Twilight Saga

[TRH1292]

Aww, don’t give up that easily!

An Internet tough guy on a free forum doth not authentic Magisterial teaching make.

 

[TRH1292]

All right. I took it down. I’ll have to stop watching it from now on.

Instead of doing that, just ask your priest.

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

Well, for one, real pornography involves actual people that are enslaved or degrading themselves, and you are thereby watching and endorsing it. In involves the sins of Fornication, Adultery, Masturbation, and Lust by it’s very inherent nature. In addition it often leads to Abortion directly.

That is correct teaching … however allow me to rephrase this for you that you might see the negative impact of Twilight and other secular romance novels.
"REPHRASED:

Well, for one, emotional pornography involves fantastical images of men that are degrading to men in real life because most of them cannot live up to that fantasy, and you are thereby reading/watching and endorsing that degradation of real men. It involves the sins of Fornication, Adultery and Lust by its very inherent nature. In addition it often leads to Divorce directly.

See what I mean? Women fantasize about perfect men and hold up real men to impossible standards. Then when men fail to live up to those standards, the women give them a hard time for the apparent sin of being imperfect and being unable to make them as happy as they were when reading this stuff, up to and including divorce.

Twilight is a book series that may or may not be taken in the right way or the wrong way. You have no authority to declare it sinful, it’s really nothing more than puritanical legalism whereby you set up your own strange opinion as Church teaching.

You’re right, I don’t have that authority. I never said I did. Nice straw man, that.

But material like Twilight and most secular romance is just as insidiously harmful to marriage and family as real pornography. You are doing Satan’s work for him by declaring Twilight acceptable. Of course that is just my opinion, I do not offer it as official. You may deny it up front, but this is one of the ways Satan sneaks in through the back door to alter your perceptions of the real men you live with in your lives. And not for the better. When women read this material, they are in mortal danger of ceasing to respect their husbands because the men cannot possibly live up to the fantasies that were introduced by this material.

 

[ClearWater]

Instead of doing that, just ask your priest.

I live in Mexico. We sometimes have to wait in huge lines just to go to confession. Further, I know the Spanish word for “Twilight”. It’s “Crepúsculo”. However, even if I could somehow track one down anyway, I doubt priests here would have even heard of it!

 

[MrsR]

Good to see the twilight saga posts kept rocking through the night ha ha. just found amusing about some of the posts in particular the ones claiming this person and that person doesent understand true love, stephany Myer author of twilight, married with children has no concept of true love but author of that post age 16 has it figured out! Well thank goodness for twilight or you may still be confussed on the issue of true love lol. I think author of twilight understands love just fine, I think she also understands book sales! Because I don’t think it would have made best sellers if we altered it as some of you would deem acceptable because it would be BORING! Also just wondering zzyzx road where your getting all your marrage stats from? You seem to know an awful lot about how watching or reading romances affects marrages? In my experience doing marrage/ relationship counselling I’ve never once heard " well it all started when the Mrs watched twilight" haha

 

[Nacho45]

Also, they are both willing to give their lives for each other. Bella actually does. She offers her life for Edward in one scene, and it is a pivitol moment. It is underscored that she, a human, is willing to give her life for Edward, a lowly “soul less” vampire.

I read an article the other day where a husband gave up his life for his wife during a car jacking. That is love and that is real. Military members are prepared, willing and have given their lives for their fellow military members and people they have never met. The police do the same thing and are spit at for their sacrifice. These are acts of love and compassion and they are real. I read about the oldest married couple in the united states a few years ago. They married around 20 and stayed married for over 80 years until they died. That is love and inspiring for people to use as a standard in their relationships.

I don’t mind fantasy or fiction. I just don’t allow myself to be carried away into a world which does not exist because the one we live in is messed up. I am not saying you do, but I know people who have. I remember hearing about a few people who killed themselves after watching Avatar because the real world would never be as “beautiful” as the one they saw in the movie and didn’t feel there was any reason to continue living.

 

[Sarcelle]

I can understand why these kind of books would appeal to young girls but what amazes me is how many intelligent, college educated, middle aged women who are buying into them. I watched the first Twilight movie and thought it was kind of cute but really had no interest after that. I liked Anne Rice’s version of the Vampires better, she actually researched the folklore, geography, and history- she made her vampires real. I did read all those chronicles and when the Twilight series came out I was hoping it would be similar but just couldn’t get into them. I’m not much of a touchy, feely, romantic, kind of girl when it comes to fiction anyway and I really don’t like chick flicks. I’m more into psychological thrillers and crime novels. Just finished “Fahrenheit 411” now that one will leave you scratching your head. Is what we read sinful? I don’t know, but I know what I like and will make sure my daughter is exposed enough to the classics that she will know the difference between literature and just whatever happens to make the bestseller list.

I can also understand when young girls like Twilight, it is after all written for younger people. It also puzzles me why older women like it. But then again I never really understood romance literature in general.

 

[LoveGod102]

I also saw a strong abstinence message in it, as well. There were 4 good-sized books, and they did not have sex until Book 4, after they were married.

Yeah, I know, they had a few times. However, for a modern series, how many others even try to wait till after marriage?

The problem is that is says that abstinence is all that’s necessary. That is bad message to send out. It is spreading the attitude of “how far is too far?”

 

[LoveGod102]

Good to see the twilight saga posts kept rocking through the night ha ha. just found amusing about some of the posts in particular the ones claiming this person and that person doesent understand true love, stephany Myer author of twilight, married with children has no concept of true love but author of that post age 16 has it figured out! Well thank goodness for twilight or you may still be confussed on the issue of true love lol. I think author of twilight understands love just fine, I think she also understands book sales! Because I don’t think it would have made best sellers if we altered it as some of you would deem acceptable because it would be BORING! Also just wondering zzyzx road where your getting all your marrage stats from? You seem to know an awful lot about how watching or reading romances affects marrages? In my experience doing marrage/ relationship counselling I’ve never once heard " well it all started when the Mrs watched twilight" haha

If she does understand love, and yet wrote the books this way just to make money, then it’s all the worse. Of course, she might not have realized the damage these books would cause. Whether she does understand love or, IDK, but I doubt it, from reading her books.
Yes, I am 16. But I have been blessed to be well educated in Catholic Theology, which many others, adults and kids, haven’t. I’m not saying that she or anyone else is incapable of understanding true love, but simply, that she likely has never been taught what true love is. That is the case for MANY people in our culture, which has distorted the meaning of the word “love”.