The Twilight book series and the movie based on the first book are sweeping the corridors of middle schools and high schools across the country. I can’t help but find that this to be reminiscent of the Harry Potter rage, although this one seems to be much more girl-centric in terms of the fan base. But those who are fans are every bit as rabid about the stories and the characters.

I’ve been listening lately to Kim and her daughters tell about the books. The basic premise is a teenage girl who falls in love with a young vampire. And apparently at the end of the first book, the young girl yearns to give up her soul and become a vampire. Something her vampire boyfriend won’t let happen.

Okay, so on the one level this is a standard teen romance wrapped up in monster lore and some allegedly good storytelling and character development. It’s all in good fun, and as long as everyone is enjoying it, so what? But I can’t help but wonder why the Evangelical Christians are not in an uproar over this. After all, Harry Potter was going to turn all of their children into spell casting witches and wizards. The issue was that the heroes of the book were magical and this would encourage children to emulate them. However, in Twilight, the heroine wants to give up her immortal soul. Some of the heroes are vampires. And the whole vampire/female victim scenario has long been recognized as a thinly veiled rape fantasy on both sides of the relationship. Assuming that children are not capable of distinguishing fiction from reality (an assertion that the Harry Potter protest depends on) isn’t Twilight every bit as morally destructive to children as Happy Potter?

In full disclosure, I haven’t read the books. I’ve only read plot summaries and talked to those who have read them. But most of the Evangelicals who were up in arms over Harry Potter hadn’t read those books either. So if I can draw these similarities from plot reviews, why haven’t the Evangelicals?

I suppose it’s possible that they consider witches as plausible while vampires are pure fantasy. Or maybe they were concerned about Harry Potter because it appealed to boys while Twilight is more of a girl thing. Perhaps the enemies of Christianity are chosen capriciously by pastors, or based on political opportunism. None of these explanations should be very satisfying for the Evangelicals though. They each have some pretty negative connotations to them.

I’m genuinely curious about the reasoning here. If you have thoughts or insights of your own, I encourage you to share them in the Comments section.