Vampires, Witches, Aliens, & Sex……

Well I guess that got your attention...

When I do book signings for The Second Trumpet they usually put me next to the bestseller rack and so in between the onslaughts of adoring fans hoping for an autograph, (or at best a glimpse of their favorite author), I squeeze in a few moments to peruse the shelves in order to see what sort of claptrap tomes my peers are using in their ingenious attempts to capture the minds of the populace.

Has anyone looked at the bestseller lists from the NYTs, Amazon or Barnes and Noble lately!?!?! Oh my God! (That’s right I said God – but not in vain – it’s a prayer for anyone who reads that stuff!)

Guess what you’ll find? You guessed it… Now we all know our Country’s been obsessed with sex for many years (I guess the whole world has/is for that matter) but if you peruse the recent bestseller lists, now it’s brutal, violent, criminal sex (that means rape and murder are all thrown in for good measure)! What gives?

Well if it’s not sex then what’s up with all the vampire and werewolf books? Are those things real? Do people want them to be? I mean the stories all end up the same (innocent – or not so innocent victims get vamped!) a bunch of mere mortals die and the immortal vampires and werewolves continue their lonely chronicle of life for, well forever - I guess. Then of course there are the witch books, and the common spat of alien books that have populated the bestseller lists for years now.

But to what end? Why do people read them? An escape from reality? An escape from the mundane-acity of everyday life? But look what you’re escaping into! Do the books you read affect you? Do the books you read affect your kids? (Does it matter that the Bible says a witch is to be put to death but a few years ago my 9 year old nephew came into my house trying to cast spells on my family after reading his third Harry Potter book? - No I’m sure that’s nothing….)

So why the popularity of these books?

For one thing most of them are very well written. Why? Simple. First because they’re written by very talented authors. The only problem is these folks have bought into Babylon’s lie and have used their God-given-talent for their own glory instead of for what it was intended – to glorify God. Another reason for the mass popularity of these books is that much of the world is interested in, and searching for information, experiences, and answers about the supernatural. Unfortunately, the Western Church has, for the most part, left a vacuum in this area and these wretched books fill the void we leave. Because we (the Body) don’t have answers about the supernatural that are meaningful, and helpful, and have a ring of truth (BTW – all these answers are clearly in the Bible) people fill this void as best they can. And finally, so many buy into the Deceiver’s lie that a little rough, brutal, criminal sex is fine as long as you’re just reading about it (not doing it). But check out the statistics on the people who do - do it. It almost always started as an idea in their mind before they did it.

Hmmm, I wonder where the idea came from?

So what to do? Read the kind of books that model the kind of life you want to live. I want to live a life full of the supernatural power of God and so those are not only the kind of books I read, they’re also the kind of books I write. There are plenty of good ones out there. Let me recommend you click on the link to right and check out The Second Trumpet. But whether you read it or not remember….what you read does matter. It affects you in many more ways than you might think!

God Bless!

LM