Sells has written some nonsense in his time - perhaps this one takes the prize for its sheer ignorance (on the topic of death)

Bodily mutilation 101:
http://spiritlessons.com/passionofchristpictures.htm
And mortification too (as a means of getting "closer" to "Jesus" or "God"
http://www.odan.org/corporal_mortification.htm

Remember that opus dei is now a powerful force within the "catholic" church. It was given very special favors by the two previous popes, and perhaps by the present one.

And of course all of the usual dreadfully sane Christians,especially Catholics, participate in a vampire ritual when they ritually drink the "blood of 'Christ'" in their various versions of "holy communion".

But what is the actually Truth about Death, and therefore by extension life altogether?
What if the necessary key to true human maturity, and thus the living of a ccmprehensive Right Life, is to deal with the overwhelming fact of death with Real Intelligence?
Three Truth Telling References
http://www.adidam.org/death_and_dying/index.html
http://www.aboutadidam.org/dying_death_and_beyond/index.html
http://global.adidam.org/books/easy-death

Bloody hell Sells.

Its just another stupid pop culture fad. Like disaster movies in the 70s, those stupid turtles in the 90s and the current obsession with faked "reality", cooking, talent and renovation shows.

It will pass. It means nothing.

Thankyou for your interest Mr Sellick

Vampirism provides a viable, I dare say self-stimulating, alternative to the "blood of Christ" Sacrament.

Pete
(for my Count and Master)

H Peter

I agree that preoccupation with getting the soul into heaven in the afterlife is more a focus of the later church than the scriptures, and that the turn from life after death as a focus in modern churches is welcome.

But I found your thumbnail history a bit over simplistic.

Ancient Jews did believe in a form of afterlife – Sheol – though it did not have much theological significance, nor did ancestor worship or succouring individual souls feature. This was not unique to Judaism: the Greek idea of Hades was not that different.

There did seem to be some Jewish concept of resurrection of the nation, though not necessarily the individual (e.g. Ezekiel 37’s dry bones).

Jewish belief in the individual’s resurrection after death, and its association with judgement, seems to have developed later, but well before Jesus: mainly in the late postexilic and inter-testamental periods (Daniel 12, 2 Maccabees) and under the influence of the Hellenism of that time.

The NT suggests conflicting views by in Jesus’ day: e.g. belief in an afterlife was a distinction between Pharisees and Sadducees (Mark 12:18). I think the NT also reflects this diversity, with some passages suggesting an immortal soul, and some not. Paul certainly seems to have considered it important (1 Corinthians 15:19, Romans 8:11).

The reason for the plentiful supply of magic, supernatural and horror books and films is that there is a dearth of writers with any real experience of the world. It is easy, cheap bumpf to produce and call entertainment.

Of course there was a time when Hollywood was pumping out similarly superficial hideous-violence-instead-of-decent-yarns, bumpf based on a formula, in the form of religious movies. 99% were absolute trash (I would say 100%, but I am trying to be kind). Recently the sado-masochism that is always very much appreciated by the Roman Catholic Church was revived by Mel Gibson.

Religious sado-masochism, voyeurism and other cringeworthy nasties always find an audience where traditions of religious fundamentalism exist, emerging rather expectedly in women's eroticism such as Fifty Shades of Grey. There is plenty of horror to be had in religious fundamentalism, as Catholic audiences, particularly women victims of Roman Catholicism, attest. It is a wonder the women are not all in therapy, but maybe many are.

Jesus lives - the sun never sets on the Jewish vampire.