Is “Twilight” turning teens into wannabe vampires?

According to one father, “Twilight” inspires kids to dabble in sex, the occult, and home-style vampirism.

Just in time for the final Twilight movie to hit the theaters, we have a worried dad (and pastor) attempting to connect the films with a subculture that, frankly, has been around a lot longer than Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. He somehow stumbled across the various “vampire” communities on the Internet, began (as many parents do) casting his 15-year-old daughter in that scene, and got scared.

He writes:

There, girls the same age of my 15-year-old daughter are talking about “awakening,” which is their word for converting to paganism (like the Christian word “born again”). In a perverted twist on Communion, their sacraments include the giving of your own blood by becoming a “donor.” This is entirely pagan. These storylines offer eternality without God and salvation; in the place of Jesus’ shed blood, girls and boys shed their own blood to be awakened to their own salvation of a new spiritual way of life filled with sex and occult behavior.

We heard a lot of similar chatter around the Harry Potter books and films: that they would turn young children into occult-obsessed heathens, that their souls would be lost. Even the Vatican changed its mind about that theory once it became clear that millions of kids hadn’t taken up the wizarding life.

Here’s the thing about teens, paganism, sex, and “vampires.” When I grew up, teens were reading Anne Rice’s books and playing Vampire: The Masquerade. They played at being vampires, dressing in dark clothing and wearing faux fangs. Few, almost none, drank anyone’s blood. It was a game, a role play like any other. A chance to try on a different identity, one that’s more mysterious and powerful than, let’s face it, just about any drab-feeling 15-year-old.

What I’m saying is this: teens (and adults) have been playing with this trope for a while now; it didn’t start with Twilight. The fact that Twilight took off suggests that there’s something in the cultural zeitgeist right now that makes it a good fit. What we need to do is analyze what that is — actually talk to kids about why they love the books and why they may be imagining themselves in some of the roles — and go from there. It isn’t about the Devil or the Internet/Mormon authors luring them to their doom. It’s about something that’s part and parcel of adolescence — coupled with the way the world is right now, and has been for the past 30 or so years since Lestat emerged from Rice’s imagination and hit the pages of a book — that’s driving people’s interest.

Fortunately, the author of this piece more or less does the right thing with his own daughter:

I do not shelter my children from these sorts of things. Pop culture is too pervasive to hide from (on a recent trip to a Barnes & Noble with my daughter we noticed an entire section of books dedicated to “Teenage Vampire Romance”). My wife and I talk to my daughter about these things so that she can be discerning, informed, and safe.

I don’t agree with him that media is “a potential threat to her well-being,” and would encourage him to let his daughter use her own discernment to seek out what she needs, and keep the lines of communication open so they can talk when she’s pursuing something that gives him pause.

I don’t think he’s wrong to worry. That’s what parents do. They want their kids to grow up safe, healthy, and happy. And, because he’s a pastor, he enters that role with a pretty specific worldview, and maybe even an obligation to keep his kids on the straight and narrow. But it isn’t Twilight tempting them — or anyone’s kids — to role-play as vampires.

So what is it, then?

Why not ask them, instead of judging them?

Bloody bath lands Lady Gaga in hot water

Lady Gaga has been known to frolic in blood. Does that make her a Satanist? A London hotel housekeeper seems to think so.

A housekeeper at a London hotel is reporting that Lady Gaga recently bathed in a tub full of blood in the hotel — and then didn’t clean up afterward. According to several reports, the housekeeping staff — who, of course, are widely accepted experts on such things — claim it was part of a “Satanic ritual.”

Oh boy.

Let’s revisit history, shall we? The most famous woman alleged to have bathed in blood was Elizabeth Báthory, whose life (like Gaga’s) is so surrounded by myth and hyperbole, it’s hard to know fact from fiction. However, allegedly, Báthory figured out that bathing in the blood of virgins helped her look younger. Is there any evidence that the occult was involved? No.

Bathing in blood is also a pop-culture trope, seen in such films as (pictures not safe for work) Hostel II and (of course) Bathory. Eminem posed in a bathtub full of blood. Did anyone call him a Satanist? Well, okay, yes, but not specifically for his bathing habits.

While it’s true that blood magic is practiced in some pagan faiths, it’s not any more common among Satanists than other groups — and there are no known “Satanic rituals” that involve bathing in blood. Moreover, there’s no sign that this was real blood, or that Lady Gaga is a practicing Satanist.

It seems much more likely that the housekeeper in question, understandably horrified at the scene and justifiably angry at having to clean up, jumped to conclusions based on pop-culture references and her imagination took over.

Let’s keep this in mind the next time we see someone we think might be involved with paganism, the occult, or even Satanism. Those who do practice blood magic probably don’t look like you imagine they would.