I remember hearing a commentary on a Christian radio program years ago. It was about the importance of going only to Christian movies. If you went to a horror movie (so the argument ran) it would open you to demonic spiritual influences. Eventually it might even cause you to abandon your faith and take up necromancy.

I'm afraid that I ignored that one, and a lot of subsequent similar warnings. Far from becoming a Satanist, I've gone on to become an ordained pastor. (Though I am in the United Church of Christ. In the eyes of some Christian conservatives that's almost as bad.) Neither Stephen King, not H.P. Lovecraft, nor even Harry Potter have turned me to the dark side.

In the last 4 years I've taken to writing stories and am fortunate to have a small number published. Strictly speaking they aren't pure horror stiries for the most part. They are adventure stories with fantasy, science fiction and horror elements included.

So, how can a Christian, let alone a pastor write stories that deal with moneters, magicians and the powers of evil?

It's an interesting question but it makes an assumption that I think is a bad one. The idea seems to be that reading or watching stories with depictions will make a person more suceptable to evil influences. I think the opposite it true. The greatest danger from evil comes when people shut their eyes and refuse to admit that it is there. That's easy to see with such human evils as corruption and injustice. When people shut their eyes and pretend that everything is rosy those problems have an opportunity to grow.

I recently submitted a story to Kim Paffenroth who is a theologan, associate professor of religious studies, and zombie fiction author. He has an interesting blog at http://gotld.blogspot.com where he talks about (among other things) the connections between Christianity between faith and horror stories.

Zombies aren't my favorite monster (I love obscure critters like the windigo, the golem and the kumiho) but I agree with Kim's point that fictional stories about good and evil creatures are the best illustrations for the very real forces of hate and deceit in the world that we have to deal with.

Now, I'm not saying that horror stories necessarily make us better people, or even that they give us spiritual insights (though the well-written ones often do). I'm just saying that the genre has a bit of a bad rap. It's nice to find a few authors out there who agree.