It might be remembered, Lee, that a lot of the "Eurabian" people you refer to are just ordinary folks trying to seek a better living like everyone else rather than a conspiracy.

Lee, it might actually be nice if it was "Neo-Ottoman". The Ottoman Empire, despite it's many faults, was not the same as the Islamists. If the Sultan still ruled today he would be no worse then a Jordanian King; if the Islamisists ever "restored" a Caliphate it would be similar to Iran.

I hope you and Kim and the rest of your colleagues realize, Gina, that you have become wildly successful in creating "A conversation on current events and Christian worldview" when one of those conversations begins with vampire worship, and ends with Neo-Ottomanism in modern Turkey and the realistic possibility of the centuries-delayed creation of Eurabia. Due to the latter, Vlad the Impaler is no doubt spinning in his grave - possibly trying to find a way out of his tomb so he could raise an army in opposition. (OK, thanks to the phrase "spinning in his grave", I now have video images of "Workouts for the Undead" stuck in my head, performed to an amped-up rock version of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" and being led by a long-fanged Richard Simmons. Ick.)

And I also hope you find a sense of personal satisfaction when at least one of your commenters feels the need to say the word "vampire" a minimum of twice in a comment such as this. Success for a (web) governess occurs when the pupils have learned to govern themselves.

And perhaps it's been there all along, but I finally noticed the resizing tool for the comment box, in the lower right corner. It is greatly appreciated by one as error-prone as me.

I'm not sure that's true, Lee. Sooner or latter any Ottoman advance would have come to a halt.

The Ottomans were committed to a multigenerational offensive campaign through the Balkans of all places at a time when Christiandom was growing in wealth and technological prowess.

Besides I think Jon Sobieski and Don Juan of Austria are more cinematic though admittedly it is hard to imagine either cursed to a vampiric state.

But Lee, as Shakespeare said, "The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose." (To which one might reply, 'the devil can also quote Shakespeare for his purpose?')

My point is that Evil can distort ANYTHING. I'm not saying this means we adapt or avoid anything specifically, but let's not think that any good or holy thing will escape derision, contempt, counterfeiting, etc. (If you want to see derision on full display, come to the Bay Area-- it's a smorgasbord of contempt and mockery!)

So to complete my thought: Dracula saved Romania from being conquered by a Muslim army (as most of Spain had already been), allowing it to remain a Christian country and perhaps allowing most of Europe to stay Christian. It's a thrilling story, with a morally ambiguous hero and enough gore to satisfy the most jaded Hollywood producer. It'll never get made into a movie, though, because (like Rodney Stark's history books on the Crusades) it's politically incorrect toward Islam.

Instead, we get "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1611224/

Sigh.

I'm fascinated that this prisoner chose to compare his religion to Christianity on the basis of the phrase "the blood of Jesus" that we use as a shorthand for the Atonement. What if we always said "the *death* of Jesus" instead? And I know, Christians have been accused of all kinds of things due to the "blood" reference, since the very beginning of the Church. Makes me wonder about other phrases we unthinkingly use, which are then contorted to fit the needs of lunatics like this Texas guy.

Actually, if I remember, Vlad was according to legend cursed to a vampiric state for making a political conversion to Catholicism.

Jason, my Transylvanian co-worker said she'd never heard of "Dracula" until she came to the USA and asked why everyone was reacting so strangely when she told them where she was from. She said that Vlad Tepes (pronounced "TEP-esh") was a national hero for keeping the Islamic Sultan Mehmed II from conquering Romania - since he'd already conquered Constantinople. She shrugged that, as warlords of the 15th century go, Vlad wasn't bad.

And, for a similar reason, I'll bet the other inmates leave that Texas prisoner alone.

That's a valid point, Kim. If we are grounded in what's right, it serves as a counterbalance to questionable pop culture and the like. It doesn't help that many people's only religious instruction comes from Dan Brown.

On the other hand, I'd like to think that most folks can still differentiate between reality and fantasy. The incarcerated vampire clearly cannot, but then we've always had the mentally ill with us. I'm not sure we should change or eliminate entire genres of entertainment because we're worried about how the insane might react.

Lee, Vlad the Impaler was a warlord known for his predilection of executing large numbers of people with stakes.

As for my school, I was brought up in a private school. It was very different then as well from the rest of society.

Kim, it's easy to forget that Jason wasn't even born until the 1970s, so he and Gina and a whole host of people all the way to Megan have no idea that schools and society-at-large used to be very different.

Here's a trip down memory lane (but don't play it if Anne's nearby):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofHTh9EKzr4

As to the topic, I see we have real vampires: check. Real zombies: check. Medical advances from transplants and defibrillators to the current fiddling with stem cells and genetics means we have real Frankenstein's monsters: check. Of course, witches have long been real. So what's left - mummies? I suppose some strips of cloth would have been an improvement for the guy in Florida who bit the other one's face, while naked.

Or as Pogo said (about pollution, but it fits very well here) in the 1970s, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pogo_-_Earth_Day_1971_poster.jpg

Im-ho-tep, Im-ho-tep, Im-ho-tep, . . .


(Aside to Jason: One of my co-workers, long ago, was from Transylvania. How much do you know about the true history of Vlad the Impaler?)

I see what you mean.
However, let's add this thought to the mix: somewhere during the 1970s, I'd say, moral and religious instruction virtually vanished from homes, in schools, and many don't attend churches, etc.-- that being the case, when we have a glut of pop-products that celebrate the occult, people are much more susceptible to insidious ideas, and they act such as they think.
While I know there have always been cases of Satan worshippers, I've seen increased evidence of them. I was driving down the road and a man next to me had demonic symbols tattooed on his skin, painted on his motorcycle, and that's just one recent incident. It was very creepy. I prayed for protection and also for his soul.

Quite so, Kim. But my warning was that pronouncing new anathema's on elements of pop-culture strange to us on the basis that something bad happened there also has consequences. It overwhelms and demoralizes the faithful and takes away energy that should be devoted to sins actually warned against in scripture. Evangelicals are as prone to phariseeism as anyone else and at least real pharisees had cool candelabras, braided bread, and weddings under canopies(OK that was some time ago but still). The Evangelical phariseeism I grew up with was just tacky.

It is true that pop culture has consequences so your warning is not irrelevant. However my warning is not irrelevant either. There needs to be some balance.

Jason, My warning was about ideas in pop culture having consequences.

Part of my job is reading Youth Fiction. I sometimes get overwhelmed by the number of books which have to do with vampires, and creepy other-worldly beings.

RPGs are strictly speaking not games, they are storytelling media and a gamemaster is a variation of an Irish seanchai or an Arab rawi.

That said, Gurps is a far better system because it is far more flexible and gives good systems for building character and plot.

The nature of a game depends on the nature of the gamemaster, so calling RPGs "occult" is of limited meaning.

I don't see why not, Anthony.

I can't believe I just woke up...it's 4am. Something's not right here.

"One wonders if he was biting someone to get his blood fix."
-Hasn't there been a case of the Zombie bug going around...?
http://news.yahoo.com/zombie-attacks-trigger-alarm-over-cloud-nine-231610960.html

And Jason, I have a question for you...this is not a question to spark a debate or an argument, as I have never had a problem with RPGs or the people who play them, ever. The games (DND) have never been a part of my interests, but I live and let live.

Do you believe Christians can/should be allowed to play games like DnD? I've heard so much over the years on this subject, and I even turned to (the absolute last place I'd ever visit ever for any source of information) Conservapedia and this is what I found:
http://www.conservapedia.com/Dungeons_and_Dragons

Thoughts? Like I said, I'm not going to start an argument over something that doesn't effect or bother me. I'm just curious. Thanks! :)

Be careful with that one. It sounds way to much like the old, "A teenager committed suicide and he happened to play DnD therefore RPGs are evil". We have enough sins to worry about; discovering a new one based on the fact that a strange incident happened in a strange subculture is going a bit to far.