Pretty much everyone by now has read or at least heard of Twilight. As many people seem to have an opinion about it. But this is a youth group blog; why even write about Twilight at all? We know it’s a fantasy book. We know it’s … well, either ridiculous or harmless, depending on how you see it. It’s a creative work by an author from our own culture.
What should we think, as Christians? In some sense, critiquing art and creative endeavors is difficult to do absolutely. Some things are a matter of taste. Consider all of the colors in the world around us – can we really say what color is God’s favorite color? Do we know these things?
On the other hand, God does tell us things that He hates and things that please him. We could think of culture and art as indicators of values, or expressions of what people like or dislike. God has given us, the church, our values and norms: what should the culture of the church look like? Additionally, how should we evaluate the cultural expressions of the world around us? Keep in mind that we live in a fallen world. Most of the movies, art, books and music that we engage with on a daily basis are not expressions supporting and stemming from a culture formed around Scriptural values, but from the human wisdom of this world. [Col 2:8] What do we do with them?
A call to discernment is not necessarily a call to censorship or dismissal of the culture of the world we currently live in. Rather, it’s a call to look a little deeper than simply the entertainment value of the media we are surrounded with. We know the book is entertaining, or people wouldn’t be reading it so much. Is it good for us to read?
The word “discern” brings up the idea of “recognizing” and “distinguishing;” in other words, you’re looking into the thing and seeing what is actually there, behind the entertainment. What values are held up? What kinds of relationships are glorified? What behavior or thoughts are being encouraged? And what kind of effect is it having on your thoughts and behaviors?
The next post will attempt to help us discern what the book Twilight is all about. Is it good? bad? ugly? Who knows? We will find out.
