Horror and Christianity: Incompatible?
Why I see no contradiction between faith and embracing the horror genre
I am an ardent apologist for the horror genre and have also written within this genre myself. Given my Christian faith, a number of my fellow believers — usually in the evangelical crowd — find this unusual, and at times profoundly disagree or even take offence at my views. Said believers take a similar view of my horror novels, though I doubt they have actually bothered to read any and judge the context rather than the genre.
The argument regularly trotted out by evangelical Christians is that horror movies, TV series, or novels are unpleasant, unwholesome, and ungodly. I have often heard evangelical preachers condescendingly berate congregations with refrains such as “Would you watch that with Jesus sitting next to you?” The standard Bible verse they like to quote, as if to prove their point, is Philippians 4 verse 8, which speaks of only meditating on those things that are noble, lovely, and true. The problem with this argument is that it is used as an excuse for the wholesale dismissal of an entire genre, without regard for what is indeed noble, lovely, and true within it. All genres contain stories that live up to that Biblical standard, and equally all genres contain entries that fall short of it.
