*A note before you read this. After doing an audit of my blog in 2022, I have decided to leave content that speaks to the Christian I was at the time this was written. I no longer identify as Christian (and haven’t for a very long time.) I chose to leave these posts because it is who I was then and it is important to me to be honest and true with every iteration and evolution of self that I experience. I may decide to add comments to the end of posts like this as well
I’ll be honest. I don’t know where I’m going with this.
Something’s been on my mind for a couple months now and I haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact reason it has bothered me.
Recently, two people asked me why I write horror. One was a Christian, one an atheist. In the same week.
And that unsettled me.
(If either of you are reading, please note–I hold n0o animosity towards you. At all. I need to work this out though and some of my words might sound bitter, rest assured, they’re not directed AT you. Okay?)
One thing that bothers me is Christians who think a Christian can’t/shouldn’t write horror. It does not glorify evil anymore than romance novels glorify fantastical relationships that don’t exist–at least I’ve never seen hordes of beautiful women and buff men meet, have gloriously lovely lives, and oh-a problem-but that’s tiny and solved and now everyone lives happily ever after with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Stepford novels.
Humankind cannot stand very much reality. – T. S. Eliot
Another thing that bothers me is Christians who think Christians can’t write horror is that most Christians don’t know what God wants them to do, yet they’re perfectly comfy on their high horse telling me what they think God wants me to do. This was one of the biggest lessons I learned from my former pastor. The man thought because he was a pastor, he had more insight into what God wanted from me than I did. The sad thing is, for awhile, I believed that pastor. I’m over that though.
Newsflash: God doesn’t want everyone to be alike.
Like I said, I don’t mean for this to sound bitter towards the people who asked me why I write horror. My anger isn’t directed at them. It’s directed at the stereotype.