Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you’ve probably noticed how widespread the zombie phenomenon has become. It’s everywhere. Why? Well, it’s raking in the big bucks for one thing. For example, only a small group of apps can claim more downloads than Plants vs. Zombies, the smash-hit iPhone game which generated more than $1M in gross sales within the first nine days of its launch. When I walked into a Barnes and Noble a couple years back I noticed a book titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (with 750,000 copies in print by 2009). “Wow,” I thought, “what would Jane Austen think?” Hollywood has long had a fascination with horror themes and now Brad Pitt is jumping on the bandwagon in an upcoming movie titled Word War Z. Even Honda is getting in on the action with their recent zombie Civic commercial.
Here’s a fact: God’s truth is attractive. Zombies on the other hand are not. Before I get any further, check out the Wikipedia definition of the word zombie (it might surprise you):
Zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe) is a term used to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Of voodoo (Vodun) origin, the word initially referred to a curse cast by sorcerers (or bokors) allowing them to take control of a person’s mind, therefore affecting his or her actions. However, due to significant influence of Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo on witchcraft mythology, this meaning soon morphed into that of a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead.
As you can see for yourself, that’s about as anti-Christian as it gets. Even so, tons of Christian youth seem to be cool with the zombie craze. When I was in college, I had a “Christian” friend who saw every horror movie that came out. He must have done an awful lot of rationalizing, maybe something like this, “There is no such thing as absolute truth. There is no right or wrong, just whatever I want to do.” Well, if you’ve ever thought something similar, think about this: to say there is no absolute truth is a self-defeating statement. Logically, it makes no sense. If there is no absolute truth, then how can that statement be true?
So what’s wrong with the zombie craze? Aside from the fact that man is created in God’s image and that puke-worthy zombie depictions are like graffiti on God’s temple and aside from the fact that God is the only being possessing immortality (1 Timothy 6:16) — the thought of zombies is just plain stupid. It’s a waste of time. It’s not real and it’s not worth the time you could spend thinking about it.
So what am I saying — am I saying you have to be a crazy dork of a hermit that can’t relate to the real world? No way! The Bible says to be in the world but not of it — I believe true Christianity is what’s truly cool. It just depends on your perspective. If you lived in heaven, you wouldn’t think zombies were cool. Most people that live on earth don’t think heavenly ideas are cool. But which perspective really matters? The earthly mainstream culture is only mainstream temporarily and it’s not universal.
Ironically, in a way there are many Christians who are real-life zombies — they are physically alive, but spiritually dead. Don’t be like that. Don’t look for an escape from the junk this world puts you through by spending time with make-believe zombies, vampires and werewolves in a fantasy world (this world is scary enough by itself sometimes). Instead, spend your time doing something that matters. Need some ideas? Check out what Philippians 4:8 has to say.
