What is with our fascination with gore? Why are we so attracted to it? Just think of that last car accident you drove by and how you were doing everything in your ability to catch a peep. It is the possibility of blood, guts, some body parts that are laying on the ground that give us this weird high.
We don't like to admit it but we do want to see it. We are drawn to it.
Lots wife (Genesis 19) was very similar to us, she was tempted like all of us to look back at the gore and sin in her city and her consequence for looking back was that she turned into a pillar of salt. I wonder if part of her looking back was that she wanted to see the gore of her people being destroyed. She wanted that shock and awe feeling.
The sad thing is that it most blood and guts don't shock us anymore.
What happened to us?
We have become so desensitised to the realities of life that we can watch news clips of actual beheadings, body parts flying, blood and death (a true horror show) yet we are no longer fazed by it, nor do we weep at the sight of these tragedies. We accept and crave them.
We didn't just wake up like this but it comes from what we have been feeding ourselves through media. "An average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18." This doesn't include what they see on video games or read in books. Seven year olds are killing zombies in video games. We are surrounded by unreal amount of fake blood and gore. Over 20 million viewers tuned into watch the season premiere of the Walking Dead.
Halloween the new king of gore
The world has embraced gore and found the perfect day to celebrate it, Halloween. (want to know more about if Christians should celebrate Halloween check out this blog at abrokenmanblog.com) It is the day where death and darkness rain and the world tells us the ghastlier the better.
Being from North America I grew up with Halloween. Back then the point was to to get candy and to scare people with pictures or costumes of vampires and witches who jumped out at you from the bushes and made you almost pee your pants in fright. It was a day for children.
Fast forward a decade or two and it is now all about guts, the glory of gore. Adults have really begun to embrace this day in the past decade, it has turned into an over 12 Billion dollar industry in North America where you can buy severed body parts, blood splattered zombies, guts, grimacing heads, etc. One U.S.-based franchise has grown from 63 stores in 1999 to over 1100 in 2015.
No boundaries
Obviously this Halloween gore has found a niche and people are recreating the things that are only found in nightmares on their front yards for everyone to see. A house on my block began setting up their display on Oct 1st and daily add to their zombie tribute to the Walking dead.
This isn't just a pumpkin and a few scary toys, but rather they have littered their lawn with body parts and half dead baby dolls, moving zombies that make noise and their eyes light up, a roasting corpse, guts, blood just to name a few of what is found.
It is terrifying, and on a main road artery of the town. Countless parents bring their children to come and watch this 'amazing entertainment'. The sad thing is that most people that live around here don't have a problem with it, they think it is completely appropriate and amazing.
Some children are dragged to this house on Halloween kicking and screaming because they are so scared all in the good nature of Halloween. What kind of culture glorifies the decapitation and eating of bodies? We are praised if we celebrate the gore in all good fun yet I'm called a prude and need to be in touch with reality for disagreeing with this display.
Called to be a Salt
I'm the weird one for thinking that having a pregnant woman with her baby being spilled out of her body on the front lawn for a month is more than inappropriate. 15 years ago a person that did this sort of "decoration" would have been committed to a loony house, but now they are praised. I'm sorry but this is not appropriate.
This is not something that we should allow to be displayed for youngster and heck people like me who have no desire to see it. The content is graphic and if this was a TV show there would be a warning that the following content is graphic. But here it is in plain sight for the whole neighbourhood to see.
I once would have loved the scare of this display but now I am fighting for truth because once I was dead but I have been made alive in Christ (Romans 8). But now I would rather protect myself and others from seeing this man made gore.
We are called to be different
We are called to be different and so I take my children the long way to get home to avoid seeing this house of horror.
I have approached the town about the inappropriate content and am trying to work with them on some sort of policy for gore type displays. We have also approached the family last year about their display and have been praying for them.
We will stand for the things of God even if it makes us look different or weird. Christ is worth it.
Genevieve Wilson is a happily married stay at home, home-schooling mum of 3, whose passion is to see people come to know Jesus. She worked 8 years as a missionary with Youth with a Mission (YWAM). She has a heart for justice and to see the abolition of the modern day slave trade.
Genevieve Wilson's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/genevieve-wilson.html