From Examiner.com:
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Reports say that Stephenie Meyer’s hit book series Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn have been removed from a religious bookstore (The Deseret)’s shelves because it has been “met with mixed review” by the store’s customers. According to the report, the store is owned by the Mormon church, and its primary revenue stems from religious book sales.
While The Host remains on the shelves, says the report, the Twilight series has been taken from this Mormon bookseller’s listing.
As we all know, Stephenie Meyer is a Mormon herself. Says she, “I am . . . a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . . and that has a huge influence on who I am and my perspective on the world, and therefore what I write (though I have been asked more than once, ‘What’s a nice Mormon girl like you doing writing about vampires?’).”
Yet, up until this point, the Twilight series has received fairly little backlash from mainstream religious organizations. This event, however, might mark just the beginning.
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (which has also spawned a popular major motion picture series: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and, now, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) received a similar (though, as of yet, quite worse) dismissal by the church, including bookshelf bans such as this.
The objections to Rowling’s Harry Potter series, says one Christian teen source, are that:
While millions of people around the world read and enjoy the “Harry Potter” books, there are many people that object to the content of the Harry Potter books, stating that they go against the world of God. The objections are based on the bible teaching that practicing witchcraft or other occult acts is a sin.
Objections to “Harry Potter” usually reference Deuteronomy 18:10-12, “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.”
These Christians believe that the books promote the modern religions of Wicca, Paganism, and Neopaganism. They point to the terms “witch,” “wizard,” and the variety of spells presented in the books as leading children and Christian teens down the path to the occult.
Other Christians believe that the novels are just pure fantasy, but they object to the dark nature of the books for younger children. As the books go on they become more violent, scary, and people die. Some parents believe that these book’s violent undertones promote violence in children.
Finally, many Christians have an issue with the moral ambiguity presented in the books. J.K. Rowling has presented a world where moral questions do not always have clear answers, and this presents an issue for some parents who feel her characters are not being appropriate role models for their children. There are good characters that commit murder and other good characters that lie and steal. Some characters are considered “evil,” but Rowling presents them as having a psychology that makes them somewhat sympathetic. Also, there are some references to swear words that offend some Christian teens and adults.
A few weeks back, we reported to you the fact that a small minority of Twilight series fans might have been taking things a bit too far as they developed the “Cullenist” “religion,” and devote much more than their spare leisure time to enjoyment of the series (to say the least). And with the release of 2008’s Twilight film (with Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Ashley Greene, Rachelle LeFevre, Cam Gigandet, Edi Gathegi, Billy Burke, Elizabeth Reaser, Justin Chon, Michael Welch, Anna Kendrick, and Christian Serratos and which will be followed with The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and perhaps The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn), attention has certainly been drawn to the intricacies of the series on a national scale. Not to mention, the release of Breaking Dawn (which occurred in August of 2008) meant that the Twilight book series took a (*spoiler*) sexier turn.
So, with the extremism that might be surfacing as a result of the Twilight series, the attention drawn to the series through the film’s success, and the shifts in age-appropriateness that (arguably) might be seen with the fourth installment, are we facing a potential religious backlash against the series?
While at first, and perhaps still now, the series represented many celebrated qualities of religious persons and groups (and perhaps even organizations), what with Bella’s chastity, the quality of sacrifice displayed constantly through the various characters, the importance of family, and, quite frankly, tolerance that is available in the series, bookstores like The Deseret are taking the books from their shelves (claiming to do so as a result of the “mixed” feelings of its customer base as to its appropriateness in a store such as its own). One has to wonder if this is only the beginning?