Growing up, I was always in denial about horror movies. I loved to hate them! But then when I got older and I got into writing and acting I discovered something big, horror movies are F-U-N! You see, no matter how scary they are on the screen, everyone behind the scenes are laughing their butts off. You are in the middle of a tense scene and someone lets it go and lets one rip. The monster is supposed to being tearing someone apart and the victim ad-libs a classic one-liner. Now I hate to love them. However, the best thing about horror movies is writing them. They are a challenge that I really enjoy! You have to get the timing and build up of suspense just right!

Myfascination with horror movies may seem misplaced for a person of faith. Well, I do not like any movie, scary or otherwise, that is against God and God’s Word. A film can be as gross and horrific as it wants but disrespect God, Jesus, the Bible, etc… and I am out of there. However, I do like Halloween as a celebration of the emotion of fear. And I do believe in the axiom, ‘if you are going to play with matches, you are going to get burned!” So stupid kid in the cabin in the woods, don’t say the evil words on that ancient book that will summon the demons, zombies, or whatever! For those of you out there whose perspective says that I am wrong for liking scary movies, I respect your opinion. However, I am not too worried about what people think. After all, half the people I went to college with already think I am a reprobate.

However, I am curious what God thinks about the real horrors in the world He made. Is God concerned about poverty and sickness and diseases and war and people who hurt each other? Those seem to be our day-to-day horrors.

God seems concerned about poverty. According to Compassion International (http://www.compassion.com/poverty/what-the-bible-says-about-poverty.htm#faq-tcm:5-405413) there are over 2000 references to poverty in the Old and New Testaments.

God also seems concerned about the horrors of diseases and ill health. The human race has diseases that will boogle your mind: wasting diseases, sexual diseases, eating diseases, aging diseases, muscle diseases, bone diseases, brain and thinking diseases, there is even a disease that makes someone inflict injury on their own bodies called lesch nyhan syndrome. This is horrible. However, the Bible contains over 40 references to sickness and health issues (OpenBible.org). This is less than references to poverty, but still significant.

God is concerned about war and violence. there are over 100 references to war and violence in the Bible. Truly with our ability to destroy the planet many times over and our personal ability to hurt our fellow man on a much smaller scale, this is horror.

Nevertheless, I believe that God defines true horror differently. Though it is clear that God wants to be with us in every situation of our lives and He is concerned about all of our needs, God’s view of true horror seems to be more personal. What should constitute true horror for us, according to God is facing this world without the faith, hope and love that a relationship with Him gives us. Being a person of faith does not stop us from having problems, going through tough situations, confronting horror. However, it does give us the strength and resources to handle them the way that He would have us do so.
Jesus put it best when he said to a man who was terribly sick and an invalid. He healed the man from a truly horrible experience. John 5:14 say that Jesus told him to stop sinning lest he experience something more horrible than his health problems, separation from God. That, on this planet and in the world to come, would be true horror.

John 5:14:  Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said unto him, “Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

———————————————-W.