it only fuels that hope, that faith, more than ever. How could there not be more for one such as Edward?”
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Bella agrees that the goodness the Cullens have worked to achieve must be something that God would reward. Her thinking about the implications that being a vampire might have on eternal relationships with God ends with her conclusion that “I couldn’t imagine anyone, deity included, who wouldn’t be impressed by Carlisle. Besides, the only kind of heaven I could appreciate would have to include Edward.”
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The portrait of the good life we find in the Twilight Saga matches the understanding of human nature held in the Mormon faith. There are several crucial differences between this picture of the good life and the good news of Jesus Christ.

	In the Twilight Saga	In the Gospel Story
Human nature	flawed, but essentially good	good as created by God but broken by sin
Evil desire	runs deep and strong but can be overcome	key to who we are and what we want; we can’t turn away from it
What is possible	free to choose good or evil	trapped by sin
Effort	vigorous effort can make you good; the harder you work, the better you’ll be	nothing we can do will make us good
Escape from evil	comes through moral effort, which God will reward	comes through the grace of Jesus; a gift we do nothing to earn
The good life	requires constant striving	is a gift God gives us; God transforms us